Mes Amis

Fitzroy built a small number of very serious sailing yachts in New Zealand, and then the yard closed. That fact does more to explain Mes Amis than any measurement: yachts from a yard that no longer exists are not replaceable, and those still sailing tend to be the ones built properly in the first place.

She is forty-four metres, aluminium, with a single mast. The sloop rig is worth pausing on. At this length most sailing yachts are ketches or schooners, splitting the sail area between two masts to keep each sail small enough to handle. A single mast means one enormous mainsail and the systems to control it — more demanding to engineer, and considerably better to sail, because the rig is cleaner and the boat points higher.

The decks are flush teak. There is no coachroof interrupting the run from bow to stern, which is partly why a forty-four-metre yacht can feel like a much smaller one: you see the whole boat at once, and the deck reads as a single surface rather than a set of levels.

Ten guests across five cabins, which is two per cabin with nothing left over. Five couples, or a family travelling in pairs. It is a deliberately unambitious number for the length, and the space that would have gone into a sixth cabin has gone somewhere else.

Seven crew for ten guests is a high ratio, and on a sloop of this size it is not decorative. A single mainsail of that area needs people to handle it, and the same hands then run the interior. The complement is sized for sailing her properly, not for parking her.

Aluminium is the other half of the story. It is lighter than steel and stiffer than composite at this size, it does not rot, and it is what serious offshore yachts were built from when the priority was performance rather than volume. It also means she is repairable anywhere with a welder.

She is available across the Mediterranean, which is the right arrangement for a boat like this — the week is built around wind and passages rather than around a marina.

Her own listing puts it plainly: a yacht for people who want to sail, not to be moved. It is a real distinction, and it excludes more charterers than it sounds.