Akiko

Akiko began life as VvS1, a yacht a New Zealand couple commissioned from Alloy Yachts to roam the South Pacific, with Gregory Marshall responsible for her lines. She left the yard in 2007, and a year later the jury of the World Superyacht Awards handed her five trophies. The faceted superstructure still gives her away: she looks like a working expedition boat that someone took the trouble to finish beautifully.

In 2023 she went through a refit that went well beyond fresh paint. The hull was extended, and the machinery and interior were redone. Today she is based in the western Mediterranean all year, so a boat drawn to reach remote atolls now spends her weeks between Corsica, the Italian coast and Malta.

What that heritage brings to a Mediterranean charter is a full-displacement aluminium hull with a range above 3,000 nautical miles: calm, steady and in no hurry. Inside, the palette runs to bamboo, dark wenge and pale whitewashed oak, which keeps the mood light and unfussy. Outside, the cockpit is set up for anglers, with live bait wells and a bait station, and the gym sits in the open air rather than in a windowless room below.

She works for an active group of friends or a family who want to fish in the morning, dive or paddle in the afternoon and anchor somewhere small at night. A crew of six keeps service personal rather than ceremonial, and at 34 metres she can tuck into coves that bigger yachts sail past.

Who should look elsewhere? Anyone who measures a week by the speed between ports or by the size of the beach club. Akiko moves at an unhurried pace, and her decks are those of a compact explorer, not of a 50-metre motor yacht. If the point is to be seen in a fashionable harbour, there are flashier choices. If the point is to catch dinner and eat it at anchor, this is a good one.