27 MOTORYACHTS
Absolute Navetta 68
Location, location, location. It’s an old saw that has been embraced by realtors and the HGTV set alike, but it can just as easily be muttered by boatbuilders jockeying for venue space at a major show. Perhaps the fiercest competition for real estate is during the Ft. Lauderdale show.
Tucked into the south corner was Italian giant Absolute. With brokerage boats beside it, my initial thought was that it wasn’t the best spot. Not many people were going to stumble upon their display. Then I found the newcomer to the builder’s Navetta line, the 68. Sandwiched in a lineup that includes the 48, 52, 58 and 73, the boat enjoyed an end spot overlooking the water.
On day five of the hectic, sultry show, my colleagues and I were at a familiar point: so deep in the weeds with new boat features that you begin to forget the point of it all. It’s not, in fact, a design competition—the boats on display are a means to a watery, leisure-filled end. The 68’s location reminded me of that.
What I like best about the Navetta line is that it offers the luxury appointments that are expected of today’s motoryachts while retaining safety features that any ocean-going ship should have. Case in point was the cockpit. Yes, it had a large table for dining and a sunshade aft for privacy, but it also had a dedicated, recessed space for a full-size, bright-orange life ring. And right behind the ring, also easily accessible, is a fire extinguisher. It’s nice to see that safety hasn’t gone out of style with Absolute.
Another example of form meeting function is the wide, protected side decks around the boat. Yacht photography today typically shows this as the ideal location for a size zero Italian model to look out onto the sunset with her sundress blowing gently in the breeze while George Clooney grabs a bottle of champagne. I have no qualms with selling the dream, but the reality is those decks are also used by full-sized humans carrying an armful of cleaning supplies up to the bow. Having enough space to walk forward with beefy handrails is something I think a lot of non-Clooney types can appreciate.
I found myself drawn to the lower helm. This is a spot that transcends the yacht-meetsship design philosophy. An electrically retractable partition between the salon and helm area allows the captain to either socialize or have privacy to better focus on the waters ahead. Sitting in the rich leather helm seats and looking over the three raised (and one recessed) Garmin MFDs at the open channel, it was easy to daydream about slipping the lines and pointing the 68 toward Bimini and beyond.
Standard twin 900-hp IPS1200 D13s should loan the boat a cruise speed in the 25-knot range, so getting to the islands should be a quick and, if my past experience aboard Absolutes is any indication, quiet affair. A four-stateroom layout with the master in the bow should allow four couples to cruise together.
As I concluded my tour of the 68, I began to notice at every turn how large the windows were: From the salon to the guest stateroom, the connection with the water was everywhere. All these features, combined with the boat’s spot overlooking the water, allowed me to easily picture myself enjoying it the way it was intended to be used. Maybe they had the best spot in the show after all. —Daniel Harding Jr.
CRUISE SPEED 25 KNOTS
TOP SPEED 28 KNOTS
Azimut S6
It was six years ago that Azimut first startled us all by unveiling the triple-engine-powered 55S, with its aggressive, angular styling and exhilarating performance and handling. The surprise of opening the hatch and finding three 435-hp Volvo Penta IPS600s was such that marine journalists immediately took to calculators and spec sheets and started working out just why on earth such an experienced builder would choose such an expensive and complicated installation—surely two motors of equivalent horsepower would do the job just as well?
In fact, the numbers, once crunched, revealed sound method behind this apparent madness. Three turned out to be considerably lighter than two, and no thirstier for diesel. And of course much smaller—leaving all-important space in the hull for the opulent accommodation which, when all is said and done, is what we turn to Italian motoryachts for.
With the new S6, however, the numbers tell a less compelling story. Based on a modified and slightly lengthened version of the same hull, even with its high-tech construction—the superstructure, swim platform, tender garage hatch and sunroof are made entirely of carbon fiber, along with parts of the deck—it’s heavier as well as bigger than the old 55S. So it needs more horsepower, in the shape of Volvo Penta’s 7.7-liter D8 blocks. Three 550-hp IPS700s are only slightly lighter than their counterpart pair of 800-hp IPS1050s, and offer no significant advantage in combined fuel consumption either. But they’re still a lot smaller—so, once again, a triple engine installation was a no-brainer for designers anxious to incorporate as much lower-deck luxury as possible.
Styled by Francesco Guida, the S6’s interior design takes its cues from the bigger S7 introduced last year, with its rational forms and cool color palette. Contrasting tones of oak veneers help delineate the spaces, and isolated details in leather and steel provide little visual nuggets to catch the eye. But overall the dominance of pale fabrics and linings does its job in not upstaging the star of the show, which is light. Big windows abound on both decks. Every guest space on board can have his or her moment in the sun.
With a strong strand of 55S DNA running through it, the S6 has plenty to live up to when it comes to performance and handling. And it does not disappoint. Looking even more packed than its predecessor, the engine room positively bulges with power and potential, the three six-cylinder powerplants leaving little room down there for anything else.
The automatic trim operated flawlessly in the admittedly benign conditions of our South of France sea trial, with a lightly laden boat and a barely noticeable chop on the water. On autopilot the joystick control was remarkably intuitive, allowing the helmsman to dodge obstacles by simply tapping the stick to one side or the other.
All of which is very sensible and convenient, but not actually as much fun as driving the S6 for yourself. As you might expect with 1,650 hp on tap, acceleration was immediate as the boat hauled itself up onto plane in something like seven seconds. It then just kept going, reaching 35 knots in as many seconds. And acceleration is not just about the stopwatch: The reality of an instant and willing response to the throttle even at moderate speeds has a valuable practical application—not the least of which is to make driving fun. —Alan Harper
CRUISE SPEED 25 KNOTS
TOP SPEED 35 KNOTS
Belize 66 Sedan
Once Riviera’s new Belize 66 Sedan was well beyond the Port Everglades jetties, the sea state settled into a succession of sun-washed, white-capped 6-footers. Just the sort of weather the Aussies on board were totally cool with. We were heading east, into the rollers, loping along at 20 knots, with nary a drop of seawater on the windshield.
I fed a quartering turn into the electric steering system and noted that the boat continued to perform comfortably in big-time side seas. Then I bumped ‘er up to 28 knots. “You Australians know how to build rough-water boats,” I said, shooting a glance toward Chris McCafferty, Riviera’s international sales director, a momentary act that revealed two, big express-style vessels going our way.
The mini-race that ensued was short, but sweet. Turning an average top end of 33.7 knots while holding a wholly optimal running attitude of just 3 degree, the 66 blew the doors off the competition in about two minutes flat.
Earlier in the day, dockside in Ft. Lauderdale, I’d had a chance to check out the essentials behind such a rousing performance. For starters, there was a marketing spiel that promised a fine entry forward, wide down-turned chines from stem to stern, an effective, deep-V-type transom deadrise and a long, substantial keel—all features aligned with fast, dry bee-lining through sporty seas.
Then there was the engine-room tour I’d taken with Wes Moxey, Riviera CEO and co-founder of Belize. “We’re building this boat in the ISO-certified Kha Shing yard in Taiwan,” he’d said as he undogged the ER’s fiberglass door. “Kha Shing has a great reputation for solid, high-quality craftsmanship.”
While Moxey’s claim was informative, it was the engine configuration I was now looking at that heralded the boat’s sea-chomping personality. Her 1,000-hp Volvo Penta D13 diesels were staggered,
