From the wheel

Do Santorini catamarans actually sail, or motor?

8 min read

Partly. On most days a five-hour caldera cruise does a good share of its route under engine, because the wind inside the caldera is either blocked by the cliffs, funnelled through the gaps, or simply not there. The sails go up properly outside the rim, on the open legs, when a steady breeze has filled in.

Guests ask this on deck, usually half apologetically, as if it were a rude question. It is not. It is the right question, and the true answer is more interesting than the dodge most brochures print.

The complaint, stated fairly

The complaint runs: we booked a sailing cruise and the engine was on. It is a fair complaint and it is usually accurate.

santorinidave.com puts it bluntly in its Santorini boat-tour guide — "Expect the boat to use its engine" (seen 25 August 2026). We would rather repeat that warning than have you work it out at 11:00 with a drink in your hand.

One of the largest OTA listings in this market admits the same thing in its small print. The catamaran is both motor-powered and wind-powered, it says, and the sails may or may not be opened, subject to the weather and the captain's judgement (viator.com listing, seen 25 August 2026). That sentence exists because enough people complained.

So the honest answer is: partly, and on a good day properly. The reasons are geography and arithmetic, not laziness.

Why the caldera is a difficult place to sail

The caldera is a flooded volcanic basin about 11 km across, ringed on three sides by cliffs standing up to about 300 m above the water.

A cliff that tall does two opposite things to wind. It blocks it, leaving long patches of dead air under the rim where the surface goes glassy and a sail hangs like laundry.

Then it accelerates it through the gaps — the north-west passage between Thera and Thirassia, the south-west opening by Aspronisi. A settled Force 5 outside can arrive inside as a hard, shifting gust from an angle nobody expected.

There is not much middle ground between those two states, and neither is good sailing. Dead air will not move a loaded catamaran carrying fifteen people and lunch. Gusts that swing direction every few minutes mean the crew trimming constantly for a knot you did not ask for.

Then there is the depth. The caldera floor lies roughly 300 to 400 m below the surface across most of its area, and the walls drop away almost vertically from the shoreline. That is why cruise ships lie off and tender their passengers ashore instead of berthing. It is also why we cannot simply stop, drop the anchor and wait for a breeze. There is nothing down there to anchor to.

The numbers

Leg by leg: are the sails up?

This is our own honest breakdown of a normal five-hour route. It is a pattern, not a promise — the wind gets a vote every single day.

Leg of the route	What the wind is usually doing there	Sails up?
The run out to the south coast	Outside the caldera rim, open to the north and west. Often the steadiest breeze of the whole day.	Often, once it has filled in
Red Beach to White Beach	Ten minutes between two anchorages, tucked under the cliff and mostly in its shadow.	No — too short to be worth it
White Beach to Mesa Pigadia	Another short hop along the same sheltered stretch of coast.	No
Round the Akrotiri lighthouse	The southern corner of the island. Wind bends around the headland and changes direction as you turn.	Sometimes, on the mainsail alone
Across the basin to the volcano	Inside the caldera. Cliff shadow on one side, funnelled gusts through the channels on the other.	Rarely — gusty and shifting
At the crater swim and the beach stops	We are stopped, lying off in deep water while you swim.	No — nothing is moving
The turn at the Fira panorama	Slow and close in under 300 m of cliff, in the lee for most of it. This leg is for looking up.	Rarely, and never for long
The run home past the lighthouse	South out of the basin and east along the coast, with the meltemi usually somewhere astern.	Often, when the breeze has held
The far rim towards Thirassia — full-day charter only	Open water on the north-west side, with the channel working. The best sailing leg inside the ring.	Often, when the breeze is steady

The captain reorders or drops stops for wind and sea state, so no two sailings of the same product are identical. On a private charter you can ask him to give the sailing legs more of the day.

A schedule is not a passage

The second reason is arithmetic. A five-hour cruise with three swim stops is a timetable. You are in the water by about 10:20 and lunch comes off the grill around 13:45.

Sailing means going where the wind allows, at the speed it hands you. Beating up to a fixed waypoint can double the distance travelled. On a fixed five-hour route, an hour lost to tacking is an hour taken out of swimming, and nobody thanks you for it.

Every operator on this coast makes that trade, whatever the marketing says. One competitor builds its whole pitch on boats that will actually sail where others only motor (santorinisailing.com, seen 25 August 2026). It is the sharpest line in the market. It is also a claim about degree, not about kind.

Where we genuinely sail

Outside the rim. South and west of the island, in open water, with a settled northerly behind us. This is where a Lagoon does what it was built to do.

The long north-west leg. Along the far side of the caldera towards Thirassia, when the channel is working and the breeze is steady rather than gusting.

On a private charter, when you ask. This is the real answer for anyone who cares. On the private day cruise the route is yours. Tell the captain at the start that sailing matters more to you than a fourth swim stop, and he will build the day that way.

On the sunset run, sometimes. The meltemi is usually at its strongest in mid-afternoon, which sounds like ideal sailing and often is — right up to the point where there is too much of it. See the meltemi explained for how that builds through a day.

What a catamaran gives you instead

Two hulls and a wide, level deck mean the boat sits flat. She does not heel, so your plate stays on the table and nobody spends the afternoon braced against a coaming.

That is the trade a catamaran makes. It gives up the lean and the bite that sailors like, and returns a stable platform with shade, a wide deck, cabins below and trampolines forward. It is why a catamaran can serve fifteen people a cooked lunch at anchor and a monohull of the same length cannot.

Under engine she runs at about 12 knots, which is what keeps the timetable honest on a windless day.

If what you want is a boat that leans over and puts its rail near the water, book a monohull with somebody else. We are not that, and we would rather tell you now. More on the boat itself is on the catamaran.

Three questions to ask any sailing cruise before you pay

Which legs do you normally sail? An operator who answers with a route rather than an adjective is telling you the truth.

What happens on a windless day? The honest answer is that the boat motors. Anyone who says otherwise is selling.

Can I ask for a sailing leg? On a shared boat, no — the route belongs to the captain and to fourteen other people. On a private charter, yes, and it costs nothing to ask.

Ready when you are

Want the sails up? Take the boat.

Send us your date and your numbers. If sailing is the point of your day, say so in the message and we will tell you honestly what the wind usually does that week.

Check availability & book

Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888

Common questions

Do Santorini catamarans actually sail?

Some of the time. The open legs outside the caldera rim and the north-west run towards Thirassia are genuine sailing when a steady breeze is there. The short hops between swim stops, and most of the basin itself, are motoring. Any operator claiming otherwise is describing a brochure, not a day.

Why was the engine on for most of the cruise?

Usually one of three reasons. There was no usable wind under the cliffs, the wind was gusting too hard and shifting too fast to be worth setting sail for, or the leg was simply too short. A five-hour route with four fixed swim stops leaves very little slack in it.

Can we ask the captain to put the sails up?

On a private charter, yes — tell him at the start of the day, because it changes how he plans the route. On a shared cruise, no. The route and the timings belong to the captain and to the other fourteen guests, who booked swimming rather than sailing.

Is a sunset cruise more likely to sail than a morning one?

Often, yes. The meltemi typically fills in during the early afternoon and eases around sunset, so the middle of a sunset cruise catches the strongest breeze of the day. That cuts both ways. Too much wind stops a boat just as surely as too little wind does.

Why can't the boat anchor in the middle of the caldera?

The floor sits roughly 300 to 400 m below the surface across most of the basin, and the walls fall away almost vertically from the shore. That is far beyond the anchoring scope of any tour boat. It is the same reason cruise ships lie off and tender passengers ashore.

Is a catamaran better than a monohull for a day cruise?

For this particular day, yes. Two hulls and a wide, level deck keep the boat flat, which matters when everyone aboard is eating a cooked lunch and swimming off the stern. For the feel of sailing itself, a monohull wins. Pick the one that matches what you actually want.

Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.

Updated August 2026