First Impression: Azzurra II

Date toured: December 2006

Editor's Note: As of January 2010, Azzurra II was part of the charter fleet at Ocean Independence.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” the deep voice boomed as I squinted into the sun on the docks at the Antigua Charter Yacht Show.

I took off my sunglasses and moved so that the captain’s face would be in between my own and the bright sunshine, and then I squealed with delight. “Capt. Will Keiser! Tuna Tataki!”

The folks around us on the docks looked a bit puzzled, as well they should. How were they to know, after all, that I’d written about Will and his wife, chef/stewardess Juan Keiser, several years ago when they were running the 118-foot motoryacht Nirvana. That article ran in Yachting magazine back in February 2002—and I could still taste Juan’s dinner of Tuna Tataki some four years later, as if I’d sampled it just a few days earlier. It was just that good.

“Come on board,” Will said, proudly leading me onto the aft deck of his new command, the 156-foot Azzurra II. “Wait till you see how we’ve moved up in the world.”

Indeed, they have. Azzurra II is a 1988 build that went through a refit in 2004 before being sold to a new owner in late 2006. The yacht’s debut with new charter crew at the Antigua show was a milestone, as it had just joined the fleet at International Yacht Collection about two weeks earlier.

Will (read our exclusive CharterWave interview with him by clicking here) was quite excited about all the yacht has to offer for charter guests, and rightly so. There have been major improvements made, including the addition of zero-speed stabilizers, which are becoming the norm on new launches and which make for extraordinarily comfortable cruising. Azzurra II also has a new communications system called V-Sat that allows wireless, broadband Internet access throughout the yacht, wherever it is in the world.

“The owner pays about $2,000 a month for it,” Will explained. “But it’s free for the charter guests, included in the weekly rate.”

Azzurra II also includes a 33-foot Intrepid tender and plenty of other water toys in that rate, plus a couple of Vespa scooters for tooling around onshore.

And inside, the cabins are more memorable than a lot of others onboard similar-size yachts. The master (see the photo atop this page) has windows that climb up its ceiling, offering a spectacular view of whatever port Azzurra II happens to visit (gloriously big windows are a common theme throughout this yacht). The guest cabins on the bottom deck—two with queen beds, two with twins—actually feel like suites because they are oversized with sitting nooks and large showers.

The only thing missing that you’ll likely find onboard yachts in this same size range is a top-deck hot tub, but Will told me the yacht’s owner is planning to add one in a major refit of Azzurra II’s top deck in the fall of 2007.

For now, Azzurra II takes 10 guests with 12 crew. Her weekly base rate is $165,000 in the Mediterranean and $150,000 in the Caribbean, or about $20,000 a person during the high season with typical 25-percent expenses included.

If you decide to charter her, make sure you tell Will and Juan that I said hello. And ask for that Tuna Tataki. Even though Juan’s a stewardess, not the chef, onboard this boat, I’ll bet she’d pull out all the stops for a fan of CharterWave.—Kim Kavin