Azimut 64 Flybridge Review, Test Data and Used Values

Following a 200-boat act

The 64 had a hard job. Its predecessor, the Azimut 62, had sold around 200 hulls in nine years, and Power & Motoryacht wrote that the new boat carried the hopes of the entire shipyard on its shoulders. Azimut stuck with its proven pairing of Stefano Righini outside and Carlo Galeazzi inside and launched the 64 at the European autumn shows of 2010; its pale blue, resin-infused hull drew a strong reception at Cannes.

YachtBuyer records about 96 built before the 66 replaced it in 2016, and Power & Motoryacht later noted that the 62 and 64 together accounted for some 300 sales. The 64 was also a finalist in the 2012 Motor Boat Awards. If you are shopping for a 64 Azimut, you are looking at a boat built between 2010 and 2015, almost always with the same engines, which makes comparing listings refreshingly simple.

The acceleration that made testers rerun the trial

The Power & Motoryacht and Motor Boat & Yachting tests tell the same story. Off Cannes, the 64 went through 20 knots in ten seconds and 30 knots six seconds later, and reached top speed in just over half a minute. Twenty knots in 20 seconds is considered sparkling for a flybridge of this size, so the crew ran the two-way trial several times to be sure. Motor Boat & Yachting's Alan Harper concluded that the 64 would beat a Pershing 64, or anything else on surface drives, in a drag race to 30 knots.

The credit goes to the torque of the six-cylinder Caterpillar C18 ACERTs and well-matched five-blade props on Twin Disc gearboxes. The practical benefit is not top speed but control in a seaway: the 64 stays on plane with minimal trim as low as 1,300 rpm, or 15 to 16 knots, and responds instantly when you need a nudge of power to climb the back of a swell.

Cruising at 28 knots on 80 gallons an hour

Yachting tested the first 64 to reach the US, owned by a couple who had moved up from a 44-foot pod-drive express, in two to four foot chop off Port Everglades with full fuel. At 2,000 rpm and 50 percent tab it averaged 28.2 knots at 80 gph, which works out to a 327-nautical-mile range from 1,030 gallons. Top speed was 33.7 knots at 116 gph, and the sound level at the lower helm never exceeded 77 dB(A). Motor Boat & Yachting quoted a range of over 300 nautical miles at 32 knots with a safe reserve, helped by larger-than-average tanks.

Hard-over turns at cruise speed took about three boat lengths with two Seakeeper M8000 gyros damping the heel. The owners had logged about 140 hours between South Florida and the Bahamas in their first three months, and said the optional Xenta joystick, which combines the bow thruster and props, gave them pod-like confidence at the dock without pods.

Three cabins sized for long weekends

Below decks the master suite takes the lion's share of space, with an offset double berth, a breakfast dinette, a walk-in wardrobe and the head and shower along the aft bulkhead as a sound buffer from the engines. Eight vertical hull windows, four per side, light it. The VIP is forward, and a twin cabin to starboard has its own door into the day head. Both doubles measure 6 feet 7 inches by 5 feet 4 inches at their widest, the twin berths are 30 inches wide, and headroom is 6 feet 4 inches through most of the lower deck.

Every double mattress lifts on gas struts over a deep locker. Aft, a crew cabin reached through the transom door has two berths, or one if you specify the Seakeeper installation, which takes the other berth's space.

A bar-style galley and a seat that works two jobs

The main deck is open from windshield to cockpit, with a bar-style galley to port and a dining table opposite that seats six, or eight at a pinch. The clever detail is the forward dinette seat, which electrically repositions to face either the table or the lower helm, saving the space of a separate companion seat. The galley bar top covers only half the cooktop, so it stays out of the way when you are cooking. Windows at the helm and galley open electrically, and the interior has five separate air conditioning zones.

Saloon options included a sofa bed to port and a two-seat sofa in place of the starboard sideboard. Galeazzi's limed oak with dark brown lacquer and pale leather was the launch scheme, with alternatives offered.

Flybridge, tender and docking choices

Azimut quotes about 21 square meters of flybridge, with the helm to port, a dinette and sun pads, and an aft section that can be a sunbathing area or tender stowage with a crane rated around 550 pounds. A hydraulic stern platform with an 1,100-pound lift capacity was standard, so most owners keep the tender there. Many US boats have the optional hardtop with electric sunroof, which Yachting's test boat paired with a folding bimini.

From a $2.65 million list price to about $1 million used

Power & Motoryacht's test boat was priced at $2,647,404, and Yachting's US boat at $3.04 million as tested against a $2.65 million base. Today, late boats ask around $1 million to $1.25 million, and earlier ones a little less. That is a steep fall, which works in a buyer's favor: you get a well-engineered 66-foot flybridge for roughly the price of a new 45-footer.

Running one is not cheap. Allow roughly $110,000 to $190,000 a year in Florida for slip, insurance, a haul, Caterpillar and generator servicing, gyro maintenance, canvas and detailing, more with a full-time captain. At 80 gph, a 200-mile weekend at cruise speed uses about 570 gallons of diesel.