Lady Francy

A power catamaran of fourteen metres seventy-nine with a beam of seven metres thirty. Half as wide as she is long: that proportion is the whole reason fourteen guests can be aboard at once without the boat feeling like a shuttle, and it is what a monohull of the same length cannot offer.

She was delivered in 2024, so everything aboard is new. On a boat that runs the Bay of Naples through the summer that is not a small point: the systems, the upholstery, the tender and the platform have one or two seasons on them rather than ten.

The flybridge runs to twenty-five square metres of teak with a bar and a sun lounge on it. That is a second deck the size of a small terrace, and on a day charter it is where most of the day actually happens, with the shade below left free for lunch and for anyone who has had enough sun.

Three cabins, three bathrooms. A master suite, a VIP and a guest cabin, one bathroom each, which makes her a boat for a day out with fourteen and for a night or two aboard with rather fewer. Both are honest uses of her, and they are quite different weeks.

Twin Volvo engines drive her, and on a power catamaran that means two hulls, two shafts and an easy hand at slow speed. Island-hopping between Capri, Procida and Ischia stops being a manoeuvre and becomes the simple part of the day.

The beach platform brings the sea to deck level, with a swim area and a tender off the back. It is the part of the boat that gets used most: children in and out all afternoon, and grandparents who would not have gone in from a ladder.

There are two professional crew aboard. On a day out with fourteen guests that is what separates a charter from a hire: somebody runs the boat, somebody runs the day, and nobody in the party is asked to do either.

She is based in the Bay of Naples and picks up at Marina di Stabia, Capri, Positano or Amalfi. Boarding at the place you are staying rather than driving to a port is a quiet advantage, and on this coast in August it is a considerable one.