Asia bound: Azimut’s first Grande 30M

It’s always exciting to tour a new model making its world premiere. Doing it at the Cannes Yachting Festival makes it even more special. And knowing that the first hull is headed to Asia adds an extra layer of excitement. Add in being guided on the tour by the dealership that sold the yacht, and it felt like the stars were aligning.

The Grande 30M was one of Azimut’s two world premieres at the 48th Cannes Yachting Festival. However, unlike the Fly 82, which was only confirmed just ahead of the show, the Grande 30M had been announced as a 2025 debutant two years earlier, along with the news that the first hull had been sold into to Hong Kong by Marine Italia Asia.

Adding to the anticipation, the Grande 30M was the first all-new model by Azimut to feature an interior by m2atelier. The studio co-founded by Italian Marco Bonelli and Serbian Marijana Radovic is based in Milan, just two hours’ drive north of where the yacht made its Italy debut, at the 2025 Genoa International Boat Show, just days after its Cannes showing.

The m2atelier studio worked in tandem with exterior designer Alberto Mancini, who was designing his fourth Grande superyacht for Azimut, after the 38m flagship Grande Trideck that debuted at Cannes in 2021 and the Grande 36M and 26M models that followed a year later.

For the Grande 30M, the Monaco-based Italian – who also works on Azimut’s Fly, S and Seadeck lines – has continued the look and feel of his earlier Grande designs, which are more forward-heavy than the versions developed by the late Stefano Righini.

Only a touch over 94ft, the Grande 30M makes the most of its LOA with an almost full-length flybridge that stretches as far aft as the main deck, a design also seen on the Grande 36M and 26M.

Furthermore, the Grande 30M also features the key innovation from both yachts: the Deck2Deck cockpit extension introduced on the Grande 26M, and the Grande 36M’s ‘Infinity Skydeck’, reimagined on the Grande 30M as the ‘Rooftop Lounge’ on an a fully walkaround flybridge.

“It has tremendous volume and deck space for a 30m yacht, more akin to the previous and larger Azimut Grande 32M,” says Paul Grange, COO of Marine Italia Asia. “The yacht’s owner is a very experienced and repeat Azimut client who also owns an S model and plans to keep the Grande 30M in Sai Kung.”

Strong Platform

Azimut again teamed up with Pierluigi Ausonio Naval Architecture (PLANA) to develop the yacht’s double-chine, D2P (displacement to planing) hull with a wave-piercing bow, a platform that has proven so successful on other Grande models.

However, the aft section was slightly different as the Grande 30M is the series’ first to feature Rolls-Royce’s new propulsion system featuring two mtu engines and pod drives. The 1,800hp engines deliver a top speed of 25 knots and a cruising speed of 20, while the pod drives help improve manoeuvrability and create more space on the lower deck.

This includes space for an aft garage to store a RIB lengthways. Forward of the garage, there’s also a horizontal room that can house a jetski athwartships, although the owner of hull one has chosen to use this space for storage.

The swim platform spans most of the yacht’s 24ft-beam and has a central high-low section to help deploy the tender. Another moving part in the stern is the garage door, which folds upwards to a horizontal level to create the Deck2Deck feature and extend the aft cockpit on the main deck by several feet. Aside from this extension, the entire cockpit is covered by the flybridge.

When the Deck2Deck is deployed, it allows for loose furniture to be placed there, potentially facing out to sea. Alternatively, the space can be used for extra seats at the end of the long table, which can be electrically raised and folded out to create a formal alfresco dining area for up to 10 guests.

“The Deck2Deck extension and longitudinal sofas instead of an aft sofa transforms the connectivity between the cockpit and interior, while also improving the visage for all guests,” Grange says.

M2atelier Era

The Grande 30M wasn’t the first completed Azimut to feature an m2atelier interior. Selected to succeed Achille Salvagni for interiors of Grande superyachts, the studio also redesigned the Grande Trideck and Grande 36M, with the first examples – hulls 30 and 23 respectively – shown at Cannes and now offered on all current orders.

However, the Grande 30M was the first Azimut yacht that the studio worked on from inception, in tandem with Mancini. As revealed in an interview with the studio’s co-founders and Federico Lantero, Azimut’s Head of Product Design, m2atelier is not solely working on interiors but also internal architecture as well as outdoor furniture and features.

As the yacht used for the model’s world premiere, the first hull is very much a showcase unit for m2atelier, without the level of customisation available to owners of subsequent hulls. According to Grange, the owner of hull one liked the proposed design and embraced it. The studio’s emphasis on what has been described as ‘barefoot luxury’ is evident in a relaxed décor focused on light woods, creams, greys and whites.

The architectural influence is evident in the saloon, where there’s a clear flow within a generally symmetrical arrangement. Azimut typically offers inlaid carpets, but on hull one it features long, hexagonal overlaid carpets on each side of a central walkway to an ingenious triangular table whose shape has been better described by Azimut as a guitar pick or plectrum.

Between the hexagonal carpets and triangular table, m2atelier’s emphasis on geometry and angles provide an immediate distinction to Salvagni’s focus on circles, curves and freestyle shaping.

The table’s triangular shape naturally creates diagonal walkways to either side of the ‘feature wall’, providing port access to the upper deck stairs and galley, while to starboard is the day head, lower-deck stairs and master suite. Not only does the table take up less space but it works superbly for guest and crew flow.

Further Features

The feature wall is a common feature of m2atelier’s designs for Azimut. On the Grande 30M, the forward wall has a slatted appearance, with vertical grey, suede-covered strips fronting the mirrored surface on the middle and right panels.

However, on the left third of the ‘feature wall’, the glass is see-through, allowing more natural light to illuminate the ‘floating’ steps – attached only on the forward end – to the upper deck. The staircase acts as an atrium-style feature that helps illuminate the lower-deck stairs underneath. Although hull one represents m2atelier’s showcase version, Azimut proposes customisable options for décor and furniture on subsequent orders.

On the first hull, one notable customisation is the day head, which has been cleverly designed to double as a shower room for ease of access and convenience for day guests. It’s almost unnoticeable. Talking of unnoticeable, I had to ask if there was a television in the saloon. There is. It’s a drop-down version hidden in the ceiling on the starboard side.

Forward, the entrance to the master suite is flanked by wardrobes. The full-beam bedroom has a central double bed facing forward to a mirrored TV on the aft side of the shower in the centre of the full-width bathroom.

Top and Bottom

On the lower deck, the four en-suite guest cabins comprise two VIPs midships, both with inward-facing beds, while forward of them are two smaller guest cabins with the option of sliding twin beds. The forward crew quarters, accessible from the galley, include a dinette, washer-drier, two cabins with bunks, a shared bathroom, and an en-suite captain’s cabin.

The Grande 30M’s crowning glory is the flybridge. At the centre is an enclosable skylounge, with sliding doors on both sides and aft, a feature introduced on the Grande 36M, which had a semi-walkaround upper deck.

On the Grande 30M, the skylounge includes facing sofas aft and a bar forward, while the open aft deck has space for loose furniture. In Cannes, the space was shown with an island sunpad with moveable backrests plus three sunloungers at the aft end.

The flybridge has a full walkaround design, but instead of ‘side decks’, the extra-wide walkways to the forward area feel more like promenades and are almost social spaces in themselves. When all the skylounge doors are opened, the overall effect on the top deck is simply remarkable. And there’s more to see.

Forward of the pilothouse is the foredeck, which has a low hexagonal bar/drinks unit aft of an intricately shaped sofa and a large sofa-cum-sunpad area with moveable backrests. There’s also the option of a spa pool on the top deck, which would typically be proposed in the foredeck, where guests enjoy a clear sightline to sea, over a sunken technical area in the forepeak. Biminis and removeable poles can provide shade at both ends of the flybridge.

“One of the biggest challenges of having an enclosed flybridge is that it can be too enclosed,” Grange says. “This yacht has a spectacular upper lounge that opens on all three sides and offers a unique, vast feeling of space when you move around the top deck.”

A triumphant first collaboration between Mancini and m2atelier, the Azimut Grande 30M showed off its assets during its world premiere. And for Yacht Style readers who missed it in Cannes and Genoa, the Asia premiere is up next.

azimutyachts.com, marineitalia.asia

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