Fjord 50

The Fjord 50 looks like nothing else on our list. A vertical plumb bow, hard chines and a deck held nearly level from one end of her to the other give her an outline people either fall for immediately or spend the first hour debating. Underneath the styling she is a straightforward proposition: seven guests, one skipper, eleven metres and 34 knots.

That flat deck is not a styling exercise. Because the topsides do not step down towards the bow, the usable surface area on this hull is considerably greater than her length implies, and a group of seven can spread across it in a way that a conventionally shaped boat of the same size does not allow.

A day measured in stops rather than miles

Seven people on a fast boat can attempt a lot in eight hours, and the temptation is to try. Our skippers tend to argue for restraint: two proper anchorages with a long middle stop beats four rushed ones every time, and this deck rewards staying put because there is somewhere for everyone to be.

Departure is arranged to suit your morning within the standard window, and the clock runs from the moment she moves rather than the moment you were meant to arrive. A small group boards fast, and that alone is usually worth a quarter of an hour of extra water.

The default route runs west then south, taking in a first swim relatively early, a longer stop when the sun is high, and a shorter one on the way back so that the last hour is spent moving slowly with the light behind you rather than pressing for time.

Nothing about that is fixed. If the wind is wrong for the west, the skipper will turn the whole plan inside out before you leave the berth, and the day will be better for it. What you tell us is the kind of day you want; the route is his problem.

Who tends to charter her

Groups who care what the boat looks like. That sounds superficial and it is not: a charter is a day you photograph, and this is a hull that photographs unusually well. She is a regular booking for anniversaries, for milestone birthdays and for the days people plan around a particular set of pictures.

Beyond that she suits the same profile as the rest of this size bracket. Two or three couples, a family of six, a small group who value deck space over the lowest possible headline figure. Seven is her licensed number and she carries it without ever feeling full.

She is not the right choice for a group of nine or ten trying to make the numbers work, since the guest count on a Spanish day charter is fixed per hull. Our page on the twelve-guest rule explains where those limits come from and why nobody on the island can bend them.

The deck in detail

Aft there is cockpit seating around a table, forward there is a broad, largely uninterrupted sunbathing area, and between them the side decks are wide and level rather than narrow and sloped. The bathing platform sits close to the surface, which makes climbing back aboard after a swim genuinely easy rather than merely possible.

Her provisioning is the wider list: still water and soft drinks, beer, a bottle or two of wine and the same of cava, crisps and nuts and olives, fruit, and a stand-up paddleboard that earns its keep on the calm stops. Towels and snorkels come aboard as they do on every boat we operate.

There is no interior arrangement published for this hull, so treat the day as an outdoor one. The only real gap is shade, since the flat-deck layout that gives her all that room also means there is very little of it beyond the helm canopy.

Where she goes best

Her length lets her use the narrow inlets that larger yachts have to skip, and her hull shape keeps her steady enough for the open stretches between them. In practice that means most of the Ibiza coast is available to her within a single charter, and the choice of where to go stays genuinely open until the morning.

During the peak fortnight of the summer she also anchors closer to the beach than the big flybridge boats can manage, which shortens the swim and puts you in clearer water. It is a modest technical advantage that pays out every single time the anchorage is busy.

On volume, the usual rule applies. Alone in a bay the choice is yours completely. Anchored among other boats in the afternoon the skipper may ask you to bring the level down, and that request exists to protect the permissions the charter runs under.

Pace, consumption and Formentera

The crossing is comfortably within her. A quoted 34 knots turns the run to the sandbanks into a short passage rather than an expedition, so the eight hours stay weighted towards being anchored somewhere excellent instead of moving between places.

She burns in the region of 95 litres per hour when the engines are loaded, and across a whole day those engines are usually working for around 1.5 hours in total. Everything else happens with them stopped, which keeps the running cost far below what the hourly figure implies at first glance.

The fuel used is settled at the end of the day rather than estimated in advance. It is the single line left open at the point of booking, and it tracks the route you end up taking. Our Formentera day trip page covers what that crossing involves in practice.

Before the day itself

Soft bags rather than suitcases, since everything has to go into a locker while she is under way. A hat and something long-sleeved will earn their place by two in the afternoon. Towels are already provided, so leave those where they are.

Not one person coming aboard needs a certificate of any description. The skipper holds the licence, carries the responsibility and is included in the rate, which is the structural reason a crewed day is priced the way it is. We cover that on our page about licences for renting a boat in Ibiza.

For lunch you can provision yourself, stop at a beach restaurant or have us arrange catering ahead. Say which when the booking is made rather than on the day, since a reservation ashore ties the boat to one place at one hour.

Sunset departures are arranged case by case. The right time to leave shifts by well over an hour between the start and end of the season, so a standard slot would be wrong for most of the year.

What she costs across the three bands

All three figures are published, and none of them acquires an extra line later. Her cheapest weeks fall in May and October, her middle rate applies through June and September, and her highest through July and August. Across the year the spread on this hull is €1,200.

The interesting detail is that the first step is twice the second: €800 from low to mid, then only €400 from mid to high. In plain terms, if you cannot have May or October then June and July cost you almost the same, so there is little to be gained by avoiding the busiest weeks. Our guide to Ibiza charter seasons works through that logic for the rest of the fleet.

Other boats at this size

The Azure 50 takes the same seven guests from €2,500 with a more conventional deck. The Aura 44 is the quiet, economical option from €2,499. Both, and the rest of the group, are on our speedboat fleet page.

Frequent questions