Pardo 39

Of the three Pardo walkarounds on our list, this is the shortest hull and the one that leaves its berth most often in a season. Thirteen metres of Italian open hull, eight guests, one skipper, and a rate that opens at €1,699 for the whole boat for the day. Divided across a full group that is about €212 each, which puts a private yacht inside the budget most people had set aside for a shared trip.

Walkaround is a hull description rather than a sales word. Her side decks run unbroken from the cockpit, past the helm and up to the foredeck, so anybody can go forward or aft without climbing over a neighbour. On a boat this size that single design choice is what separates a comfortable eight hours from a cramped one.

What the day actually looks like

You board at the berth, the skipper stows bags and runs through the plan, and you are clear of the harbour inside ten minutes. Start times are flexible between 10:00 and 13:00, and the eight hours begin when you leave, not when you were meant to arrive.

Most groups on this boat do one of two things. Either they head south for the coves under Es Cubells and Cala d’Hort, swimming in three or four spots and eating on board, or they commit to the crossing and spend the middle of the day off Formentera. Both fit inside eight hours on a hull that will hold 32 knots when the water allows it.

The skipper decides the running order on the morning, because the wind decides it for him. A north-westerly pushes the good anchorages to the south side of the island and a southerly does the opposite. What you tell us in advance is the mood of the day; what he chooses is the sequence that delivers it.

Thirteen metres is also an easy length to place. In August the popular anchorages fill with boats twice this size jockeying for swinging room, and a hull of this size drops the hook closer to the beach and further from the noise. That is a small advantage on paper and a large one at two in the afternoon in Cala Salada.

The group this boat is built around

Eight is the licensed guest number and eight is genuinely comfortable here, not a maximum that only works if half the party stands. Two couples travelling together, a family with older children, or a group of friends who want the water more than they want a table plan: those are the bookings that fill this boat week after week.

If you are seven or fewer, the arithmetic still works but the per-head figure climbs, and the Azure 50 is sized closer to you. If you are nine or more, do not try to squeeze in. The guest number on a Spanish day charter is a licensing limit rather than a suggestion, and we explain why on the page about the twelve-person rule.

On deck

Everything on this boat happens outside. The cockpit seating wraps around a table that is the natural gathering point at lunch, the bow carries sunpads that fill up the moment the anchor bites, and the transom sits low enough that getting back aboard after a swim needs no ladder gymnastics. The helm is shaded, which matters to the skipper across an eight-hour shift in August.

No interior layout is published for this hull, so none will be described here. What we do publish is what comes aboard with you: towels for every guest, snorkels if you want to look at what you are swimming over, and a licensed skipper who has worked these anchorages for seasons rather than weeks.

Speed, fuel and whether Formentera is realistic

Yes, comfortably. The stretch of water between the south of Ibiza and the Formentera sandbanks is short, and at 32 knots this hull covers it inside an hour with time to spare on both sides. That leaves the bulk of the day for swimming rather than travelling, which is the only test that matters.

Twin petrol engines drive her and consumption runs at roughly 130 litres per hour when she is up and moving. A normal charter involves something like 1.5 hours of actual cruising spread across the day, because the rest of it is spent stopped. Fuel is metered by what you burn and settled at the end, so a slow day of two anchorages costs meaningfully less to run than a fast lap of the island.

If a crossing is the whole point of your booking, read our comparison of the private boat against the ferry before you decide. The honest answer is that the ferry is cheaper and the boat is the reason people remember the day.

What sits inside the rate

The number you see is the number you pay for the charter. Inside it are the skipper himself, cover for the boat, towels and snorkels, the 21% Spanish tax, and all eight hours afloat. There is no separate skipper charge added at the pontoon, which is the most common surprise on cheaper listings elsewhere on the island.

Fuel is the one running cost that sits outside, charged on the day against what the engines actually used. Anything you ask us to bring in for you, from paddleboards and kayaks to catering, is quoted separately and confirmed before you board. Trips timed for the sunset happen by arrangement, never as a packaged item on a list.

Practical things worth knowing before the day

Bring soft bags rather than hard cases, because everything has to be stowed in lockers designed for a day rather than a voyage. Bring more sun cover than you think you need; the shade on an open boat is the shade you carry with you. Towels are already on board, so leave yours at the hotel.

Nobody in your group needs a licence. The skipper holds it, and that is one of the practical reasons a crewed charter costs what it does. We have written the long version of that answer on the page about licences and Ibiza boat hire, and the short version is that you are a guest for the whole eight hours.

Food is up to you. Plenty of groups shop the morning of and eat on board, others ask the skipper to drop them ashore at a beach restaurant, and a few have us organise catering in advance. Whichever you pick, tell us early, because a lunch stop changes the route the skipper plans.

Three seasons, three prices

We publish all three bands rather than a single teaser figure. May and October are low season, June and September are mid, and July and August are high. The gap between the quietest and busiest months on this boat is €700, which is a smaller swing than most of the fleet carries.

Every figure above already contains VAT and the skipper. Moving a booking from the first week of July back into late June saves €400 on this hull for water that is barely a degree cooler, which is the single most useful thing to know when your dates are flexible. More on that in our note on when to come and what the weather does.

Boats to weigh against it

The obvious neighbour is the Pardo 44, the same design language stretched to fourteen metres for the same eight guests, at €1,999 in low season. If your group has grown to nine, the Von Dutch 40 takes one more head. And if you want the whole speedboat fleet in Ibiza laid out side by side, the archive puts every rate on one screen.

Questions we get about this boat