Speed used to be the point. On a 1990s Cantieri di Pisa, it still is.
MOBIUS is an Akhir 125 – 38 metres of fast Italian planing hull delivered in
1996 and comprehensively refitted in 2021 – and she does something most modern
charter yachts of her size simply cannot. She cruises at 18 knots and tops 27.
In the Cyclades, where the distance between two anchorages is often the whole
question of whether a day works, that is not a specification. It is an extra
island.
Her profile gives it away: a long, low, wedge-shaped superstructure over a
narrow entry, the shape Cantieri di Pisa built its reputation on before the
category moved toward volume. Her name is lettered on the superstructure beside
the model designation, and she still looks quick standing still.
Inside, the 2021 refit did the sensible thing and left the architecture alone.
The main deck is one long open saloon in pale sycamore and cherry, curved
ceiling coves running its length, lounge seating aft and the dining table set
forward against a band of low windows. Blue-and-white porcelain sits in lit
niches either side of the screen. It is warm, symmetrical and distinctly of its
period, and it has been refreshed rather than modernised – the right call.
Below, a panelled lobby with a curved staircase distributes to the cabins, and
this is where the refit shows its personality. Each guest cabin carries its own
fibre-optic colour signature: a rose wash in the full-beam master, green in the
VIP, blue along the twin’s berth bases. It sounds like a gimmick and it isn’t
quite – it gives five cabins five identities, and guests remember which one was
theirs.
The master runs full beam with a mirrored headboard wall and flanking consoles.
The VIP takes a king with a desk and porthole light. Two doubles and a twin
complete accommodation for twelve, each with its own en suite in marble.
On deck she is set up for a Greek summer. The sun deck carries a spa with
contoured seats and headrests, sun pads and a shaded lounge; the foredeck is a
second sun pad with the anchor gear kept clean around it; the aft deck dines
under cover. There is also a deck gym – treadmill, bike, weights – which on a
charter that involves a lot of sitting is more useful than it sounds.
Six crew run her from an Athens base, which puts the Saronic within a first
afternoon and the Cyclades comfortably inside a week. She carries a full toy
inventory and a tender on the swim platform.
It is worth being clear about what she is and is not. She is a planing hull from
1996, which means she is at her best on short, fast passages between islands
rather than long ocean legs, and she rewards an itinerary built around movement.
The Cyclades, the Saronic and the Dodecanese all sit comfortably within that.
What she gives back for it is time: arriving at the next anchorage while there
is still afternoon left to use it.
Her twelve-guest capacity across five cabins also makes her efficient for larger
groups. Two families, or a group travelling together, will find the per-person
economics unusually favourable for a 38-metre with this level of finish and a
crew of six – and the fibre-optic cabin signatures quietly solve the problem of
who is sleeping where.
She is a fast, characterful, properly maintained Italian classic at a price that
newer and slower yachts of her length do not approach. From EUR 65,000 per week.
