As You Wish

As You Wish chartered for years as Hospitality. She is a Westport 164, built in the United States in fibreglass to ABS class and delivered in 2011, with an interior originally by Donald Starkey. In July 2024 she was sold, kept on the charter market, renamed, and taken through a refit that ran into 2026, with Patrick Knowles now credited alongside Starkey for the interior. The rooms remain warm and traditional, panelled in mahogany and sapele, with a fireplace in the skylounge.

Her layout is not the usual one. The principal suite has been lifted to the bridge deck, two levels above the rest of the accommodation, and opens onto its own balcony, which suits a couple who want some distance from children or friends. Everyone else sleeps lower down: a VIP and a twin share the main deck, the three doubles are one level further down, and the gym can be turned into an extra cabin if needed. The library doubles as a massage room, and the sun deck is the social hub, with a Jacuzzi and sunpad forward and a lounge, bar and grill in the middle.

She is also quicker than most yachts her size. The semi-displacement hull reaches about 24 knots, so long legs between islands take less of the day, and at 10 knots she can cover around 4,000 nautical miles. The main tender is a 42-foot Freeman with four outboards, closer to a sport-fishing boat than a shuttle, which makes offshore fishing trips or a run to a distant reef easy. Scuba gear with dive computers is carried on board.

Her year is split between the Caribbean and Bahamas in winter and the Pacific side of Central America, around Costa Rica, in summer, so a summer week can be spent on a coast few travellers associate with yacht charter. She fits a family or a group of friends who like to fish, dive and move, and an owner's party that wants its own floor. She is not the yacht for a Mediterranean summer, and guests who prefer a minimalist modern interior may find her style too classic.