First Impression: Ellix Too 

Date toured: December 2006

It’s hard to miss the 155-foot motoryacht Ellix Too on the docks. She’s one of maybe three yachts I’ve seen with a bright red hull in nearly a decade of covering charter. Her sleek design makes her look powerful and unique, and she made me inherently curious about what awaited charter guests onboard.
     As it turns out, anyone who books this 2004 build is in for a powerful and unique interior experience, as well. But we’ll get to that in just a minute. First, some important history.
    Ellix Too’s owner, the crew told me, had thought about offering the yacht for charter in the Mediterranean during the summer of 2006. But she changed her mind and kept Ellix Too private, instead using her for her own cruises. As the winter 2006-07 season quickly approached, charter entered the owner’s mindset once again. The boat’s first booking was scheduled for the week of Christmas 2006 in the Caribbean.
     So the owner may or may not be fully committed to charter as you read this, and the crew were untested with guests at the time I was onboard.
    These are the kinds of things that give me a bit of pause. That the yacht is represented by venerable management company Fraser Yachts Worldwide gives me a good deal of comfort in recommending Ellix Too for charter, but you should ask your broker to inquire about the success of that first charter and any others that have since been booked—and make sure your contract includes provisions that give you options should the yacht’s owner change her mind about offering the boat for charter yet again.
     Now, having put those important cards on the table, let’s get back to talking about the truly unique and interesting interior that Ellix Too offers.
    The yacht takes 12 guests, with an entire deck devoted to the master cabin, a huge portion of the bottom deck devoted to the VIP suite, three queen-bed cabins with massive bathrooms, and one cabin with twin beds that would suit adults or children alike. The arrangement of the cabins is quite unusual, with the master and VIP being especially large suites for a yacht of this size.
     The VIP, for instance, is not just one room but two, with the second decked out as a private living room. It has its own small dining table and huge media setup, so whoever is lucky enough to stay in this cabin could enjoy an evening all to themselves, far away from the other guests and crew.
     Even better is the master cabin, which encompasses virtually the entire bridge deck. It has a dressing room and bathroom that, combined, are larger than the cabins onboard some other motoryachts. The sleeping area opens up onto a deck that serves double-duty as the main outdoor dining space onboard. There are curtains to maintain privacy in the master cabin when other guests are eating on this deck.
     What I took away from this accommodations layout is that two couples could split the weekly charter rate onboard Ellix Too and both feel as though they got proper bedroom suites out of the deal. The couple that prefers the outdoors could take the master, while the couple that prefers movies and private dinners could take the VIP. Their friends and family could stay in the other cabins on the bottom deck.
     When it’s time to party as a group, Ellix Too has a lovely top deck with a hot tub that holds four to six people, as well as smaller tables where hors d’oeuvres or even light lunches might be served. It’s a comfortable space, just as beautifully maintained as the rest of the yacht.
     Ellix Too’s weekly base rate is $185,000, or about $19,000 per person with typical 25-percent expenses included.—Kim Kavin