Greece Motorsailing Yacht Charter: Running on Waves Is for Everyone

The 209-foot Running on Waves is one of the most talked-about motorsailing yachts operating for charter in Greece, because she was built for as wide an audience as possible. While most yachts in this size range are well beyond the financial reach of most people, Running on Waves is being offered both as a full charter yacht and as a by-the-cabin, cruise ship-style vessel, one that was designed to turn heads in every Mediterranean harbor she enters.

Segel Masten Yachten launched Running on Waves in 2011, but you wouldn’t know that at first glance. The owner intentionally asked for a design that looks classic out on the water, including five square sails (when was the last time you saw even one?) mixed in amid her thirteen staysails.
“We try to be under sail all the time,” Chief Officer Andrey Irlikov told me during an onboard tour. “To move a boat this big with only sails, people love it.”
She can accommodate as many as 42 guests in 18 cabins, and when she’s not in use for private charters, she runs a regularly scheduled itinerary through the Greek Isles, focusing on the eastern archipelago with a stop in Bodrum, Turkey, each week.
That cruise-ship mentality is also evident in the way that Running on Waves is designed. Irlikov showed me what he called five “first-class cabins,” all accessed from doors on the yacht’s main deck. Each of those cabins has a double-size bed and a seating area. The “second-class cabins,” as Irlikov called them, are smaller, with double-size beds or twin-size beds and Pullman berths. They’re all accessed down a main stairway, much like cruise-ship cabins are lined up one after the next down a corridor.
No matter the class of the cabin booked, all passengers have access to each of the guest areas aboard Running on Waves, including a sundeck with ten chaise lounges and a hot tub that can fit four to six people at a time. There are two masseurs onboard who give outdoor massages, and there are scuba experts as part of the crew for anyone who wants to use one of the twenty sets of dive gear that Running on Waves carries. The main dining area is indoors with arc-shaped booths for couples who want some privacy, as in a restaurant, or food may be served on deck at guest request.
“Whatever the guests want, that is what we try to do,” Irlikov told me.
The lowest weekly base rate to charter Running on Waves in her entirety is €84,000, through Aris Drivas Yachting. For by-the-cabin bookings, there is a Running on Waves website with a chart of booking rates for various dates and cabin sizes. Prices start at €1,712 and include four meals a day, coffee, tea, water, snacks, water-sports equipment such as fins, snorkels, kayaks, and Windsurfers, all onboard classes including yoga, and in-cabin satellite television.
Note that children younger than 12 are not eligible to cruise aboard Running on Waves as part of the by-the-cabin schedule.