NAUTICA MAGAZINE
NAVIGATION TEST

Article selected from thousand boat trials performed by Nautica in nearly 50 years

Please remember that the boat model described in this article could be no more available and its price, if indicated, could be outdated as it refers to the Nautica Magazine paper issue

For possible updated information on the model tested in this article and on all other models builded by this shipyard please search our YACHTING CATALOGUE

Search also the
online archives USED BOATS BOATS FOR SALE BOAT RENTAL YACHT CHARTER YACHTING MOVIES

Text and photographs by Antonio Bignami

Nautica Magazine
n. 401, September 1995

CAMUFFO MOTORYACHT C60 FB

Testing any yacht designed and built by Camuffo means spending a whole day with some of the most experienced people in the yachting community. When we came back from sea, before the inescapable sundowner, Marco Camuffo remarked: "we never go out looking at boats as they really are; we are always fiddling with cameras and lenses".

And then he took me to watch the immense creature beautifully gliding past the docks and privileged me with two of his ideas on what "boat" means (it is remarkable that the last descendant of a family that build boats since 1438 still has the love and the genial inspirations to build such a perfect craft as this C60).

"Most yacht-builders always consider weight simply as a mean to level the boat. On the contrary, weights are essential. They make the boat plane, determine the boat's centre of gravity, which generates balance in high swell: this is why weights must be placed where the hull is lifting."

Camuffo, what do you mean by a "lifting hull"?

"A lifting hull is where it carries the weight, a hull with variable ribs and certainly not a single-angle Hunt-type hull. Ribs are the heart of the hull, they are individually built, each and everyone different form the other".

You told me that from midships aft there are no weights

"One cannot distribute weights haphazardly as with a slope at the sides of the hull in the area of the centre of gravity larger than 25°, one can obtain phenomenal results on planing speed as long as there are no weights abaft"

You spoke of weights and superstructures as a craft's enemies:

"They are not only my crafts' enemies, but everyonès.. Today's trend is to build house-boats, yachts that navigate in harbours; but when they go to sea, especially in the Adriatic where the short swell demands a low centre of gravity, there comes the problem. I don't want to impose myself, but having designed 45 types of hulls, each different from the other, and considering my father first conceived the variable geometry hull in 1910, I believe I know my business, and results are here to prove it. Competitors world-wide, today, for a weight of 30.000 kg. use engines burning 400 to 600 litres per hour. Any boat of that size from my yard would burn 160-170 litres per hour, and this is due to the shape of the hull and the weights being positioned at the right place, depending on the construction of the yacht itself".

What if a customer wants something which does not conform to your ideas?

"You see, these are hard times for the yachting world: we try to better understand one another with a bottle of good, dry white wine from Veneto Then he goes his way, and I go mine: but my way to the sea is six centuries old".

This is quite an unusual test for a yacht, but when one speaks of a craft designed by Camuffo it is hard to recite data and materials: yachts manufactured by Camuffo (and this C60 is no exception) are as unique as their hulls are: navigating on courses and performance, as far as speed and consumption are concerned, that baffle any technical speculation. They are incredible boats and, as for this, a yacht conceived by Camuffo must be felt and experienced as a whole: in the comfortable and healthy environment created by the most attractive timbers, carved and refined by the most talented master craftsmen. Reader can go on looking at the specifications, especially the ones regarding the performance and consumption: these are just some of the several keys one has to fully understand a yacht conceived by Camuffo.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

BUILDING SPECIFICATION

INTERIOR

ACCESSORIES

OUR IMPRESSIONS

PERFORMANCE
Time to plane from standstill: 5-6 seconds, with engine at 1.300 rpm
Minimum planing rpm and speed: 1300 rpm, 22 knots
Maximum speed: 46 knots at 1640 HP and 2300 rpm

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

COMFORT AND FUNCTIONALITY EVALUATION