KAR is a Riva 88 Folgore, which is to say a fast, beautiful Italian sport yacht that wears its speed as easily as its style. Folgore means lightning bolt, and the name fits: a cruise around 30 knots and a top end near 36 turn the Amalfi Coast into a series of easy hops, from Capri to Positano to a quiet lunch anchorage and back in time for the evening.
Riva has spent a century making yachts that people want to be seen aboard, and the 88 Folgore is a modern flagship of that idea. The dark hull, the low sport profile and the clean lines are unmistakable, and KAR carries them well, kept current with a 2024 upgrade to her systems and finishes.
She is built around the water and the coast. A run of sun pads fills the foredeck, the aft deck sits close to the sea with a beach club and a swim platform at the stern, and a locker of toys, from a Williams jet tender to Seabobs and an eFoil, keeps active guests busy between towns. Stabilisers steady her at anchor and Starlink keeps everyone connected.
The sport flybridge is the social centre, an open deck with seating and shade for the middle of the day and a front row view of the coast slipping past. It is the kind of space that makes a fast yacht feel like a proper holiday rather than just a quick passage.
Inside, the main salon is bright and sporty, low seating and wide glass that keep the coast in view from the sofa. It is a single, well judged living space rather than a warren of rooms, in keeping with a yacht whose life is really lived outside, on deck and in the water.
Four cabins sleep eight guests below. The master runs full beam with a king bed and en suite, a pair of VIP cabins sit alongside with queen beds and en suites, and a twin cabin completes the layout. Each has its own bathroom, several finished in stone and glass, so a group of couples or a family travels without compromise.
A crew of four run her with the easy informality a yacht this size invites, close enough to look after the details without ever crowding eight guests. Service is quick and personal, matched to a yacht that is as much about spontaneity as schedule.
She charters the West Mediterranean, at home along the Amalfi Coast and around Capri, Ischia and the islands of the Bay of Naples, with the wider Italian and French coast within an easy run given her turn of speed. She is a yacht that rewards spontaneity. With her pace and shallow reach into small harbours, a plan can change over breakfast and still work: a different island for lunch, a livelier town for the evening, a quiet cove when the day calls for it. Few charter yachts make that kind of freedom feel so effortless.
For a group after Italian style, real pace and a front seat on one of the prettiest coasts in the world, KAR is a compelling and glamorous way to spend a week.
