Allures

Allures was a private commission before she was a charter boat, and it shows. Compositeworks built her in France in 2006 with both hulls in carbon, which puts her among the very few catamarans of this length made that way, and above them stands a 36-metre rotating carbon wing mast from Lorima. A year after launch she was on the shortlist at the World Superyacht Awards, and a refit in 2022 brought her up to date.

Nobody hired a studio for the interior. The owner's wife chose the materials herself: mahogany, fig wood and leather, so the saloon feels warmer and more domestic than the technical hull would suggest.

Her real trick is depth, or the lack of it. The daggerboards retract completely, and with them up she can anchor in bays where a monohull of the same size would have to wait outside. Between the bows, trampoline nets let guests lie stretched out just above the water, while the flybridge and the covered aft deck give a group of eight two separate places to be.

The cabins adapt to the people. The main stateroom is up on deck, with a bathroom and a separate toilet; two of the others switch between a double bed and two singles, so friends sharing are as easy to place as couples, and every cabin has a view of the sea.

Choose her if you want to sail for real: a breeze on the beam, fifteen knots on the log, and a crew of sailors who enjoy showing how it works. Older children who like small boats get a Tiwal inflatable dinghy to play with. Look elsewhere if your idea of a week afloat is a jacuzzi, a gym and a row of jet skis, if the group is bigger than eight, or if you must be in a given port at a given hour whatever the wind decides.