Azimut styling

[jfm]

That begs the question why the designer put those huge supports in the cockpit if, only a few feet forward there are support columns either side of the patio door? The flybridge overhang would not require anything much in the way of support if the flybridge was fully supported by columns either side of the patio door. I can't see that those window mullions in the pic provide much in the way of support to the flybridge; they are quite severely angled. Difficult to understand the structure unless you poke about the boat and unscrew some panels. Anyway, when I get to SIBS, I shall jump up and down on the forward part of the flybridge and see how it flexes, if at all

But the fly overhang has dining table aimed at 6 pax, which means it needs to take say 700kilos+ margin on the back end. Quite different from previous sealines that have had just a couple of sun matresses on the cantilevered part. Even if there's support either side of patio door, which there is, 700kg or whatever cantilevered still needs a spaceframe metal structure, as installed by loads of boatbuilders at much cost. It's that cost and complexity that Sealine have (sensibly, for a budget boat) avoided by using the black aft struts

The front window mullions are massive. If they're 4mm wall thickness st/steel, which i bet they are, they'll provide loads of support even angled. I simply cant believe there is any forward cantilevering (from the patio doors forward, or from the aft black struts) within the fly deck support thinking. You'd get the strength just about, but never the stiffness. The front support to the fly deck has got to be those mullions (and the glass, if bonded and suitably specced)

But yes, let's poke around at SIBS. I'll bring a leccy screwdriver to remove any panels that need removing

 

[CMJ]

Yup, I agree Azis look great. I also like the sharkfins on the prev 50/55, and I agree your comment that they got the lines slightly wrong on the 62. As for the current styling, if I bought an Azi 53/58 I wouldn't touch the styling but of course everything is a compromise and the boat would need other mods to make it usable (starting with bigger water tanks - so I'm not talking minor tweaks)

And yes, it's far rarer than say Sq58 in N Europe. They built 210 Sq58s, which is fewer than Azi built of the 55+55Evo (using data from PowerYachtBlog), but there are many more of the Fairlines up at these latitudes.

I dont know about the pranged Sq58. I believe EBY recently sold the last one in N Europe and there are now no new boats left but I wouldn't know about the one you refer to with pranged props. Being pedantic, I don't think it was the last ever Sq58. The last one was #210 which went to Sydney, I think. The fact that the pranged one had the solid white quarter panels doesn't tell you anything becuase the last 30 or so boats incl mine have those panels. Which harbour/marina are we talking about anyway?

Hi JFM. Yep, marina is Port Solent.

Any ideas what happens to the 'older' Azi models as far as production? I'm guessing Azimut will continue to keep them in their current range and new models slot in around them (e.g the 46 is still showing on their web, right next to the 47) but not sure. I'm suppose what I'm basically trying to get at is whether the 50 is now out (or about to go out) of production or not? I think Azi are supplying Clipper with a new 50 for the SIBS this year (they used ours last year, but I think a 2006 year model would be pushing it a little far in 2009!)........but who would buy a 50 when you could buy a 53 for just a little more if money allowed..... And I don't think the 50 sits competitively against the British 50's offerings these days with no full beam cabin and only one saloon seating area.

Interesting conversation about f/b overhangs and on the Az 55/62 there must be some serious 'space-frameage' because you can bung a tender up there, but on the 50 it's considered a no-go (despite enough space up there I reckon). Prob due to far less cantilever metalwork.

Back to styling though, one thing I do note is that new Azi's feature quite a bit of exposed GRP in the saloons (cost cutting I imagine), whereas there's not any to be seen in the 50/55/62 family....and lastly, one of the best features imho on the 'older' models are the curvey interior covered moudings that seperate the windscreen and side windows- they're a work of art for sure and look amazing compared to the butt-jointed look that seems to feature on all other boats inc. the new Azi's. All that said, the new Azi interiors do look amazing though (check out the AZ53 in this months MBM).

I'm turning (or turned) into an Azimut geek I reckon!
Cheers.