ferretti 720 in pmy

NewWith the dining table running across the hull and a bulkhead dividing off the wheelhouse, the 720’s main deck has big-yacht

84 PMYMAG.COM ❚ October 2011

Direction

FERRETTI AIMS FOR A WIDERAUDIENCE BY PUTTING

BIG-YACHT FEATURES INTO ITS SMALLEST “BIG” MODEL.

TEXT BY ALAN HARPER

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ew yachting brandsare as instantly recog-nizable, with thosestern, straight-edgedwindows, the creamy

gelcoat, strong horizontals, and can-tilevered upper decks. Never a high-volume builder, but always anarbiter of engineering and buildquality, Ferretti builds yachts thatexude confidence and authority.

All the best brands allow theirstyle to evolve, but with its new 720,Ferretti is doing something moreambitious. This boat seems to haveskipped a couple of generations inthe evolutionary process. I caughtup with the first one in early-seasonRapallo, just down the Italian coastfrom Genoa. It’s a resort town withall the classic attributes—grandhotel, mountain backdrop, and asheltered sweep of sandy bay com-plete with a picture-postcard castleat one end.

Ferretti’s new baby certainly haspresence, with that big and appar-ently seamless saloon window,while the subtle inward curve of thesuperstructure introduces a sleekand sporty edge to the design. Thebold flying-bridge windscreen andlong overhang are vintage Ferretti,of course, but on balance you mightsuspect that the company is target-ing new markets with this model.Younger owners, perhaps?

The evidence definitely stacks up.With its gray-brown lacquer, light-toned leathers, and oak joinery, theinterior design represents Ferretti atits best—modern, easy on the eye,and put together with real quality.But there’s an edge here as well. Thedining table is glass and steel—coolin every sense of the word. Therecan be few less nautical touchesthan distressed oak floorboards,running athwartships, and appar-ently the style magazines loved it.

ambitions, but it’s not quite as big as it looks due to the inward-curving sides.

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October 2011 ❚ PMYMAG.COM 85

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EXCLUSIVE: FERRETTI 720




Top: The master suite has a shower screen that is see-through: très risqué! Above: A look inside the spacious master bathroom.



No one over 40 reads style mags, surely?If Ferretti designers are targeting younger customers, they’re pushing

the right buttons. Another decision they faced was whether to makethe 720 the smallest of their big-yacht range or the biggest of the smallones. It’s clear which they chose—the question is whether these com-bined aims are compatible.

Enclosed wheelhouse, discrete galley, crew dinette, athwartships din-ing table—all these are big-yacht features. But space around the table is

tight, and sightlines come to a sudden halt at the galley bulkhead. Thecrew dinette, just inside the wheelhouse door, is a great feature but sep-arating crew and guests would work better if guests didn’t have to passthrough the wheelhouse to get to their cabins.

That superstructure tumblehome is also interesting. Clearly designedto sport-ify the exterior, in which it succeeds admirably, the effect it cre-ates inside is a little cramping: The floor is expansive and the windowshuge but the main deck doesn’t feel especially spacious, and that inward

curve is a contributory factor. The effect iseven more pronounced when the forwarddoor is closed. Yet the 720 has the longestmain deck, transom to windscreen, of anyyacht in its class. She just doesn’t look it.

Down below, normal service is resumedwith a conventional accommodation lay-out: a superb amidships owner’s suite witha big hanging locker, and a bathroom occu-pying the whole port side, complete with arisqué, see-through shower. The VIP cabinin the bow is less spacious, but practicaland comfortable, with headroom a gener-ous 6'7"—slightly more than the master.Of the twin-berth guest cabins, grab theone to port if you can, as you’ll share theother one with the underside of the stairs.

Out on deck, the 720 also feels more likea traditional Ferretti. The flying bridge is atennis court, with a vast sunbathing areaforward of the helm, a big table, a bar, androom aft for a PWC and its davit. Theoptional bimini folds neatly into the radararch while the main tender is stowedbelow, on the platform. Side decks are sub-stantial—more than 18 inches wide withtall, handrail-topped bulwarks—while thequality and heft of the deck fittings are wellup to the yard’s exemplary standards.Access to the crew’s quarters is via thecockpit seating. This boat had the optionalsecond crew cabin, bringing the number ofberths down here to three.

While I met the 720 before the summerseason was in full swing, the weather heldfair. Ferretti bade its guests goodbye as weset off for the company base at La Spezia,about 40 miles down the coast, past someof the most interesting scenery in the Med:the five villages of the Cinque Terre, clingingto their steep hillsides over the sea. The 720posted respectable acceleration times froma standing start: 25 knots in just over 30 sec-onds is fine for a motoryacht that tips the


Standard equipment:SteerCommand helmsystem and electronicengine controls witheasy-dock and troll func-tions; 2/66-lb. anchorsw/ 246-ft. chain;2/Lofrans bow windlass-es and 2/stern windlass-es; electro-hydraulicgangway; 13-kW genset;15.5-hp Side-Power bowthruster; 204-liter fridge;72-liter freezer;microwave/convectionoven; granite galley top;

dishwasher; A/C; 26"LCD saloon TV; 880-lb.electro-hydraulic tenderhoist; autopilot; Simrador Garmin radar, VHF,autopilot, and speed/depth gauge

Optional equipment ontest boat: MitsubishiAnti-Rolling Gyro stabi-lizer; 20-kW main gensetand 13-kW secondgenset; 2/110-lb.anchors; second crewcabin; 130-liter/hr.

watermaker; cockpitice maker; washer anddryer; bimini top; ‘dis-tressed’ oak floors;upgraded galley equip-ment; Furuno NavNetsystem; underwaterlights; teak aft platformdecking; 40" saloon TV

Optional power:2/1,524-hp MTU 10V2000 M93 dieselinboards

Base price: on request

The Basics

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Above: The 720’s separate elevated wheelhouse offers pretty good visibility forward.





Top: The flying bridge stretches half the 720’s LOA. Above: The upper helm has a largely theoretical windscreen and sunpads.

scales at around 50 tons in cruising trim.Equally fine was the 720’s handling,

which gets an electronic assist in the formof a ZF SteerCommand system thatimparts feel as well as self-centering, like acar. More importantly, it controls the rud-ders independently and so ensures thecorrect correlation between rudder angleand hull velocity. Straight-line speed hasnever been an issue with Ferrettis, butcrisp, sporty handling has not generallybeen its boats’ strongest suit. With thissystem, its boats can look rivals in the eye.

In pure engineering, though, Ferrettihas always shown the way. The 720’sengine room is big—bigger than theowner’s suite, which is saying some-thing—and there is room inside for allthe noisy ancillaries: gensets, pumps,watermakers, and air-conditioning, withthe huge fuel tanks mounted across theforward bulkhead to provide furtherinsulation between hard metal and softfurnishings. The layout here has beendesigned to make removing the enginesas straightforward as possible.

As the Cinque Terre villages slipped byon the port side, gazing down from theirlofty perches against a cloud-flecked sky,a lightly corrugated sea gave the 720’s hulllittle to think about. At the clifftop churchof San Pietro we turned east into the Gulfof La Spezia. In flatter water the GPSshowed over 34 knots (39 mph) on a two-way average—loaded as we were, nomean speed—and we turned for home.

Ferretti is not a high-volume builder,but it has always built high-volumeboats. The 720 is purely that—a glancearound the engine room tells you so. Butit doesn’t feel big either. Some might saythat squeezing a big-yacht interior into asporty flying-bridge cruiser was alwaysgoing to be a risky strategy. But is it riskyor bold? Time will tell. PMY

■ ALLIED MARINE

(954) 462-5527.

WWW.PMYMAG.COM/FERRETTI.

PMYP-110900-FERRETTI.QXP:PMYP-110900-FERRETTI.QXP 8/23/11 3:48 PM Page 88



Above: Ferretti’s sporty new look for the 720 is designed to attract a stylish younger client.

Draft: 6'1"Weight (dry): 105,822 lbs. Fuel: 1,321 gal.Water: 262 gal.Std. power:2/1,381-hp MTU10V 2000 M92diesel inboards Cabins: 1 master, 1VIP, 2 guest, 1 crew

Price as tested:upon requestConditions:temp: 72°F; humidity: 63%;wind: 1-7 mph;seas: 1-2'; load:990 gal. fuel, 260gal. water, 8 per-sons, 250 lb. gear;Speeds are two-

way averagesmeasured w/GPS.GPH taken viaMTU display.Range 90% ofadvertised fuelcapacity. Decibelsmeasured on Ascale. 65 dB-A isthe level of normalconversation.

Propulsion:2/1,524-hp MTU10V 2000 M93diesel inboards;ZF 2150A gearsw/ 2.714:1 reduc-tion; 40.9x53.75-blade NibralpropsLOA x Beam:71'6" x 18'8"

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PMY’s Numbers ❙ Ferretti 720

rpm mph knots gph mpg nmpg range nm db anglerange

2250

2000

1750

1500

1250

1000

35.8

31.3

26.0

20.1

15.3

13.1

31.1

27.2

22.6

17.5

13.3

11.4

134.7

110.9

86.9

58.4

31.4

16.9

0.27

0.28

0.30

0.34

0.49

0.77

0.23

0.24

0.26

0.30

0.42

0.67

321

333

357

404

583

915

273

285

309

357

499

797

80

75

73

70

65

64

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

0.0

0.0

2450 39.2 34.1 165.6 0.24 0.21 285 250 80 3.5




ferretti 720 in pmy

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