Steeped in what?? In the Florida swamps we just try to say "It's not what you say, it's how you say it"..
Oil, filters, fluids, coolant of choice, drive belts, impellers, water pumps, fuses, through hull bungs, tools, rescue tape, hose clamps, wire/crimpers and connectors, Off shore first aid, ear plugs, headlight. I personally would not be concerned about the first two years of life in Mexico, Azimut Mexico is there for that. If you question that, call them and have a chat don’t load your boat down like you are going to the ends of the earth. Perhaps most importantly as others have written, shake down cruise. I would prefer an overnighter-on the hook too.
Just to give one example the Gianneschi pumps are the best in the business, since decades. They hardly ever go wrong, they do a bit after twenty or thirty years. Tecma Vaccuflush systems was also the best toilet systems in the game before being sold to a global company, and then the founders founded Planus which is now better then Tecma. We could go on and on re Italian systems....
What kind of pumps are the gianneshi pumps? Fresh water? bilge? I m tired of the rule pumps now failing after just a few years never mind I found the catalog on Depco website
So far the best heads I ve used are the Headhunters. Better than vacuflush, electric etc for fresh water pumps the headhunter mach5 is hard to bear although sensitive to air leaks. And for AC, March is hard to beat. But I ll check out the Gianneshis.
There are two separate arguments in play. One seems to be that Italian is bad, but the other is that Italian parts are challenging to find and you need a good reserve stock. Let's assume for a moment Gianneschi pumps are the best, which really wouldn't be difficult to be. I know they have set ups in Clearwater and Fort Lauderdale and not sure how well stocked. I know right now that getting pumps from anyone is difficult, everyone out of everything. So, I'd advise having spare pumps and that was the topic before being diverted. Have spares. And if you're not in Fort Lauderdale, don't expect to find Italian parts heavily stocked. And I'm repeating this as a proud owner of three Italian boats. Well, as of today, only two, but the third one still in the family.
I don't recall ever complaining about the hardware in an AziMut. Just how it was installed . There was a question on YF about some breakers. Not easy to find but were found in the states and proved to actually be pretty good also.