SILVER WIND was built to prove a point. When ISA launched her in 2014 as the first of the 140 Sport Hybrid line, the argument was that a 43-metre yacht could run silently on electric drive at anchor and around a harbour, then pick up her skirts and cross a bay at twenty-six knots on waterjets. A decade later that combination is still rare, and it is the single best reason to charter her.
The mechanics are worth understanding because they change the week. Twin MTU diesels drive Rolls-Royce Kamewa waterjets through a Siemens hybrid system; electric zero-speed stabilisers hold her flat without the groan of a hydraulic pump. She cruises at nineteen knots. That is not a number for a spec sheet – it is the difference between committing to one bay for three days and having lunch in Portofino, an afternoon off Santa Margherita and dinner back in Monaco. Waterjets also mean a shallow draft and no exposed running gear, so she goes in close and swimmers can use the transom without an audience of propellers.
Andrea Vallicelli drew the exterior, and it is genuinely striking: a silver hull, a long dark window band and a sculptural arch over the sun deck that doubles as the crane. Nuvolari Lenard took the interior and did something more restrained than their reputation suggests. The main saloon is pale – white sofas, a woven-silk floor, a bar in dark rosewood – and forward of it, behind glass doors, sits a formal dining room that is the opposite: warm timber, a circular ceiling detail, eight chairs in blue velvet. Two moods, ten steps apart.
Accommodation is for eleven in five cabins. The master takes the forward main deck with a skylight overhead, a private study alongside and, unusually, an active noise-cancellation system built into the room. The VIP is finished in gold-leaf panelling with round portholes and its own dressing area. Below, two doubles and a twin share the same standard of joinery, and the bathrooms are full marble with rain showers and steam-glazed screens.
The feature that surprises people is the gymnasium. The beach club aft is fitted out as a proper gym – treadmill, spin bike, a full dumbbell rack, benches – with the garage doors open to the water and the tenders and rescue boards stowed overhead. It is not a token corner with a mat. Above, the sun deck carries a four-seat jacuzzi under the arch, sun pads and a shaded lounge; the aft main deck is laid out with grey sectionals and a low table for the long part of the afternoon.
Eight crew run her. She spends her summers in the Western Mediterranean out of Imperia and Monaco and her winters in the Caribbean, which makes her one of the more flexible boats in her size band, and means the same crew handle both coasts rather than handing her over each season.
For a group that wants pace as well as polish – and does not want to trade one for the other – SILVER WIND remains a distinctive proposition.
