Azimut Atlantis 50, a luxury yacht that looks different and feels different

The Azimut Atlantis 50 is built at Azimut’s factory in Avigliana, (Italy) the company’s home base, and receives, we are assured, exactly the same level of attention in terms of design, fit-out, and engineering as the parent marque. And that’s pretty clear when you step aboard—there are the big, chunky stainless steel handrails, several sizes larger than they really need to be; a signature of Azimut yachts. The saloon cabinetry is beautifully finished and not made of fiberglass, as you might expect, but of old-school, lacquered plywood. There is hidden quality, too, in the hull’s vinyl ester-resin outer skin and its vacuum-infused laminate. But, of course, the Azimut Atlantis 50 is not precisely an Azimut. She looks different and feels different, with her arrowhead exterior profile and simpler, but still cool and crisp, interior design. This is a boat conceived to compete on a different playing field, and like many recent mid-range sport cruisers, she comes with a choice of layout options on both decks. Most straightforwardly, you can have her with either two or three cabins: the lower dinette in the standard, two-stateroom version, on the starboard side opposite the galley, can be fitted out, if you prefer, as a small twin-bunk cabin. Two cabins or three, four berths or six—that’s a pretty significant choice to make. But it’s nothing compared with the main deck, where the yacht is available with an open-backed hardtop—the appropriately-named Open version of the Azimut Atlantis 50—or the Coupé version, with sliding glass doors to create an enclosed deck saloon. Both versions have a garage capable of swallowing an 8-foot tender, and both also benefit from a remarkably intelligent cockpit-seating module.

Going onboard the Azimut Atlantis 50, designed by Carlo Galeazzi, one of the first things you notice is the tremendous feeling of openness that runs through the boat. The layout from the helm station to the rear swim platform is one, continuous space. Sun lounges, a wet bar, the helm station, companion way and swim platform all seem to combine into one space without boundaries. In terms of style and design, it is an interesting achievement. The generous swim platform of the Azimut Atlantis 50 can also double as a lift, with a set of controls on the aft port side allowing the overhang section to drop down to pick up a jet ski. The 500-kilogramme limit on the platform should be enough to cover most small jet skis. The hard top of the Azimut Atlantis 50 mostly consists of glass windshields, which together give an almost dome-like quality to its exterior appearance. The sun top roof retracts, letting in cooling breezes while underway and helps to maintain the feeling of open space for both driver and passengers. A very handy feature is the built-in sunscreen technology in the rooftop glass – as the sun comes out, the glass darkens, keeping out some of the heat while maintaining a light, airy feel. Additionally, the glass in the roof of the Azimut Atlantis 50 is designed to keep out over 97 percent of UV radiation.

The saloon of the Azimut Atlantis 50 offers a bright and comfortable environment, with big windows and an impressive sliding sunroof to augment the glass cockpit doors, which open up in three sections to create a doorway nearly 4 feet 6 inches wide. The side windows also have opening panels. The sideboard on the starboard side is designed to accommodate a fridge, icemaker, and pop-up TV, but on our test boat it was, well, just a sideboard. Down below, the master suite is amidships, under the cockpit, with limited headroom around the perimeter and several changes in floor level to accommodate the significant dead rise (15 degrees at the transom) of the hull. But the berth is full-size—6 feet 4 inches by 5 feet 4 inches—and the cabin also boasts an unusually impressive amount of stowage. Your VIP guests up in the bow should also be pretty happy, with a 6-foot 6-inch berth set at the proper level, and excellent headroom of around 6 feet 6 inches at the foot of the berth. Substantial hull windows both here and in the master let in plenty of daylight and all cabins have opening portholes for fresh air. The private head in the master suite is on a roomy rectangular plan, while the dual-access compartment on the starboard side hardly feels smaller, and also has a separate shower compartment.

BOAT TEST IN SAVONA (ITALY): I like the IPS drives featured on so many of the 50’s European rivals, but I do enjoy a comfortable familiarity with traditional prop shafts. It’s an age thing. We tested the yacht at Azimut’s facility in Savona, not far west of Genoa, on a typically balmy day with light winds and 1- to 2-foot seas, which offered few challenges. Acceleration was brisk, top speed was more than 32 knots, and the Azimut Atlantis 50’s handling was taut and predictable. The turning circle felt pretty tight, with a comfortable angle of heel, while the shafts’ grip on the water induced a pleasurable sense of security. Winding on excessive helm soon became counterproductive, shedding speed without significantly increasing the rate of turn, and I soon learned to moderate my control inputs to get the best out of the boat. The engineers said they would be adjusting the rudder stops to limit their angle to about 20 degrees, which should sort the problem. Once I had figured it out, the boat gave us a fun ride. A sports machine, designed to reward her driver with precise control and a mean turn of speed, the Azimut Atlantis 50 is also a luxury yacht, intended to pamper and cosset—which she does. And she’s a quality product as well, put together by people who really know what they’re doing. But above all, the Atlantis 50 is a yacht that looks like she means business, and she delivers.

BOAT TEST IN CANNES (FRANCE): The sky was high and blue in Cannes, and the hills behind the town were fading into a warm haze as the morning sun gathered its strength for another tough day at the end of a Mediterranean summer. The weather had been unusually unsettled, and out beyond the bay we managed to find the remnants of a swell left over from a hard blow the day before. On top of that there was, of course, the usual aimless chop assembled from the crisscrossed wakes of dozens of other boats, large and small, all out doing what we were doing among the serenely anchored superyachts. What sea there was, this hull ironed out with no fuss whatsoever. Its transverse sections are not especially acute, but there seems to be plenty of depth to the forefoot, which lends a certain authority in a head sea. The long swells became a gently undulating playground, and on the shorter chop, I couldn’t induce slamming at any angle I attacked them from. Visibility from the helm was generally excellent, with dark moldings used around the console to prevent windscreen reflections. The control ergonomics inspired confidence, too—although tinted glass for the screen never seems such a great idea when the weather gets murky. In our acceleration trials, once the engines’ initial computer-controlled caution was thrown to the wind, the boat displayed an infectious joie de vivre, leaping from 15 to 20 knots in three seconds and from 20 to 25 knots in not much more. The engines also offered plenty of torque low down the rev range, and at 1600 rpm, with no need for any trim tab, they kept us planing steadily at 20 knots—a perfectly respectable cruising speed and pretty economical, as well as fairly quiet. The maximum I recorded in two-way trials was an equally respectable 31.5 knots. Overall, the 50 came across as a fun driver’s boat, which is not a bad achievement for a 20-ton cruising machine. The Azimut Atlantis 50 is a capable all-rounder, well equipped for comfortable cruising yet with the performance and handling of a sporty lunch boat. She is also a handsome vessel, devoid of quirks and vices, and unlikely to go out of style any time soon.

Sources: “Luxury Insider Hong Kong” & “Power and Motor Yacht”.