Sands

On most yachts of this length the layout is a hierarchy: one owner’s suite, then a row of smaller cabins below. SANDS was planned differently. The main deck holds two master suites with the same layout, so neither couple ends up with the lesser room. For two families splitting a week, or two friends each travelling with a partner and children, that symmetry settles the most awkward conversation of the trip before anyone steps aboard.

She comes from Maiora, the Viareggio yard, which also drew her exterior; Fipa Italiana Yachts took care of the interiors. Her hull is made to plane, and that shapes the week. Cruising at around 15 knots, with a top speed close to 27, she turns a passage that would fill a slow yacht’s morning into an hour or so, leaving more of the day for swimming and lunch ashore.

Speed has a cost in range: her broker gives about 1,100 nautical miles at 12 knots. That is plenty for a week inside one region and too little for a long delivery, so plan the charter around a single stretch of coast rather than a crossing.

Zero-speed stabilisers damp the roll at anchor, which counts on nights spent in an open bay instead of a marina. The tender sits in a garage across the full width of the stern and comes out quickly for runs to the beach. The sun deck has its own bar, and that is where the group tends to gather in the evening.

Her listed base is Marina di Stabia, south of Naples. She is not the right yacht for one family that wants a single grand suite and treats the rest of the boat as an afterthought, nor for guests who prefer the slow, settled feel of a displacement yacht. Choose her when two households of equal standing want to share a week and cover a fair amount of coastline.