Most 34-metre yachts make you choose. Cruise economically and arrive late, or burn fuel and arrive on time. ROBUSTO does not ask the question: her twin MTUs settle happily at 13 knots for a long coastal day and will push to 26 when a schedule tightens or an anchorage needs leaving. On the Riviera, where a lunch in Saint-Tropez and a dinner in Portofino are theoretically the same day, that flexibility is the whole point.
Custom Line launched her in 2009, refitted her in 2014 and she has been kept continuously since. The hull is GRP, the profile is pure Ferretti Group of the period, and the interior is Zuccon-styled in warm cherry with cream leather panels. It is a look that has aged rather better than the white-lacquer minimalism of the same years, and on a boat that sleeps ten it makes the lower deck feel like a house rather than a corridor.
Her main deck is a single continuous room and it is generous. Grey leather sofas face each other across the beam, a low table sits between them, and the dining table stands forward in the same volume under the same cherry deckhead. Window bands run the full length on both sides at seated eye level, so the coast is present from every seat. There is no bulkhead and no attempt at one; the space works because it is wide, not because it is divided.
Accommodation is where she earns her rate. The full-beam master sits on the main deck with a brown leather day bed under the sloping window, a dressing counter and a marble ensuite with a walk-in shower. Below, two large VIP doubles carry California-king beds, three portholes each and their own leather settees. Two twins complete the layout, each with a Pullman berth folded into the joinery – which is why the owner will consider twelve guests with prior approval, though ten is how she is normally chartered. Every cabin is ensuite and every ensuite is finished in the same marble and cherry.
The flybridge is her best deck. A circular jacuzzi with visible jets sits aft of the helm, ringed by cushioned seating and backed by a bar and a dining table for six or seven under a bimini. Sunbathing space runs to the after rail. It is a deck that works from breakfast through to a late drink, and the view from it on the stretch between Cap Ferrat and Menton is difficult to improve on.
At the stern, a large swim platform gives easy access to the water and a full selection of water toys – inflatables, paddleboards, towables and a tender. Zero-speed stabilisers hold her steady at anchor and under way. Her crew of six work her out of Ventimiglia, which puts the Italian Riviera, the Cote d’Azur and the run down to Corsica all within comfortable reach.
Her base is worth a line of its own. Ventimiglia sits on the border, a few minutes from Menton and inside an hour of both Monaco and San Remo, which means a charter can start on either side of the frontier without a delivery day eating into the week. From there the Ligurian coast runs east towards Portofino and the Cote d’Azur runs west towards Saint-Tropez, and Corsica is an overnight passage away.
ROBUSTO is a straightforward proposition, honestly priced. A well-maintained Custom Line with five real cabins, a proper flybridge and the speed to use a week properly.
