We sell more Ferrettis than Azimuts. That's not a recommendation — it's a statement about who walks into the brokerage looking for an Italian flybridge in the 60–90 foot range. The two yards make different boats for slightly different owners, and over fifteen years of selling both, three things separate them.
Hull design. Ferretti's Vector Hull, designed by Filippo Salvetti, prioritises soft entry — the bow knifes through a 1.5-metre Tyrrhenian chop without throwing spray onto the flybridge. Azimut's Carbon-Tech hulls, three to seven percent lighter on average, are quicker off the plane and more reactive. Below 35 knots the difference is academic. Above 28 knots in choppy seas, a Ferretti owner sleeps and an Azimut owner pays attention.
Build quality. Both are excellent — anyone telling you otherwise is selling against one of them. The relevant question is interior tooling: Ferretti runs more conservative production processes (familiar wood-veneer combinations, predictable layout choices, panels that always line up), while Azimut leans further into composite and unconventional materials (gloss carbon details, glass mouldings, layouts that change between hull numbers). The right one for you depends on whether you prefer "predictable and serviceable" or "modern and headline-grabbing".
Residual value. Across the last five years' sales we have brokered, Ferretti holds 50–60% of original list at the 10-year mark in the 70–90 foot range. Azimut's Magellano line tracks similarly; the broader Azimut range depreciates 5–10 percentage points faster in the first three years and recovers somewhat at year seven. For a buy-and-flip-in-five-years profile, this matters. For a 15-year ownership, it does not.
Which to choose. If you value classical Italian craftsmanship, predictable resale, and the cruising-feel of a heavier hull — Ferretti is hard to beat. If you want lighter, faster, more contemporary lines and you are comfortable with steeper early depreciation in exchange for showroom-fresh styling — Azimut belongs on the shortlist. If you're cruising mostly under 30 knots, the choice is largely aesthetic.
The other shortlist names. Don't pretend the only choice is Italian — Sunseeker (British), Pershing (also Italian, but a different boat altogether), Princess and Riva belong on the broader comparison. The right yacht is hull-specific, not brand-specific. The Ferretti 80 we currently represent in Sardinia would sell to a buyer who tried both. The 2020 Riva Corsaro 100 (€8.35M) would not be on the list at all unless the budget tripled.
Bottom line: if you ask us to recommend between an equivalent Ferretti and Azimut, we will ask you about the cruising profile first and the styling second. Anyone telling you otherwise — including a broker who lists only one of the two — has a conflict of interest worth knowing about.
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