• The hull handles the sea extremely well and has a very cushioned impact with the waves.
• The shapes of the Magellano models provide greater interior volume, leading to increased on-board comfort.

The Italian Job

PBR takes a brief look at the new Azimut Magellano collection, which debuted at this year’s Southampton Boat Show.

Azimut Yachts have been operating in the United Kingdom since 2002 and have now reinforced their presence by opening new prestigious offices in London in their Hanover Square premises, in the heart of Mayfair. Their range of cruisers has continued to grow in popularity, and the launch of the Magellano range onto the British market certainly raised a few eyebrows at the Southampton Boat Show, with the baby of the range, the Magellano 43 Fly, on display for all to see out of the water. This particular model has been designed for use in the North Sea, where sailing in heavy seas with choppy waves is the norm. The whole range comprises four models from 43 to 76 feet, and as well as the 43 Fly there is the Magellano 43HT, the Magellano 53 and the Magellano 76.

The launch campaign certainly makes Azimut’s ambition plain, with a slogan that claims, somewhat provocatively, that ‘the best boat for British people … has been designed in Italy’. The company has taken cruising characteristics as its staring point in an attempt to completely revise the idea behind semi-planing hulls. Englishman Bill Dixon, a yacht designer specialised in motor boat and sailing boat hulls, has found a rather unusual way of combining the rounded keel shapes usually found in planing hulls with rather broad skids and a particularly sizable prow that reduces pitching as it functions as a natural buoyancy chamber. The hull handles the sea extremely well and has a very cushioned impact with the waves. The dual-mode hull allows a slow cruising speed, at full dislocation, aimed at guaranteeing an extensive cruising range, as well as a 16-knot cruising speed that is both pleasant and functional. The skids assist the boat’s planing capacity and enable an escape velocity of 22 knots to be achieved – an additional feature that may come in handy. The vertical prow completes the optimisation of the hull, allowing the vessel to plough through the prow waves with greater ease.

The shapes of the Magellano models provide greater interior volume, leading to increased on-board comfort. The Azimut Magellano 43, for example, powered by an in-line engine, manages to fit three cabins and two bathrooms with a separate shower column in just 13 metres below deck.

The Magellano collection thus completes the range of cruisers produced by Azimut Yachts, a range that includes over 25 models spread over five collections, extending from open-deck sports yachts to the large Fly models. The company now operates in 68 countries with 138 sales and service centres, and has representative and support offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Fort Lauderdale (USA) and Itajaí (Brazil). The company’s growth is plain for all to see, and it looks as though the Magellano collection is destined to join the ever-increasing line of Azimut success stories.