You’re a long way from yesteryear,” I thought to myself, as I sat sipping my orange juice, watching the three charming Italian women next to me laugh together as they drank cappuccino from oversized thimbles across from a yacht-filled marina. The last time I was in Italy, I was a poor college student with even poorer planning skills, sleeping on the subway floor in Rome (don’t ask). As I gazed across the café, observing wallpaper actually dedicated to the history of Azimut Yachts, I realized that I’m not the only one who has changed with time. One photo in particular stood out—Virgin Enterprise Founder Richard Branson’s smiling face.
Worth mention is the reason this 73-year-old commercial astronaut’s iconic grin was plastered to this café wall. It’s not because he repped Azimut’s boats (and to the best of my knowledge, he’s never owned one). It’s because Branson pushed new limits, not only for the world of boating or even engineering itself for that matter, but particularly for the future of Azimut. After Branson smashed the record for fastest Atlantic Crossing by two hours in 1986,, everyone else wanted to challenge him for a taste of the glory, including the Italian yacht builder’s owner Paolo Vitelli. Fresh off Azimut’s acquisition of Benetti, Vitelli wanted to push what his company was capable of and show the rest of the world while he was at it. What Azimut came up with was a 101-foot, aluminum-hulled, quadruple I8-cylinder CRM diesel-powered beast coupled to two massive waterjets. Total horsepower: 7,400. They named her, to no one’s surprise, the .
