Azimut 66 Fly Review with Test Numbers and Prices

A clean-sheet replacement for the 62 and 64

Azimut usually builds around 25 yachts a year in its 60-something flybridge slot, Yachting reported, and the 66 inherited that role from the 64, which had replaced the 62. Motor Boat & Yachting stressed that Azimut started again rather than updating the 64: the 66 is a new boat with an extra cabin, bigger deck spaces and a more modern construction method. It made its world debut at boot Dusseldorf in January 2016 and its US debut at Yachts Miami Beach the following month.

Azimut's own literature calls it simply the Azimut 66; brokers and magazines usually write 66 Fly. YachtBuyer splits production into 2016 to 2020 and a brief 2020 to 2022 second generation, but we found no separate test or brochure for a revised boat, so treat any 66 from those years as essentially the same design and check its build sheet. The model's place in the range was taken in 2021 by the IPS-powered Azimut 68.

Carbon fiber where it counts

Power & Motoryacht called the 66 the builder's first foray into carbon-fiber construction. In fact the larger Azimut 72, launched at Cannes a few months earlier, also had a carbon flybridge, and Motor Boat & Yachting traced the approach back to the 55S sport yacht, but the 66 is where it reached the mid-size flybridge range. Carbon is used on the radar arch, hardtop, flybridge molding and a large part of the foredeck. Azimut's engineers explained that carbon can either shed weight for speed or allow taller, larger structures without raising the center of gravity, and the 66 took the second route. Below that, about 90 percent of the molded components are vacuum infused with vinylester resin to hit the right resin-to-glass ratio.

The hull form is credited to Studio Plana, with large chines and a spray rail, 20 degrees of deadrise amidships and 17 at the transom. The bow is the wide, spade-shaped Azimut signature, which carries beam farther forward and creates a flat, safe foredeck as well as more room in the VIP cabin. Motor Boat & Yachting noted that it divides opinion visually and is practical in use.

A 300-square-foot flybridge in three zones

Azimut claimed the largest flybridge in its class at 28 square meters, more than 300 square feet. Yachting measured it at 28 feet 2 inches long, 12 percent bigger than the 64's and, by Azimut's figures, 25 percent bigger than the market average. A hardtop covers the forward two thirds with a retractable sunroof.

The space divides into three areas: the helm to starboard with a U-shaped dinette that converts to a sun pad opposite, a central dining area for eight with an outdoor galley, and an aft lounge that can take loose furniture or Azimut's own low-slung seating around a cocktail table, which Motor Boat & Yachting recommended specifying. The bow adds an eight-person bench under an electric bimini and a four-person sun pad.

The flybridge also shades a generous cockpit, which has small boarding gates on each side, and the hydraulic platform carries a Williams 325 jet tender.

An American bar and a glass wall that frosts on demand

Inside, the saloon is split. Two sofas sit down two steps aft, and the galley, dinette and lower helm are forward on the upper level under a 6-foot 7-inch overhead. At the forward end of the galley, Azimut fitted what it calls an American bar, a high counter with two swiveling stools facing the galley, which Power & Motoryacht found refreshingly different.

A glass panel between the saloon and galley switches electronically from clear to frosted, a feature borrowed from crewed European yachts, and the lighting can be programmed into four presets. The finish, inspired by the Salone del Mobile furniture fair in Milan, pairs heat-treated oak with high-gloss sycamore, with decape oak and gloss ebony as an alternative. An electronic power steering system with owner-adjustable settings was described by Azimut as a first in the class.

Fitting four cabins into the lower deck

The fourth cabin is the 66's big selling point over the 64. To make room, the master's bed lies athwartships with hull windows at both ends, so you wake with light behind you and a water-level view past your feet; headroom is about 6 feet 3.5 inches and there is a two-person dinette that most owners will use as a vanity. The en suite runs alongside the bed and buffers engine room noise.

Forward, the VIP has a centerline queen and its own en suite with a 6-foot 4-inch overhead. The twin cabin to starboard has its own head, also reached from the passageway as the day head, and a fourth cabin has bunks large enough for adults. All three guest heads have separate shower stalls. Aft, an L-bunk crew cabin with head is reached through a transom door, which Yachting noted is unusual at this size and popular with crew.

• Athwartships master with hull windows at both ends
• Forward VIP with queen berth and en suite
• Starboard twin cabin with en suite doubling as day head
• Bunk cabin suited to children or charter guests
• Two-berth crew cabin with transom door access

How the 66 performs, by the numbers

Power & Motoryacht averaged 33.3 knots at 2,350 rpm burning 117.2 gph, and recorded a fast cruise of 27.1 knots at 2,000 rpm for 85.6 gph, with 76 dB(A) at the lower helm. At 1,000 rpm the boat makes 10.4 knots on 14.8 gph, good for about 650 nautical miles. Azimut quoted 32 knots top and a 28-knot cruise.

Yachting saw 34 knots, but only after the yard captain admitted the tanks were nearly empty and the boat had no gyro, so treat that as a best case. The Italian magazine Barche reported planing in 7 seconds and reaching top speed in 20. Testers praised the SeaStar electronic power steering, which adjusts rudder response to speed, and Power & Motoryacht called the Caterpillar package a good match for a hull designed around it.

From $2.85 million new to under $2 million used

Power & Motoryacht listed the 66 at a $2.85 million base price in 2016. Late boats now ask about $1.6 million to $2 million, which makes a four-cabin, 68-foot flybridge with carbon superstructure surprisingly accessible. Allied Marine's 2026 listing of a 2020 boat at $1.69 million, with Seakeeper and yacht controller, is a useful benchmark.

Budget around $150,000 to $260,000 a year in Florida depending on whether you hire a captain. The big service items are the C18s and generators, the Seakeeper, the electro-hydraulic platform and the sunroof mechanism. Warranty from new was five years on hull structure and osmosis and one year on the rest of the boat, so on a used 66 you are relying on service records rather than factory cover.