Azimut Atlantis 55 History, Specs and Buyer's Guide

The boat that defined Atlantis

To understand the Azimut Atlantis 55 you need to know where it came from. In the early 2000s Paolo Vitelli's Azimut-Benetti absorbed Gobbi, a family-run builder of midpriced sports cruisers with a modern factory in Piacenza province. Vitelli put senior manager Carla Demaria in charge, and within months she unveiled the Atlantis brand with a new 47 and a revamped 42 at the 2002 winter shows.

Those first boats were still recognizably Gobbi. The 55, tested by Power and Motoryacht in late 2004, was the first all-new project on Demaria's watch, the first true Atlantis, and in the magazine's words one of the most eagerly awaited boats of the decade. It was conceived as a style manifesto for a young brand, and it shows.

The glass bubble

The defining feature is the fighter-style canopy. Stefano Righini wrapped the helm and bridge deck in double-curvature glass panels installed without visible frames, so the wheelhouse looks like a sleek glass bubble. Yachting's tester noted that the glass was stressed to resist wave impact and to reject solar heat, and that a glass sunroof slides back to open the space, helpfully venting smoke from the cockpit barbecue. The pilothouse is open at the back.

Under that dome a long curving sofa and table sit opposite the helm, with seating down aft and a sun pad over the tender garage. Power and Motoryacht called the main deck an object lesson in how things should be done and said the views from the upper dinette were unsurpassed.

The price of all that glass is visibility from the wheel. Both magazines complained that the thick mullion hiding the side window mechanism blocks the view to starboard, and Yachting added that the wide windscreen pillars intrude because you sit so close to them.

Tables that rise from the deck

The 55 is full of showpieces. The teak cockpit table lives in the floor: lift a hinged deck panel, press a button and it rises on a telescopic hydraulic pillar, then two triangular leaves unfold to make one large table. Fold it away and the teak panel closes flush.

Below, the saloon tables are sculptures of steel and glass that rotate, rise and fall (with a key) and accept a rhomboid wooden infill to become one table for four. Power and Motoryacht admired them but said they were only averagely good at keeping a drink off the floor, and the later Atlantis 50 deliberately went back to plain tables.

The two-master layout

Atlantis described the 55 as a two-master, meaning it was hard to choose between the midships and forward doubles. The midships cabin, with a big offset double under the cockpit sole and standing headroom on the port side, is the one most owners take; the forward cabin runs it close. Both have roomy en suite heads and as much stowage as the hull allows.

On the plan Power and Motoryacht tested, a third cabin with twin berths sits on the starboard side between the master and the galley, under the helm and short on headroom and stowage, ideal for kids. A day head opposite has spare lockers; the magazine suggested American owners would turn it into a laundry. Yachting's test boat, in contrast, had just two cabins, each with its own bathroom, so check which layout a given boat has.

The interior style was low-key and vaguely Asian: matte or limed oak paneling, coconut matting, leather and rope-weave upholstery, black worktops, round showers and hemispherical glass basins. The starboard galley has a dramatic black laminate counter with practical stowage above and below.

Caterpillar C12 performance

Power is a pair of six-cylinder Caterpillar C12 diesels, quoted at 710 hp by Power and Motoryacht and 715 hp by Yachting, mounted low and forward with ZF V-drives (1.77:1 on the test boat, turning 29.5 by 42.7 inch four-blade props). The V-drive installation keeps the cockpit clear and leaves room for a garage that swallows a nine-foot inflatable.

Power and Motoryacht recorded a respectable 32-knot top speed with precise electronic controls and light hydraulic steering, but found the Cats loud under all that domed glass and recommended extra soundproofing. Yachting saw 33 knots, felt the turbos cut in around 1,500 rpm, and said you can cruise all day at 28 knots without the boat feeling stressed. The deep-V hull handled the available chop comfortably with some help from the tabs.

Yachting also flagged a build detail worth checking on any surviving boat: the main electrical connections sat right under the engine room hatch and were already corroding on the test boat.

What came standard

The equipment list was generous for 2004 and tells you what a complete boat should still have:

• Sliding hardtop roof, 8 hp bow thruster, 1.4 kW windlass and stern winches
• 13 kW Kohler generator and 60,000 Btu air conditioning
• Washer and dryer, ice maker, Vacuflush heads
• Hydraulic cockpit table and cockpit bar with griddle, fridge and sink
• Tender garage, teak cockpit and swim platform
• Raymarine radar, plotter, autopilot and instruments (long since obsolete on most boats)

Buying one now

The 55 was built from 2004 into the late 2000s; by 2009 Atlantis was testing a new flagship, the Carlo Galeazzi designed Atlantis 54, and in 2011 the Neo Design Atlantis 58 took over the top of the range. Exact build numbers were never published.

Expect asking prices around $180,000 to $320,000, mostly in Italy, France, Spain and Croatia, with very few in the US. That is cheap for a 55-foot Italian sport cruiser with a garage and three cabins, but running costs are those of a 55-footer: two big Cats, a large generator, air conditioning and a lot of specialized glass. Budget $38,000 to $70,000 a year, plus a contingency for refit items.