Clase Azul opens with a question the market rarely answers well: can a sailing yacht carry the volume, quiet and finish of a motor yacht without losing the point of sailing? Tramontana Yachts, working from Croatia’s Adriatic coast, answered it in 2022 with a 48-metre custom ketch that reads as a modern superyacht first and a sailing yacht second, then puts twelve guests aboard with room to spare.
Her proportions explain the feel. A displacement hull carrying an 8.5-metre beam gives her deck areas a performance rig would never permit, and the layout uses every metre. The sundeck runs the length of the superstructure: a jacuzzi sized for eight at one end, a fire pit ringed by low armchairs amidships, a marble dining table and a wet bar with stools forward, and a projector for films after dark. Awnings extend across the whole run, so the space works at noon in July as readily as at dusk. Forward of the mainmast the deck opens again into a broad sunpad and a second marble table. It is the quietest seat aboard, and the one with the best view of the water going past.
Inside, the mood shifts. Natasa Orlovic of NO.mad design drew an interior of pale stone, dark walnut and deep blue, lit through long horizontal windows set low enough to see the sea from a sofa. The main salon gathers around a sectional and a wall-mounted screen. Step forward and a marble bar with counter seating divides the lounge from the formal dining room, where a sculptural round window frames the table. The arrangement lets a group of twelve separate without anyone feeling sent away.
Accommodation is what sets her apart at this size. Six cabins sleep twelve, and two of them are full-beam: a master with a freestanding tub set against a marble wall, and a VIP entered through its own separate companionway, a detail that matters on a charter shared between two families or two couples travelling together. The remaining four cabins work flexibly as doubles and twins, each en suite, each finished in the same joinery and given the same natural light.
Under sail she is deliberately unhurried. She cruises at nine knots, tops out at eleven and carries a 3,000-nautical-mile range, built for weeks where the distance between anchorages is measured in hours rather than passages. A 2024 refit kept her current. A crew of ten runs her with the service rhythm of a motor yacht, which is a rare thing to find on a sailing hull.
She works the East Mediterranean and the Adriatic from Split, the right base for the island chains she was designed around: Hvar, Vis, Korcula and the quiet bays between them. Mornings begin at anchor with the tender already in the water. Afternoons run long on a deck built for lingering. For charter guests who want canvas overhead, a deck they can genuinely live on, and none of the compromises usually attached to sailing, Clase Azul is a precise answer.
The toy inventory is built for the Adriatic rather than for a spec sheet. An 8-metre Brig Eagle tender does the ferrying, two Sea-Doo jet skis and a pair of Seabobs cover the open water, and an e-foil, paddleboards, a water joust and inflatable dock stations turn a lunchtime anchorage into an afternoon. Snorkelling kit is carried in both adult and children’s sizes, which tells you who she is set up for. An Axopar 37 chase boat can be added on request.
