Most 36-metre yachts give you one master cabin and ask the rest of the party to
sort out the hierarchy. Sands gives you two, side by side on the main deck, both
full-beam, both with queen berths and en-suites. For two couples chartering
together, or two families sharing a week, that single decision removes the
conversation nobody enjoys having.
Maiora delivered her in 2018, with exterior lines by the yard and interiors by
Fipa Italiana Yachts. She is a planing GRP hull, and she uses it: twin MTU
diesels push her to 27 knots flat out and hold a comfortable 15-knot cruise,
with 1,100 nautical miles of range at twelve. On the Italian coast, where the
distance between Amalfi and Capri is measured in appetite rather than nautical
miles, that speed is the point. You can make a lunch reservation two islands away
and still be back for a swim before the light goes.
Inside, the mood is bright and deliberately contemporary. The main saloon runs
white and pale grey, a long sectional, a glass coffee table set with a chess
board, and a hull-window line that drops the sea into the room at eye level. It
opens forward into the dining area, where a glass table sits under a mirrored
ceiling recess and a branch-form sculpture holds the centre. The two spaces read
as one continuous volume, which suits the way people actually use a yacht this
size: nobody is ever shut away from the group.
What lifts the interior above the class norm is the art. Sands carries
commissioned contemporary canvases throughout, a sun-and-volcano composition in
the dining area, a phoenix in red and blue in the VIP, a wave study in a guest
cabin, marine studies in the twins. Each cabin takes its identity from its
painting rather than from a fabric scheme, and the effect is that six cabins on
one yacht never blur into each other.
Accommodation totals six cabins for twelve guests: the two main-deck masters,
two further doubles and two twins on the lower deck, all en-suite, several with
rainfall showers behind glass. Six crew run her, which is generous at this length
and shows in the service rhythm.
On deck she is laid out for long, slow days. The foredeck carries a sunpad and a
lounge that catches the evening light. The aft deck holds an alfresco dining
table under shade with a bar and staircase leading up. The flybridge is the
social centre: a hardtop bar with stools, a run of sunpads and clear sightlines
in every direction. A swimming platform drops aft for the Williams 520 jet
tender, two Seabobs, paddleboards, kayaks, wakeboards and water skis.
Her cruising ground plays to those strengths. From a base on the Italian coast
she reaches Capri, Ischia and the Amalfi towns inside a morning, and the Pontine
islands or the Aeolians open on a longer leg. Six crew handle a twelve-guest
charter comfortably at this length, and the tender programme moves quickly
enough that going ashore never becomes the main event of the day. Sardinia and
Corsica both sit within range for a repositioning week, which widens the
itinerary considerably for anyone booking a fortnight.
Sands is a precise piece of positioning. She is fast enough to make the Italian
coast feel small, bright enough inside to feel modern rather than dated, and
uncommonly well arranged for groups who arrive as equals. That is a narrow brief,
and she meets it cleanly.
