ARTEMISEA Review: Award-Winning Chef, Flawless Tablescapes, 45 Metres of Detail

The chef: two MEDYS podiums and a menu that moves between Greek and Japanese

Manolis Perros has cooked for twenty years in Athens catering houses, restaurants, hotels and yachts, with a diploma from Le Monde in Athens. He cooks Greek, Mediterranean, Italian and Japanese, with seafood at the centre, and he buys organic and local where he can. He placed second in the Mediterranean Yacht Show chefs’ competition in 2022 and first in 2023. The tasting at the show was the proof.

What I saw at the show was the table before the food: gold-rimmed plates, cut glass, white linen to the floor, and a centrepiece of black calla lilies on a wire frame running the length of the table. That is the chief stewardess, Pepi Pontikakou, twenty years in yachting and trained at the Crew Academy in France in service, wine and mixology. She sets the table, he cooks for it, and that pairing is why our clients talk about her dinners long after the week.

Evenings on ARTEMISEA: sunset in the jacuzzi, then dancing around the table

Her evenings run the same way every night, and this is what to expect. Sunset is in the flybridge jacuzzi, which faces forward with the bar stools around it, so the cocktail hour happens up there with the whole bay in front of you. Dinner follows at the table below, and on the right night it ends with the crew leading Greek dancing around it. It is the kind of charter that feels like Greece rather than just a yacht in Greek waters, and it is why she sits near the top of our Greek lists.

The interior: minimalist, light, and finished to a standard a 2002 launch rarely gets

Inside she is pale oak, white upholstery and a deep blue carpet, with the light coming in from both sides of the saloon. It is one of the most elegant interiors I have seen at this size: minimalist without being cold, and the oak, the linen and the marble are good quality and match from room to room. The detail is in the objects: a bronze octopus on a block of blue resin on the coffee table, two long oak tables instead of one, the ARTEMISEA monogram on the cushions. The sky lounge above repeats the palette in navy, with a bar and stools and a television.

For all her volume she feels homely rather than grand, and that is the quality guests mention most after the food.

The master cabin: a full-beam suite with a study, a walk-in wardrobe and a steam bath

The master is on the main deck, full-beam, with a king-size bed at 200 by 190 cm and armchairs under the windows. It has three rooms a 45-metre yacht does not always give you: a proper study with a desk and seating, a walk-in wardrobe lined in oak, and a marble bathroom with twin basins and a steam bath. The owner’s suite is where the 2024 refit shows most, and here it reads as new.

Guest cabins: two VIP doubles and two twins that suit a family

Below are two VIP doubles with queen beds at 200 by 170 cm, each with a vanity and a shower room, and two twins with beds at 205 by 80 cm. When I walked her one of the twins was made up with children’s bedding and soft toys, so the crew are used to children aboard. Children are welcome aboard, and with two twins and two doubles she suits two families or a group of three couples with children better than most yachts at this rate.

On deck: the toys and the swim platform

Her toy list is long for a yacht of her age: two tenders, two Waverunners, two Seabobs, an e-foil, an electric surfboard, a sea scooter, paddleboards, a kayak, towables and water skis, laid out on the swim platform when I arrived. Days at anchor run from the swim platform, and two of her deckhands are there for the toys.

Who ARTEMISEA is for, and who should not book her

She is for a group of up to ten who will spend the week at the table and in the water: two families, three couples, or an owner’s party that wants the main-deck suite and lets the rest of the group take the lower deck. She is for people who care about the food as much as the islands.

Four honest limits. First, she was launched in 2002. The 2024 refit means you will not feel it in the suite or the saloon, but a guest who wants the newest hull in the band should look at the newer boats on our list. Second, 13 knots cruising; she does the Saronic Gulf or one stretch of the Cyclades at an easy pace, not both in a week. Third, the twins are narrow at 80 cm a bed, fine for children and teenagers, less so for two adults who do not know each other well. Fourth, the price: at 140,000 to 165,000 EUR plus expenses she is at the top of her band, and the band has newer boats in it; our Greek superyacht fleet shows them. Her price is the crew.

Booking ARTEMISEA for Greece: rate, VAT, base and what to ask

The published rate is 140,000 EUR per week, 165,000 EUR in July and August and for special events, plus expenses: a 40% APA and Greek charter VAT at the rate that applies to your itinerary. She is based in Athens and contracts on MYBA and HYBA terms. Ask for the chef’s sample menus and tell him the dietaries early; and ask which twin will be set for children.

We have walked her and we put her second on our top 10 motor yachts in Greece at 100 to 150K a week. Her page in our fleet is ARTEMISEA.

ARTEMISEA and three more yachts in her class

ARTEMISEA and three other yachts in her class in Greece I would look at next if her dates are gone.

Klara Braga Jakobsen is Yacht Reviewer at DMA Yachting. She walks the charter fleet at the Mediterranean and Caribbean shows every year and photographs every yacht she reviews.