Best new charter boats of 2023!

Boat-makers have been busy over the last few years - demand for new yachts and cats soared during the pandemic, when they offered people their own space on the water. They honestly couldn’t build them fast enough, and waiting lists reached 2 years to get a new boat!

They’ve also been busy coming up with new, and better, boats. The development of a new yacht from a concept to a finished boat takes years of painstaking design, testing and prototyping – so it’s always exciting to see the fruits of their labour.

Here’s our favourites:

 Elan Impression 43 

Elan have done it again! Crammed with all sort of new features, and the latest in boat-building technology, the new Elan Impression 43 is a brilliant all-rounder. Fantastically modern, light and spacious down below (it feels you’re in a much bigger boat than it’s 43 feet), there are options for 3 or 4 cabins, making it ideal for families or small groups.

But it’s up on deck where the boat shows off its most innovative features – it retains sleek lines, and there is still a historic commitment from Elan to being ‘performance’ yachts which sail well, but they have, somehow, managed to make improvements – particularly in the cockpit, where you can now convert the table into a gorgeous sun-bathing area, and swap old storage lockers for a Plancha BBQ grill, say, or a cockpit fridge, which previously is the sort of luxury which has only been available on 50 foot yachts. The instruments on deck are so high-tech that they will make you feel like you’re driving a space-ship!

It promises a very, very pleasurable sailing holiday – and you can charter one from Biograd right now!

 Lagoon 51 

Wow! Just wow! The Lagoon 51 is the latest finessing of the ever-popular Lagoon catamarans, and it is already a big hit. The Lagoon 50 and Lagoon 52 were already exceptional catamarans, so it’s almost surprising to see how much real progress has been made with the Lagoon 51, but it’s genuinely another step up.

Whilst the marketing spiel is about the newly sustainable production techniques, and bigger and better solar panels on-board, the main developments for charter sailors are the addition of even more (and better) places to sit and enjoy the sun and the views out to sea.

There’s neat touches like the addition of a proper table around the nets at the front, but the big win is the conversion of the flybridge from a couple of seats next to a steering wheel into a whole new seating area – with space for up to 10 people to enjoy the stellar views from up top, and meaning the helm is no longer isolated from the group.

There’s also improvements down below, which will make it hard to work out where to spend your time on board - there’s more windows all-round, and they’ve raised the table and seating area in the saloon onto a platform, which means much better views of what’s going on outside.

Check it out for yourself – charter a Lagoon 51 from Athens this summer.