Brand

Azimut

Azimut is an Italian builder of glassfibre motoryachts and the volume brand of the Azimut|Benetti Group, whose head office and main plant are at Avigliana, west of Turin. Paolo Vitelli (1947-2024) started the business in 1969, not as a yard but as a small operation chartering sailing boats, and through the early 1970s it worked mainly as an importer and distributor for foreign builders. The move into building under its own name is dated by the company to 1975 and the AZ 43' Bali, a large series-produced glassfibre motoryacht developed with the moulder Amerglass; the AZ 32' Targa followed in 1977 and the 32-metre Failaka in 1982. In 1985 Vitelli bought Benetti, the Viareggio yard in business since 1873, which gave the company a displacement superyacht arm and produced the Azimut|Benetti name still used for the group. The group remains family-controlled, is chaired by Giovanna Vitelli, and employs roughly 4,500 people across its yards, service arms and the Lusben refit business. Production is spread over six sites. Avigliana builds glassfibre yachts up to about 23 metres and is the largest single Azimut facility; Savona handles outfitting, service and delivery; Viareggio builds Azimut models over 24 metres alongside Benetti hulls of 24 to 100 metres; Livorno is given over to larger superyachts and to Lusben refit work; Fano in the Marche builds the Magellano and S ranges; and Itajai in Brazil builds Azimut models up to about 30 metres, mainly for the Americas. Despite frequent references to a Turkish operation, the group's own list of shipyards names no site in Turkey, and its presence there appears to be commercial rather than industrial. The current range is organised into seven lines. Fly is the conventional flybridge range, roughly 53 to 82 feet, and is the core of the business by unit count. The S Collection (S6 to S10) is the sportier, lower-profile alternative on the same size ladder. Magellano is a semi-displacement, longer-range family running from around 60 feet to 30 metres. Grande covers the yard's own superyachts, from 26 to 44 metres, including the multi-terrace Trideck. Verve is a range of outboard-powered walkaround dayboats. Atlantis is the entry-level sport cruiser series, presently the 45 and 51. Seadeck, introduced in 2024, is the hybrid line. Atlantis began as a separate sport-cruiser brand in the early 2000s - trade reporting attributes it to Azimut's purchase of the Gobbi yard at Piacenza in 2001 - and grew to around nine models between 35 and 58 feet before being absorbed into the Azimut range, generally dated to about 2013. It now sits below the S Collection rather than standing apart from it. Azimut works with outside designers rather than an in-house styling office. Stefano Righini has drawn the exteriors of most of the composite production range; interiors have come variously from Achille Salvagni and Carlo Galeazzi. Alberto Mancini is responsible for more recent hulls including the S10, the Grande 26M and the Trideck, and Ken Freivokh Design drew the exteriors of the larger Magellano models. Pininfarina worked with the yard historically, on the 1988 Atlantic Challenger and the Azimut 65 of 1991. Hulls are glassfibre. From the Azimut 72 of 2015 the yard has fitted all-carbon superstructures on part of the range, marketed as Carbon-Tech, to reduce weight and lower the centre of gravity. Hybrid propulsion appeared first as the Easy Hybrid option on the Magellano 50 in 2013, and more substantially in the Seadeck series, developed with Volvo Penta, which pairs IPS drives with an electric motor and claims electric-only running to about 11 knots. By total length of yachts over 24 metres under construction, Boat International's Global Order Book has placed Azimut|Benetti first for more than 25 consecutive years, which makes it the largest builder in that segment by volume.