The bluff-bow Navetta 64 is the latest new-age trawler from Italy’s Absolute Yachts. This model’s biggest evolution from the builder’s other five Navettas is a forward-raked windshield, a feature as practical as it is stylish. The proportionally larger side windows toward the bow are now a brand signature for Absolute, creating a bold profile in concert with detailing such as the sturdy molded rail that sweeps aft to the transom from the high foredeck.
For go-anywhere cruisers, the Navetta 64 has all the appropriate design elements. A hardtop protects the flybridge, whose overhang shields not only the aft deck but also the side decks. There are booth-style seating and sunbathing space on what Absolute calls the “foredeck terrace.” There’s also an optional glazed transom—another big design departure for this model—that conceals an air-conditioned space. This area can serve as a beach-club lounge during the day or as a double-berth stateroom for occasional overnight guests (a flip-over backrest converts the mattress into a sofa). With that aft space in use as a stateroom, the Navetta 64 can sleep eight people in four en suite staterooms.
The aft space has two sliding glass doors that seal pneumatically and are RINA-certified to ensure the compartment is watertight when they’re closed. Even if, in an emergency, the space were flooded, it would not compromise the yacht, according to the builder. And the engines won’t start if the doors are left open.
In addition to the sliding doors, a watertight door from the space’s portside head leads forward to the engine room, which can be accessed through a hatch in the cockpit sole.
If you’re thinking this stern design means there’s no place for crew, you’re wrong. A crew cabin is amidships to starboard, with its own stairs descending from a door on the starboard side deck—the sort of arrangement commonplace on larger motoryachts.
The Navetta 64′s interior styling is contemporary cool with elm and walnut furniture, oak soles, and a harmonious blend of textures and sheens. The main salon includes a galley and dining table aft. A drop-down window helps open up the galley to the cockpit. Amidships is a lounge where most of the furniture is by Minotti.
Forward of the salon, the bridge is raised, giving the lounge abaft it a feeling of intimacy. There are two seats at the bridge with the helm outboard. Most instrumentation is by Garmin. The commanding position delivers clear visibility forward and to the immediate sides, particularly so to starboard, thanks to an optional side-deck glass door whose top panel opens. Cameras and a stern docking station can mitigate the lack of direct sightlines aft, and there is the option of enclosing the upper helm position, which has 360-degree views.
The owner’s stateroom is forward, several steps down from the salon. The forward-facing berth has plenty of space around it, splendid views thanks to Absolute’s signature glazing, and en suite facilities in the bow with another set of windows and opening portholes. Two other en suite staterooms occupy the amidships space on the lower deck. There’s an athwartships double to port and a twin-berth setup to starboard.
Absolute’s design team also focused on utility in the Navetta 64. The laundry room’s door is set into the same bulkhead that separates the owner’s stateroom from the rest of the accommodations, but the laundry room itself is accessed from the lower-deck lobby. There’s space for a washer/dryer and stowage for towels and linens. Another door beyond the appliances reveals a service tunnel that runs all the way forward to the chain-locker bulkhead and deep stowage compartments.
Designed for a maximum speed in the mid-to-high 20s and a fast cruise in the high teens, the Navetta 64′s standard power is twin 900 hp Volvo Penta D13-IPS1200 diesels. However, most owners have opted for the biggest machinery offered: twin 1,000 hp Volvo Penta D13-IPS1350 diesels. Absolute says the optional powerplants are ideal for customers who run heavy with lots of guests and luggage, the largest possible tender, and the biggest stabilizer. Hull No. 1, the first of three Navetta 64s destined for the United States so far, has the big horses and a reported top speed of about 28 knots.
The Absolute Navetta 64 may have a trawler-inspired aesthetic, but the yacht’s fast-cruising performance, modern design elements and multifunctional spaces create a new and welcome style of cruising yacht.
Take the next step: absoluteyachts.com
