Azimut Verve 47, the Quad-Outboard Azimut and How to Buy One Used

Nine deposits before most buyers had seen it

The Azimut Verve 47 had an unusual launch. Azimut announced it at the Yachts Miami Beach show in February 2019 with hull number one already sold to MarineMax executive Chuck Cashman, then gave it a full debut at the Miami Yacht Show in February 2020, where PMY reported nine deposits from buyers who had barely seen the boat. One was a first-time owner from Puerto Rico who came to look at an S6 and left with a Verve. Federico Ferrante of Azimut Benetti later told PMY it was the company's most successful model in units sold over such a short time.

The pitch was simple: an Italian alternative to the American super console. Ferrante said US builders make the best fishing boats, but Azimut wanted a dayboat that blends American outboard performance with Italian styling and a real interior. Yachting described the result as a European take on the center console. Production ran from 2020 to 2023, when the Verve 48 replaced it.

Four Mercury Racing 450Rs on a Michael Peters double-step

Power is four supercharged Mercury Racing 450R outboards, 1,800 hp in total, on a double-stepped hull by Sarasota's Michael Peters with a ventilated tunnel aft. Peters told PMY the tunnel, borrowed from his catamaran raceboat work, is what tames a stepped bottom and gives tremendous stability. In PMY's test after the Miami show, the 47 hit 53 knots at 6,100 rpm, with no chine walking or skittish behavior even when a driver threw unannounced hard-over turns.

Yachting's Biscayne Bay run with 12 people aboard saw 50 knots, a 37-knot cruise with barely any bow rise coming onto plane, and a turn in about a boat length at 30 knots. Offshore in a 1 to 2 foot chop, PMY found it dry and on track. Azimut quoted a 53.1-knot top speed. Neither magazine published a fuel curve, so use the 660-gallon tank conservatively on Bahamas runs.

Verve 47 versus an American super console

PMY framed the 47 as an alternative to the big center consoles from Scout, HCB, Midnight Express and Boston Whaler, a segment that runs from 42 to 65 feet. Those boats are built around fishing: rocket launchers, livewells, wide-open cockpits and helm consoles placed for running offshore to the canyons.

The Verve takes the same outboard power and joystick convenience and spends the space differently, on a larger interior, a cockpit that turns into a dining room and a bow arranged for lounging rather than casting. PMY called it more of an offshore cruising dayboat than its competitors. If you fish seriously, buy the console; if you entertain, the Verve is the more comfortable choice.

A cockpit floor that becomes a dining table

Francesco Struglia's deck design is where the 47 earned its reputation. A center section of the Esthec cockpit sole rises at the push of a button to become a dining table or, in its lower position, a sunbed, with sensors that stop it if a hand or foot is underneath and a fold-out cover so guests are not eating off the floor. A large section of the port gunwale tilts down electrically to put the cockpit right at the water.

Aimed at North American buyers, the cockpit adds an athwartships entertainment console with a 58-inch pop-up television, Kenyon grill, two-burner stove, fridge and freezer. The bow is asymmetric, with a clear walkway to port and a starboard passage that stops short, creating a semi-enclosed U-shaped lounge beside three large sunpads. At the helm, three ergonomic seats face three Raymarine displays, Mercury digital switching and joystick control with Skyhook, and glass panels set into the gunwales show the water rushing past and help when docking.

Two cabins and a Manhattan-loft saloon

Below, Ferrante described the interior as a Manhattan loft, with white pickled oak, tweed fabrics and metallic gray counters. The master is in the bow with a queen-size berth, hull windows and an overhead hatch. A galley and an L-shaped dinette that converts to a berth occupy the middle, and the single head has a full shower. All the way aft, a twin-berth guest cabin with a filler cushion makes a bed bigger than the master's, though PMY found its headroom tight. It is a place for kids or for a rainy afternoon, not a second owner's suite.

Verve 47 or Verve 48, what changed

Azimut replaced the 47 with the Verve 48, which debuted at the 2023 Fort Lauderdale show, to take advantage of Mercury's Verado 600 V12. Swapping four 450Rs for three 600s gave what Ferrante said was 35 percent more deck space, a larger swim platform with rectangular pads either side of the engines instead of the 47's narrow V, a fold-out gunwale that extends to the transom, and a redesigned carbon hardtop with a larger sunroof. PMY lists the 48 at 49 feet 4 inches with the same 13-foot-5-inch beam.

For a used buyer, the 47 is the more raw, more mechanically complex boat, and the cheaper one. The 48 is quieter at low speed and easier to service with one fewer engine. Struglia's asymmetric deck and the hull windows carried over almost unchanged.

• Verve 47: 4 x Mercury Racing 450R, 1,800 hp, 53 knots in PMY's test, 660 gallons fuel
• Verve 48: 3 x Mercury Verado 600 V12, 1,800 hp, 50-plus knots expected, 618 gallons fuel
• Both: Michael Peters SVVT hull, Struglia design, 13-foot-5-inch beam, two cabins

Azimut Verve 47 price and running costs today

PMY quoted a standard price of about $1.3 million when the boat launched, with the loaded first hull, carrying a SureShade, Seakeeper 6, 14 kW Kohler generator and two Seabobs, closer to $1.88 million. Six years later the brokerage market is small. YachtBuyer tracked three boats from 2022 and 2023 asking between $1.2 and $1.8 million, and earlier 2020 hulls should trade lower, so we place the range at about $1.05 to $1.8 million.

Annual ownership, before fuel, typically runs $70,000 to $140,000 for dockage, insurance, Mercury Racing maintenance on four engines, generator and gyro service and bottom work. Fuel is the wild card: four supercharged V8s at a 37-knot cruise drink accordingly, and no independent fuel table was published.