A new heavyweight boat is in town, sliding through the velvet seas with the sun crisp on its back. If you’re a sucker for seaborne chrome and mother of pearl, and like to stand and watch the horizon go dark blue to black, the wind in your hair, champagne flute gurgling in your hand, this beauty will haunt your dreams until you can afford to sit in one. It’s named Azteca – the name as mysterious as the engineering is ingenious – and was revealed earlier this year at the Genoa boat show to an approving sea of black tie jackets and cocktail dresses.
Built by Ferretti’s Italian yachting brand CRN (Costruzioni e Riparazioni Navali), Azteca is the kind of aesthetic masterpiece that would look perfect in a Fellini epic. The owner’s suite is complete with cinema and massage room, the male and female bathrooms screaming luxury in even the smallest noir-ish detail. There’s a balcony over the ocean – the kind you long for after watching Titanic – and then you can step down onto the terrace and there’s even a beach club down on the water’s edge.
Lamberto Tacoli, the master behind the brand, agrees that it’s the careful and exacting design of the boat that assists in inspiring metaphysical contemplation once aboard; there’s luxury, lots of it – owing mainly to the extravagant facilities on board – but it’s the “strong bond with the sea” that makes the Azteca experience worth the money. Indeed: and yet what exactly is luxury in this context? And how does it change as you take to the ocean, leaving the material world behind as a thousand nautical miles of freedom stretch out in front.
Tacoli’s definition? Time. ‘Today one of the real and greatest luxuries is time. Time to dedicate to family, children, friends and pastimes.” A good point. The feeling of having a world away from the world is surely the primary appeal of yachting – having the liberty to pull up anchor, sail away into the sunset, and discover something new wherever you stop next. On land, it is difficult to get away from the hustle and bustle, no matter where you are, but being out on the ocean, with nothing but you, your loved ones and the salty sea spray is perhaps one of the last true escapes this world has to offer.
For more information, go to http://www.crn-yacht.com/welcome.jsp
