3 Greek Luxury Motor Yachts: One for Diving, One for Families, One for Speed

We boarded 3 motor yachts in Greece at the Mediterranean Yacht Show last season, all in the 43 to 47 metre class, all run by crews who have worked these islands for years. On paper they read as the same boat: 5 or 6 cabins, 9 crew, a full toy garage. In practice they are built for 3 completely different weeks.

One is set up for time in the water, down to dive-qualified crew and a scuba compressor onboard. One is the only yacht of the 3 that genuinely sleeps 12, with the layout to keep a big family happy for a week. One cruises at 20 knots, which quietly decides which islands are realistically yours.

Here is what we found aboard each of them, and which week each one is actually for.

Quick answer

• BOJI, a 2022 Codecasa, for a week built around the water. Dive-qualified crew, a compressor onboard, and the deepest toy list of the 3.
• IDEFIX II, a 47 metre Heesen refitted in 2024, for a group of 12. The only one of the 3 with 6 real cabins, plus a hammam and a media room.
• HOKULANI, a Palmer Johnson PJ150, for covering ground. 20 knots puts Santorini and Milos inside a morning rather than a whole day.
• All 3 are managed by the same London brokerage, Torrance Yachts, which is how we came to see them back to back.

BOJI: The One for Time in the Water

BOJI is the yacht we would put forward for anyone whose week is really about the sea rather than the islands, and one detail decides it. Her crew are dive qualified, she carries full diving equipment, and there is a scuba compressor onboard to refill tanks as you go. In Greece, where diving usually means booking a shore operator and losing half a day to it, that turns diving into something you do off the swim platform before lunch.

The rest of the water setup matches. She carries 2 tenders including a 21ft Castoldi jet, a Sea-Doo RXP 300, 2 Seabobs, 2 Radinn electric jetboards, a transparent canoe, windsurf kit, 2 Flitescooters, and 2 electric bikes and a scooter for going ashore. The swim platform has built-in stairs, so getting in and out of the water is not a production.

She is also the newest boat of this size and quality offered for charter in Greece, launched in 2022 by Codecasa, and the volume is startling. A 9 metre beam and 499 gross tonnes are numbers you would expect on a bigger yacht. The twin beds are the widest we have come across at this size. The master runs the full beam of the main deck with his and hers bathrooms, a seating area and a separate study, and the bed is 2 metres across with real floor space around it.

Studio Spadolini’s interior reads as a New England beach house, with a buttercup yellow theme through the deck spaces that lands as classy rather than novelty. There is a projector on the sundeck for film and karaoke nights. The crew have been aboard since she launched, which is rare on a boat this new. And the food is some of the most inventive we have seen anywhere: a fairytale spread with pink shell cookies and a chocolate cake set on a forest bed with a dried fruit tree.

Worth knowing: she is well booked for this season, with availability in the shoulder months. For high season, look at next year.

IDEFIX II: The One for a Big Family

IDEFIX II is the answer whenever the group is genuinely 12 people rather than 12 on paper. She is the largest of the 3 at 47 metres, a 2008 Heesen that came out of a major refit in 2024 with a new interior by Studio Indigo of London, and she is the only one here with 6 cabins.

They configure as 6 doubles, or 4 doubles and 2 twins, so a mixed group of couples, teenagers and grandparents all get a real bed. The master sits up on the bridge deck with its own private deck, several seating areas and a treadmill. Forward on the main deck there is a large media room with an office attached, which in practice becomes the room the children colonise while the adults eat.

She also has the facilities the other 2 do not: a hammam and steam room in the garage with direct access off the swim platform, so you come out of the water and straight into it, and a plunge pool. There is a Bauer diving compressor and gear aboard as well.

Two things stood out to us onboard. The covered top deck dining seats 16 under a carbon pole canopy that can stay up underway in 35 knots of wind, which in a Greek August is the difference between eating outside and eating inside. And the big round dining table with a lazy Susan, which sounds minor until you watch a family of 10 use it and realise nobody is asking anybody to pass anything.

Her crew have been together 14 to 16 years. On a boat with this much going on, that is the specification that matters most.

HOKULANI: The One for Covering Ground

HOKULANI cruises at 20 knots and tops out at 26, and that single number changes the shape of a Greek week. In a comfortable 3 hour hop, which is how we think a Greek day should be built, she covers around 60 nautical miles. A 12 knot yacht covers 36. The point is not arriving sooner. It is which islands make the list at all: Santorini and Milos from a Cyclades base stop being a full day underway and become a morning.

She is properly set up for it, with fin stabilisers running and a gyro stabiliser at anchor, so she stays settled both underway and in a rolly bay overnight. Fold down balconies on both sides open the main deck straight onto the water.

A Palmer Johnson PJ150 designed inside and out by Nuvolari & Lenard and refitted in 2021, she has the best cabin of the 3 in character. The master is a duplex: you come through a private cinema, down past an office, and into a completely private suite with a jacuzzi bath in the bathroom. It genuinely stops feeling like a yacht.

Two honest notes. The stairs down to that master are steep, so if anyone in the group finds stairs hard, this is the cabin to discuss first. And the day head sits on the lower deck by the guest cabins rather than off the main saloon, which takes a day to get used to.

Details we liked: the Hermes table setting, a serious BBQ on the sundeck, and tall flybridge glass that keeps the wind off properly. Her name is Hawaiian, from her first owner, Nicole Kidman, who took delivery in 2007.

Which One Is Your Week?

• BOJI if the water is the point, if you want the newest boat and the most volume per guest, and if your route is the Saronic or the inner Cyclades where you are not covering big distances.
• IDEFIX II if the group is genuinely 12, if you want the 6th cabin, the hammam and the plunge pool, or if you are cruising in wind and want that covered top deck.
• HOKULANI if the group is 8 to 10 and the itinerary is ambitious. She is the one that reaches the far islands without spending your holiday underway.

One Thing to Check Before You Count Beds

All 3 list up to 12 guests. Only IDEFIX II sleeps 12 in 6 cabins.

BOJI and HOKULANI are 10 guest boats in 5 cabins that reach 12 using Pullman berths, which are fold down bunks in the twin cabins. Fine for children. Not fine for 12 adults who each expected a proper cabin. It is the single most common misunderstanding we correct at this size, and it is worth settling before you fall for a boat.

What They Cost, and Where the Cheaper One Costs More

These 3 sit at different price points, which is part of why they suit different trips. All are quoted plus expenses on MYBA terms: the rate covers the yacht and the crew, and everything you consume sits on top through an Advance Provisioning Allowance, which we budget at 35%.

Greek charter VAT is 13% statutory, though most crewed quotes work out at roughly 5% to 8% once the calculation is applied. Your quote states the exact figure, and our Greek charter cost guide covers every level of the fleet.

APA is not a fee. It is your money in the captain’s hands, spent on fuel, berths, food and drink, then reconciled against receipts at the end of the week. Underspend comes back.

Fuel is the largest single line in it, and this is where the cheapest yacht stops being straightforwardly cheapest. HOKULANI burns around 450 litres an hour at cruise, IDEFIX II around 400, BOJI around 225. Over a week of 3 hour days that is roughly 9,400 litres against 4,700.

Per mile it flips, because HOKULANI covers nearly twice the ground per hour. She works out at about 22 litres per nautical mile, BOJI about 19, IDEFIX II about 25. So the fast boat is thirsty per hour and efficient per mile. If your week sits in 2 or 3 quiet bays, BOJI’s economy is real money saved. If it is a proper island run, HOKULANI gives you more coastline for a similar fuel bill and a smaller charter fee. Confirm exact consumption with us before budgeting on it, since these figures move with sea state and how hard the boat is pushed.

Who This Level Is For

At this size the crew know the anchorages, the food is better than the restaurant you would have booked, and nobody in the group is compromising on space. Below it you are trading crew numbers or service for price. Above it you are buying length, not a better week. You can see the rest of the fleet at this level under high end yachts and yachts under €250k.

All 3 of these yachts are managed by Torrance Yachts in London, who walked us aboard in Greece. We are not tied to any of them, which is rather the point: if one of these fits your dates we will say so, and if something else in the Greek fleet fits better we will say that instead.

Tell us the week you have in mind and we will put a shortlist together.

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