AD ASTRA

S/Y AD ASTRA — Fountaine Pajot flagship, chartering in Greece AD ASTRA is the newest flagship to come out of Fountaine Pajot, and she carries that status the way a well-designed sailing yacht should: through usable space rather than statement-making. The volume is generous, but it is the way the deck areas talk to each other — bow, aft, flybridge, sea level — that makes her genuinely interesting to spend a week aboard. The beach club is the clearest expression of that thinking. An elegant flight of steps drops you onto a platform sitting just above the waterline, which effectively turns the whole aft section into swimming and sunbathing territory, or a staging area for divers and watersports gear. Above it, the aft cockpit is built for company: multiple sunbeds and a dining table large enough that nobody eats in shifts. Forward, a second cockpit balances things out with its own bar and a broad sunbed — and beneath that sunbed, a Jacuzzi. It is the quiet end of the yacht in the morning and the one people gravitate to as the light goes long. The flybridge functions as a full additional deck, though the real feature is the wrap-around sofa: the kind of seating arrangement that keeps a large group of friends, or an entire family, in one conversation. A full wet bar and a plancha grill mean lunch never has to move. One of her most distinctive features sits in the bulwarks: a three-metre balcony folds down on each side of the cockpit. Open, they invite you straight into the water alongside; they also free up a sofa built into the cockpit coaming, in effect adding two side cockpits to the main one. Inside, deep sofas to starboard and free-standing seating with cocktail tables to port both face the wrap-around windows, so the sea stays in view whether you are in or out. Accommodation Five cabins for ten guests: an owner's cabin plus four cabins, each with a queen-size bed and two sleeping places. Detailed bed configuration available on request. Her crew handle the running of the yacht, the cooking and the tender work with the discretion that makes a charter feel unhurried — itineraries through the Cyclades, the Ionian or the Saronic shaped around how you actually want to use the days.