IDYLLE belongs to a generation of Benetti that the market has quietly stopped building. Delivered in 1996 at 36.8 metres, she has the proportions of a much larger yacht: three full decks, a long low sheer, a deep bulwark and real walkaround side decks. Nothing about her is squeezed. A refit programme running to 2024 has kept the systems and finishes current while leaving the architecture alone, which is exactly the right instinct.
Her defining feature is where the owner sleeps. On a 36-metre yacht the master almost always sits below; on IDYLLE it is on the main deck, forward of the salon, with a king berth against a padded headboard, hull windows on both sides and a marble ensuite built around a whirlpool tub. Guests wake up at sea level with a view, not in a cabin below the waterline.
Four further cabins take the guest count to ten. Two doubles carry the same warm birdseye maple joinery, brass reading lights and cream dressing, and a twin cabin sets two single berths either side of a shared nightstand. Every cabin has its own marble ensuite. The joinery throughout is honey-toned and glossy, a period signature that has aged into something closer to elegance than nostalgia.
The main salon runs the beam of the yacht with a long sofa down one side, a low glass table and framed windows that sit low enough to see out of from a seat. Forward of it, the dining table seats ten under a mirrored bulkhead. Up a deck, a second sitting room in coral velvet opens through sliding glass to the shaded deck aft: the room people actually end up in, smaller and softer than the salon below.
Her top deck is the reason she works in the Aegean. A jacuzzi sits aft with sunpads and a teak table beside it, and the whole deck is open to the horizon on three sides. Forward on the same deck, a settee and a low table sit between the radar domes, out of the wind and out of the way. The sunset photography from up here makes the case better than any description can.
The toy list is properly stocked for a yacht her size: a Zodiac Medline tender, a Sea-Doo RXT jet ski, two Seabob F5s, two paddleboards, a three-person sofa toy, two towables, three sets of water skis, a wakeboard, an inflatable swim platform that extends the bathing area, and snorkelling and fishing kit. Loungers, chairs and an umbrella go ashore for beach days.
Seven crew look after ten guests. She cruises at 11 knots with a maximum of 13, and her fuel consumption is modest enough that long, slow island-hopping itineraries do not carry a surcharge. She works the eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic in both seasons, which in practice means Greece: the Saronic and Argo-Saronic islands, the Cyclades, and across to Montenegro and the Croatian coast.
For a family or a group of friends who want space and a proper crew rather than the newest hull in the bay, she is a considered choice.
