MAMI WATA

Mami Wata — 15m Halvorsen, 1954 Some yachts impress with volume. Mami Wata does it with provenance. Built in 1954 by Halvorsen, the Australian yard whose timber craft earned a following among people who understood how a hull should be put together, she remains a working example of an era when boats were shaped by hand and by eye. Fifteen metres of wood, kept honest by a refit completed in 2023. She sits in the Southern Andaman, and the pairing makes sense: warm light, short passages, anchorages that reward a yacht built for unhurried cruising rather than distance-covering. Phang Nga Bay and its limestone towers, the Phi Phi and Racha islands, Mu Ko Similan Marine Park, Krabi and its national park, and further afield Koh Lipe and the Butang archipelago, Koh Samui, Koh Chang. Overnight, Mami Wata takes four guests across two cabins — detailed bed configuration available on request. For day charters she carries up to eight, which suits her best-known role: sunset runs out of Phuket, island days, the kind of outing where the yacht herself is part of the conversation. Varnished timber and classic lines have an effect no modern build quite reproduces. Guests notice it before they've stepped off the dock. Her crew handles the practical side — navigation, anchorages, timing the light — with the discretion that lets a small yacht feel private rather than crowded.