86 Azimut, the 86S Sport Yacht Reviewed

When Azimut decided to go fast

Azimut was best known for flybridge motor yachts when the 86S arrived, and the 86S was its first real shot at the high-performance market owned by Pershing and Sunseeker, as Yachting put it in 2007. YachtBuyer records the model announced in 2003, the first boat completed in 2004 and production running to 2011, with 29 hulls built. If you search for an 86 Azimut or an Azimut 86, this is the boat; there is no other 86 in the catalog.

PMY's November 2005 test called the 86S the big, bold flagship of Azimut's Open Series, which then included 43-, 62- and 68-footers, and credited Paolo Vitelli, Carlo Galeazzi and stylist Stefano Righini. The red-hulled test boat, delivered through Allied Richard Bertram in Fort Lauderdale, cost $4.8 million as tested. Yachting's 2021 retrospective summed the model up as a supersized express cruiser.

Shark fins, square windows and a sunroof

Righini gave the 86S a low, lean profile with a slightly dipped bow, a narrow entry and the shark-fin window shapes that became an Azimut S signature, plus a row of rectangular hull windows on each side. A huge sunroof slides back into the cockpit shelter, and a glass door opens the saloon to the cockpit so that the two become one bright space of about 38 square meters.

Outside, Azimut provided three sun zones: a bow sunpad of about 8 square meters, a long cockpit sofa that stretches into a relaxation platform aft, and the open saloon itself. The cockpit offers an L-shaped sofa under the overhang and an arc-shaped sofa with an oval table for eight in the sun. Aft, a transom garage holds a tender and a personal watercraft, and doubles as a secondary access to the engine room.

Inside, four cabins and a galley below

The standard plan has four cabins and four heads: a forepeak VIP with an island queen, two guest cabins and a full-beam master amidships with large hull windows and a breakfast nook, which Yachting singled out as the best room on the boat. A three-cabin alternative was also offered. Headroom and stowage are generous for a sport yacht, and the master shower takes two.

On the main deck, three electrically adjustable leather helm seats face a touchscreen systems display and the MTU engine screens. The saloon has an L-shaped couch with a leaf table seating eight and a 42-inch plasma TV in an electrically operated cabinet. On the standard four-cabin layout the galley is down below in the crew area, a professional-grade stainless space that a chef and sous-chef can share; on the three-cabin version it moves forward into the accommodation. Yachting noted that communication between the galley below and the dining table above could be easier, a common complaint with sport-yacht galleys.

Jets versus Arnesons, the great 86S comparison

The most interesting thing about the 86S is that Azimut built it with two propulsion systems. Both used twin 2,000 hp MTU 16V 2000 M91 diesels, but one version drove Arneson surface drives and the other Hamilton water jets. Yachting tested both back to back. The Arneson boat had marine growth on its bottom, so it fell short of Azimut's 46-knot claim, and acceleration tapered off after 40 knots. The jet boat reached 45 knots, accelerated hard all the way to the top and ran with turbine-like smoothness.

Jets cost more and weigh more, partly because the water inside the units counts as boat weight, but the price included a joystick system usable up to about 10 knots, and the jet boat could stop from full speed in three boat lengths. The hull stayed directionally stable without fins thanks to its wide chines. The downside is marine growth inside the jets: leave the boat for two or three weeks in warm water and performance falls off sharply, so the jets need to be run every few days.

Arnesons give the famous rooster tail and suit owners who enjoy driving, but they need careful trimming. Yachting warned that between about 15 and 25 knots in rough seas, before the boat is fully on plane, it is easy to overload the engines by running the drives too deep.

• Arneson version: 46 knots claimed; PMY measured 53 mph (about 46 knots)
• Jet version: 45 knots in Yachting's test, joystick standard with jets
• Jets stop the boat in about three lengths from full speed
• Run jets every few days to prevent internal marine growth

What 46 knots feels like on an 88-foot yacht

PMY's run out of Port Everglades on the Arneson boat hit 53 mph, about 46 knots, at wide open throttle, and backing off to 2,000 rpm gave nearly 39 mph, about 34 knots, with the boat rock solid through hard turns and over its own wake. The captain advised stowing loose gear before the run because things blow away in the cockpit at those speeds. That is a 52-ton yacht doing what most 40-footers cannot.

The hull explains both the speed and the ride. It is a deep-V with only 12 to 13 degrees of deadrise at the transom, very pronounced spray rails and chines about 10 inches wide that generate lift. Yachting found the ride noticeably firmer than Azimut's flybridge cruisers, with a not-unwelcome harshness above 30 knots, the difference between a sports car and a town car. Owners who plan long offshore legs in a head sea should sea trial in real conditions.

Engine room, systems and the cost of 4,000 horsepower

The drives let the engines sit well aft under the garage in a compact space. PMY noted it lacks standing headroom but leaves room for maintenance checks, with the main entrance from the crew area. Standard equipment included two 17.5 kW Kohler gensets, 120,000 BTU of Cruisair air conditioning, an oil-change system for mains and gensets, dual Racor filters on the mains and a central vacuum.

Two 16-cylinder MTUs are the cost center. Ask for documented major services, turbocharger and aftercooler history and an oil analysis before buying. With fuel capacity of about 1,584 gallons and engines that burn heavily at high speed, nobody buys an 86S for economy. No magazine published an rpm-by-rpm fuel table for it, so rely on MTU engine data from the actual boat.

Buying an Azimut 86S for sale today

With 29 built, supply is limited but steady. Yachting counted eight on the market in 2021 at about $1.42 to $3.38 million. YachtBuyer's latest figures show prices falling as the fleet ages: two 2006 and 2007 boats asking about $783,000 to $1.2 million, and a three-year record of eight listings averaging 664 days on the market with a 12 percent average cut from first ask. That makes the 86S one of the cheapest ways to own a 40-knot-plus 88-footer, as long as you budget for what it costs to keep it that fast.

Expect annual costs from the mid hundreds of thousands with a captain and crew, and set aside a contingency for drive and engine work in the first year. A boat with recent MTU top-end work and a refreshed interior can be worth far more than its asking-price neighbors.