De Lisle III

This Gulf Craft spends every season in Pacific waters, and almost every choice in her design makes sense once you know that. The yard built her in GRP on a semi-displacement hull, with an exterior by Mulder Design and an interior by the Australian designer Sam Sorgiovanni. Drawing barely more than two metres, she can creep in close to reefs and sand cays on the Great Barrier Reef where deeper yachts must stay further out, and a range of about 3,000 nautical miles lets her reach Fiji or the remote islands of French Polynesia between charters.

The plan works well for families. The owner's suite is full-beam and sits up on the main deck, with a study corner, a long sofa and a bathroom in marble with a tub as well as a shower. With the screening room made up as a bedroom, a family that is one bed short still fits. Outside, meals happen on the Portuguese bridge or on one of the two aft decks, and the sun-deck jacuzzi has the widest view on board.

The water programme is broad: dinghy sailing, surfing, wakeboarding, kayaks and fishing, plus a dive compressor and a 10.5-metre Silvercraft cuddy-cabin tender for longer runs to the outer reefs. One thing worth knowing early: the crew love diving but hold no qualification to lead guests underwater, so diving weeks come with a hired instructor. And because every crew bunk is taken, that instructor, or any local guide, needs a bed somewhere else: on land, in one of the guest rooms or aboard a second boat that follows.

She suits a family with children, or easy-going friends, who would sooner spend the week on coral, empty beaches and a sunset barbecue on a deserted island than in town. Keen divers can be very happy here if the instructor and the extra bed are planned from the first call. Look elsewhere if your heart is set on the Mediterranean, or if you are a group that travels with its own staff and needs them sleeping aboard.