A yacht owner's 24 month new boat experience - Azimut

The best switchgear in the world is European, you just might not encounter it on the type of vessels you are used to.

The US stuff I have seen with the exception of some of the larger GE stuff is very low grade in my opinion.

I've always thought Italians liked to cook? The galleys on most Italian boats aren't much larger than a day head?

Here is how I see the Italian way of building, now this might not be true as a whole, but just what I saw/experienced.
1. Many builders use the same sub contractors for plumbing, electrical and mechanical. This is usually bid to the lowest price, which is OK, but then no one is watching, and the quality control becomes lacking. If the sub can find I way to save money by using an inferior product they will. The same company doing electric at Ferretti could also be doing it at Azimut or Benetti.
2. This also makes the as built documentation tough to rely on, once again it is a sub and not the yard who is installing and if someone doesn't check that is done to plans, who knows how they do it.
3. They tend to over engineer things, especially in electrical. From power to unit you might have a breaker, a contactor, fuse and switch. Now if one of things does not show up on a drawing and you don't know where that fuse is, good luck. Been there done that on Christmas Eve!
4. Spare parts, this will drive you crazy, I had a network built up of where I could get parts over the years, it has gotten better, but don't believe them when they say we have a warehouse full of parts for the boats, total BS.
5. I spent 1.5 yrs on a brand new 116 Azimut from delivery in the US through all warranty, things I saw would blow your mind, at one point I thought the dealer was going to put a hit out on me, and I worked for the dealership owner.
6. Now things might be different, as my experience was over 9 years ago, but from watching the video, it seems earily familiar to what I went thru.

Now what boats would I recommend and the below 30m market, that is a tough one, I have been running the same boat for 9 years and have not really been in that size market for awhile. Personally I would look to some of the Tiawan and Chinese boats, they seem to have some nice designs, and most of the parts come from the US, but I have no real time experience with any of them. I would recommend the Pacific Mariner, but they have halted production on them for now, if you can go a bit bigger try the 112 Westport, can't go wrong there, if you want used look for an older Pac Mariner an older Westport or Pac NW built boat.
If you are looking for speed and sex appeal, it is hard to beat the Italian boats, I don't think the US or Asian builders can match the Italians, they have the look and designs that can't be touched. I loved the lay out and design of the 116', I think it blew away the 112' Westport, I just wish it was built better.

Let's just say my source, which is one very close to Benetti in Europe, has a very different opinion than you regarding that currently. Obviously, Azimut and MarineMax are very quiet on that subject making it difficult to know. I'll stick to my statement for now and correct it if someone more in the direct knowledge has better information.

Well, for a long time galleys up and open were strictly for the US market as no proper European would have the galleys exposed to the guests. Then as they built galleys up for the US they found some substantial number of Europeans actually liked that approach.

And for the med cruisers the goal is often to look good at anchor, cover short distances and find the best possible restaurants.

I know one couple with a Grand Banks, nice galley, cruise a lot along the coasts and haven't prepared a full meal on the boat in years, if ever. But they know the restaurants in every port.

Yes, In the 70' Azimut seajets the galley was only big enough for one person to stand in it. Refrigerator was tiny. The 58' Azimut I ran, again only 1 person could stand in it, only had a 2 burner cooktop. A new 64' Princess I ran same thing, 1 person galley small refrigerator (I know not Italian, but Euro). Feretti's same thing. They don't cook or do long trips on these boats in Europe, they run a few hours from one port to another and then go to the nearest restaurant for dinner. Trying to do a 2 week trip on a Euro boat for American's is a lesson in futility when it comes to provisioning.

As for the electrical, what I've seen on sub 100' Italian and Euro is shocking. Terminal blocks are mostly plastic and they have a thin piece of copper that is sprung in a circle and you stick a tool in a hole to bend the copper and release the wire. Breakers that are just not ruggedly built. Breakers that only trip half the time even if there is a short. Breakers that melt to where they're not usable anymore without even tripping. Ohh and those cheesy connectors to connect two wires that are mostly plastic, not waterproof, and look like something the local phone company uses, whereas US uses heatshrink butt connectors.

Yacht Captain is right. On Azimuts, Feretti's and others, they use the cheapest subcontractor, but if they're building many boats, there might be 7 different sub-contractors wiring 7 different boats. None of them follow the plans AT ALL, nobody checks up on them, even totally different components are used from boat to boat. I managed 2 2001 68' Azimut pluses at the same time, they were 2 hull numbers apart. The electrical was TOTALLY different from boat to boat, one had all the terminal connections and solenoids in the wing aft deck locker in a sort of wet location. Also, the interiors are sub-contracted and I managed another one, where they built the joinery over the ceiling access panels in the entire boat so you couldn't drop the ceiling to access anything you needed to. There's no standard to the electrical parts used, no standard to how the wiring is done so it never matches the plans if they even have plans, and on and on. A large Azimut dealer told me 2 years ago, ohhh we have all kinds of wiring issues on new ones, we don't even bother trying to trace the wire anymore, we just run a new wire it's much easier and less time consuming. LOL

I've never come across US electrical panels that have melted, I've never come across US breakers that have melted because they have not tripped. I've never come across US terminal blocks that have melted under normal use.

Wouldn't rely on that; A high end German product, shipped from Germany, certificate of origin says Germany, flip the product... Made in China for ****, Gmbh!

Azimut builds in Brazil to burn Americans in their boats apparently. Those fascists! Hahahahaha

Cheers.

The product was ordered from Germany delivered to San Francisco, California. while I mostly boat in the med. I operate my business between SF, Ft. Lauderdale, NY, Europe and the Middle East. So, my statement is on a European brand, product built in China, shipped to the states as German, but unlike Azimut; it did not crack or burn.

And one the same note, they won't bother investing in a yard in Brazil to ship boats to the states from Italy. Anyway it is all the same, since the Brazil plant is owned and managed by A/B group, unlike many other brands subcontracting the builds to others and just labeling the product, even if they do monitor the process and what not. The fact that you had problems, and others did too, will not change even if the build was commenced on Mars, there is still a major issue with a major brand, and this should be the focal point of the conversation.

And even some who own Azimut's and absolutely love them and are in Europe and have had no problems know that Azimut has had their share of issues in the US. It's some combination of Brazil, MarineMax, their US handling of Warranties. And in some way, it probably reflects that to Azimut Benetti, Azimut's being sold in the US are a very small part of their business, not their core, and not the most important.

And even if Azimut had no more problems than other brands, which I don't believe to be the case, then the perception that exists would be deadly for them. Notice MarineMax is taking on Ocean Alexander. What will that do to Azimut. Really neither is or ever will be the core of their business. It's more like we'll sell tons of these other brands and hopefully occasionally sell a few larger boats. They certainly didn't do much for Hatteras either. They're a stocking dealer that doesn't stock.