NYLEC is a twenty-three metre Cantieri Rodriquez, an Italian motor yacht built on the yard’s signature wide-body hull, a design that pushes the accommodation and the living spaces out to the full beam to give her the volume of a noticeably larger yacht. Launched in 2003 and comprehensively transformed in a 2023 refit, she is fresh, well equipped and beautifully kept, a comfortable and characterful base for a week among the Aeolian islands, Sicily and the wider Tyrrhenian coast where she spends her summers.
She sleeps eight guests across four cabins, a master, a further double and two more cabins, each with its own bathroom. The wide-body layout is felt straight away below, where the cabins carry real width and light, finished in warm cherry timber with crisp navy and white soft furnishings that give them a fresh, nautical calm. Each is arranged for a proper stay, with good storage, comfortable beds and the kind of quiet, private feel that makes a longer charter easy.
The main deck makes the most of that generous beam. The salon runs open plan, a large L-shaped lounge on one side and a handsome timber dining table on the other, with a striking bar set into the joinery that becomes the natural gathering point before dinner. Wide windows wrap the space and keep it bright, and it stays cool and calm as a retreat on hot afternoons while the aft deck takes over the moment the sun is out.
Outside, the aft deck works as a shaded open-air saloon with banquette seating and low tables a pace from the salon and the sea, the easy place for long Mediterranean lunches and slow evenings. Forward and above, sun pads give somewhere to stretch out in the sun, and at sea level a swim platform opens the yacht to the water and makes launching the toys effortless. She is arranged around that comfortable rhythm of shade, sun and swimming that a summer in the islands settles into.
Under way she is a capable, confident cruiser. The wide-body planing hull is stable and comfortable at a relaxed cruising pace, with the legs to move on when the group wants a change of anchorage rather than sitting in one bay all week. That combination suits the Aeolian islands perfectly, where Stromboli, Panarea, Lipari and the Sicilian coast sit within easy reach and every day can bring a different volcano, village or swimming spot.
Service aboard is personal and warm. A crew of three, praised again and again by returning guests for the cooking and the attention, look after the eight aboard, and the galley is set up for the generous, unhurried food an Italian charter is all about. The seabob, paddleboards, towable toys and snorkelling gear come out through the day, and the tender keeps the coastline and the harbour towns within reach for a run ashore after sunset.
NYLEC suits families and small groups who want a genuine, characterful Italian motor yacht with more space than her length suggests: four ensuite cabins, a salon with a bar, a shaded aft deck and a crew who make the week their own. She is roomy, well kept and quietly stylish, a dependable base for a slow, sun-filled cruise through the Aeolian islands and Sicily.