Morning Star

Thirty-six metres five, delivered by Sanlorenzo in 2018 and carrying ten guests. It is the size at which an Italian yard is at its most convincing: large enough for a full crew and a proper deck plan, small enough that the proportions stay right rather than being stretched.

Five cabins for those ten, two to a room, dividing evenly. Five couples fit exactly as the layout was drawn, and so does a family travelling in pairs. Nothing folds down and nobody is asked to accept the room that exists to make the number ten.

Seven crew for ten guests. That is a generous complement at thirty-six metres, and it is the number that reveals what a week will actually feel like: enough hands that the meals, the tenders, the cabins and the deck are handled at once rather than in turn.

The aft saloon opens fully. That is the detail that changes how the yacht is used: with the doors back, the saloon and the aft deck become one room, and the boundary most yachts defend between inside and out simply is not there for the length of the charter.

Forward there is a lounge, which is a different place at a different hour. It faces the way the yacht is pointing, it is out of the wind that funnels aft at anchor, and it is occupied at times of day when the aft deck is empty.

She is quiet at cruising speed. On a yacht of this length that is the difference between a passage you can sit through in conversation and one where everybody waits for the anchor to go down before saying anything properly.

Delivered in 2018, she has enough seasons behind her for the systems to be proven and few enough that the interior is current. It is the useful age on a working charter yacht: past the first summers, well short of tired.

She is available across the Mediterranean rather than tied to one coast, which suits a yacht of this size: the western basin and the Aegean are both comfortably within her range, and the choice can be left late. Take her if you are ten and you want a recent, well-proportioned Italian yacht with a strong crew ratio and no interest at all in being the largest boat in the anchorage.