Satori

SATORI belongs to Claus and Jeanette Thottrup, who own Borgo Santo Pietro, a country house hotel near Siena with its own farm and restaurants. They drew up her interior themselves, and the idea behind her is simple: take the way the hotel looks after its guests and put it on a boat. The name is a Japanese term for a sudden moment of enlightenment.

The yacht was built in Bodrum by Big Blue Yachting and delivered in 2017, using traditional timber methods. Mahogany, teak and walnut, and large windows, give her the look of a schooner from the 1920s or 1930s; below decks, a pair of 600 hp diesels lets the captain keep to the plan on a windless day. She was refitted in 2022.

Life on board centres on food. The 35 m² saloon opens onto a galley and bar you can see into, so lunch is something you watch being prepared rather than something that appears. The cellar holds around 250 bottles. Aft, a second bar and a coffee lounge sit beside a covered daybed for long afternoons.

The spa side takes its cue from the hotel as well. If someone in the group wants a massage or a workout, one of the doubles can be given over to it, and it has a steam bath of its own; the products used come from Seed to Skin, the skincare range the couple make at the estate. After dinner the crew set up a screen on the foredeck, with blankets and cushions, for a film under the stars.

Guests who like to sail can lend a hand when the canvas goes up, and children can learn on the Optimist dinghy at anchor.

She suits couples and small groups of friends who travel for the table, the quiet and a well-run routine, and who see the yacht as a hotel with a changing view. She is not for a crowd that wants a party boat, nor for racing sailors looking for performance: she is a comfortable classic first and a sailing machine second.