Pardo 44

The Pardo 44 is fourteen metres of boat carrying eight people, and that ratio is the whole argument for her. Most hulls at this price are shorter and busier. She gives a party of eight roughly the room a party of eleven would have elsewhere, and she starts at €1,999 for the full eight hours.

Walkaround describes the design. Her side decks run clear of the aft cockpit, alongside the helm, and out on to the foredeck, with no step to climb and no gap to squeeze through. On a day when eight people are constantly moving between the swim platform, the table and the sunpads, that single feature does more for the atmosphere than any amount of upholstery.

The rhythm of a charter on her

Eight guests is a number that moves quickly. Everyone can be in the water within a minute of the anchor holding and back aboard just as fast, which means the day can genuinely accommodate three stops without any of them feeling rushed.

You choose when to leave inside a late-morning to early-afternoon window, and the eight hours are counted from departure. The skipper will have looked at the wind before you arrive and will usually open with a suggestion rather than a question, which most groups appreciate.

A typical shape is a run to the far end of the intended stretch first, then working back towards home with the stops getting shorter. It puts the longest passage at the point of the day when everybody has the most enthusiasm for it, and leaves the last hour easy.

At 30 knots she is quick without being frantic. The runs between anchorages are short enough not to interrupt the day and long enough that people enjoy them, which on a charter is the balance you are actually paying for.

Who she suits

Groups of six to eight who want space rather than the absolute lowest per-head figure. Two families travelling together. Four couples. Anyone who has previously chartered a smaller boat with the same number of people and come home slightly bruised by how close together everyone was.

She is also an easy boat for guests who are new to this. Nothing about her demands any particular behaviour, there is no crew hierarchy to work out beyond the skipper, and the deck is stable and generously proportioned. Our new to charter page covers the rest of the first-timer questions.

Eight is her licensed figure. If your group is nine, the Von Dutch 40 is sized for you; if it is eleven, the Chiara 37 is. Those numbers are set by Spanish charter licensing rather than by us, as our page on guest limits explains.

The deck

Aft, seating wrapped around a table that comfortably holds the whole group at lunch. Forward, a substantial sunpad area reached along those unbroken side decks. Astern, a swim platform sitting low enough that getting out of the water requires no particular athleticism.

Her length puts her in the bracket that carries the wider provisioning. Expect water and soft drinks aboard, beer, a bottle or two of wine and cava, savoury things of the crisps and nuts and olives sort, plus a stand-up paddleboard. Towels for the group and snorkels are standard on every hull we run.

We do not publish an interior layout for this boat and will not invent one to fill a section. Plan the day outdoors, and bring hats and something with sleeves for the hours either side of two o’clock.

Where fourteen metres takes you

Long enough to be composed when the afternoon breeze gets up, short enough to anchor in the narrower inlets that the twenty-metre boats have to pass by. That range of options is what makes her adaptable: the skipper is not forced into the busy bays simply because the boat cannot fit anywhere else.

The south coast is her natural ground, with the coves below Es Cubells and the water off Cala d’Hort within an easy leg of one another. The west works equally well when the wind is in the east, and the skipper will make that call on the morning.

On music, the rule that applies everywhere applies here. Alone in a cove, play whatever you like. Anchored close to other boats in the afternoon, expect a polite request to bring the level down, made in the interest of keeping our operating permissions intact.

Fuel and the Formentera question

The crossing is straightforward. Thirty knots covers the water between southern Ibiza and the sandbanks in a modest amount of time, and a group that leaves at the earlier end of the window can be anchored there with hours still to spend.

Consumption runs at roughly 130 litres per hour with the engines loaded, and across a full charter they are typically loaded for about 1.5 hours in total. The remaining time is spent stationary, which is why the eventual fuel figure is usually a good deal smaller than a first glance at the hourly rate suggests.

You pay for the fuel you use at the end of the charter. That is the one line left open at booking, and it answers directly to how far you choose to travel. Our Formentera day trip page describes what the crossing involves for a group planning it deliberately.

Practical preparation

Soft bags, because everything is stowed in lockers while she is moving. Reef-safe sun cream, a hat each and something to cover shoulders. Leave your towels behind, since they are supplied for everybody aboard.

No one in the party requires a boating licence or any prior experience. That responsibility belongs to the skipper and it is priced into the day rather than added at the pontoon, which is the honest difference between a crewed charter and a bareboat advertisement. See our page on licences for boat hire for the full picture.

On food, groups of eight generally do well shopping the morning of and eating aboard at the cockpit table. A beach restaurant stop works too, but it needs to be flagged when you book so the skipper can put the boat in the right place at the right hour.

Sunset departures can be arranged on request. They are handled individually because the right time to leave shifts by more than an hour across the charter season.

Seasonal pricing

All three bands are on this page and none of them acquires anything later. May with October is the quiet band, June with September the middle one, and July with August the busy one. The distance from cheapest to dearest is €1,000.

The larger of the two steps is the €600 out of low season, so a group whose dates could fall either side of the end of May has a real decision to make. Beyond that, €400 separates a June charter from an August one on this hull. Our notes on picking a month weigh water temperature against crowds.

Boats either side of her

The Pardo 39 is the shorter sister at €1,699 for the same eight guests. The Pardo 52 steps up to sixteen metres and ten guests from €3,599. All three sit together on the speedboat fleet page and the wider boat rental list.

Common questions