On board the 46m sailing yacht Arktos with owner Panagos P Lemos

“In 2001, my father saw Arktos in his sleep, woke up and said, ‘I want to build that boat,’” says Lemos. “He went to Basimakopoulos, a traditional Greek shipyard near Athens, which built the boat using the same methods as were used in ancient times. Some people think she’s a Turkish gulet, but she’s actually a schooner.”

After a lightning design round with the shipyard, the build started in earnest in 2002. The pressure was really on, because Panagos’ father was determined that the yacht should be completed and handed over in the spring of 2004. He wanted the new boat ready in time to welcome the Olympic Games home to Athens in August of that year.

Remarkably, they succeeded. Built in the traditional manner from the keel up, with heavy larch frames, iroko planks and teak decking, a fine seaworthy five-cabin sailing yacht took shape in record time. An interior that blended the elegance of oak, walnut, ebony and lemon wood with modern-day comforts was penned by architectural designer Sotirios Bakopoulos.

But the boat’s construction adds to her character as well – warm and woody with some delightfully esoteric features. These include a trapezoid master bed that follows the contours of the bow with a narrow head and a broad foot.

In classic style, Arktos combines a gleaming wooden interior with a lustrous dark green hull – both of which speak of many hard hours spent polishing and cleaning on the part of the sevenstrong crew. “My father has lived in England for many years, and he really likes green because he used to go hunting. He always had a British racing green car and wanted a boat in the same colour,” explains Lemos.

There are hand-cast deck fittings and hemp rope rigging – even a figurehead. “Bow ornaments date back to ancient times, with the ancient Greeks painting eyes on either side of the bow for them to show the way, but also to represent the spirit of the ship and its name,” Lemos explains. “Arktos means bear in ancient Greek, so the boat has a large wooden bear’s head on its bow, representing courage, physical strength and leadership.”

The schooner form covers many different variations, but they all have one thing in common: of their several masts, the foremast is the shortest. Arktos is a gaff-rigged topsail schooner and flies an astonishing cloud of five foresails along her near 20-metre-long bowsprit.

The white-painted boom runs back well aft of the transom, maximising the area of her huge mainsail in a manner that will be familiar to anyone who has watched the classics racing at Saint-Tropez.

“I really enjoy getting my hands on the wheel,” enthuses Lemos. “It is wonderful sailing on a different boat to all those that you see. When you go somewhere in that boat, you feel special, like you’re travelling in a gem. Wherever you are, you want to take a picture.”

Wonderful, but not rapid, as Lemos would be the first to admit. “I believe that at sea, the slower you go, the more you experience and the more you get from the scenery,” he says.

“We are completely the opposite to the motor yacht mentality! When I get the chance to be on board, I like that to go from Athens to Mykonos it will take 10 hours – I like to have those 10 hours of sailing ahead of me. We like to night sail as well.”

As a canny shipowner, Lemos’ father built the boat to RINA rules ostensibly for charter, but that doesn’t mean his young family wasn’t involved. Lemos has fond memories of the boat growing up, even though she wasn’t completed until he and his twin sister were nine years old.

“We used to sail with her for two or three weeks during the summer, or when she’d been left at another island after a charter, we would help bring her home,” says Lemos.

“We grew up on that boat with one crew member, with whom we’d go fishing and clean the boat. We didn’t help that much with the sails because they are very hard to do. But we were raised there, learning how to drive the tender and cooking with the chefs.”

Arktos still charters well – from €38,000 a week through Lemos’ own growing business. But despite the attachments, the three siblings are looking to sell. “Because she was my father’s dream,” he says simply.

“My sister and brother and I are thinking of building another yacht, but it would be a sailing yacht again, and a classic. Maybe not so heavy this time, because Arktos is very solid. My dad is a big man, so he wanted everything big, long, heavy and deep. I wouldn’t go for that again, because it gives us some restrictions – we can’t go into lots of harbours, and we need a lot of wind to sail.”

“I don’t go above 50 metres because I really don’t believe that they are ‘boats’ anymore – they’re ships”

The plan would remain the same: a bit of charter and some summer cruising in favourite Greek waters. Although Lemos lives in Athens now, the family’s roots lie just off the northeast coast of Chios, on the small island of Oinousses.

Here, among the Greek islands that face Turkey across narrow straits of water, he finds sailing nirvana: a few leisurely hours at the helm, then berthing at a quiet island off the tourist map for a meal with friends.

As a young man, Lemos expected that he would join the family’s shipping businesses, 5 Ocean Shipping Management and LPL. The company owns and operates a fleet of modern dry bulk carriers that shift weighty goods from rice and sugar to coal and scrap metal around the world. But although he gave it a go, his heart lay elsewhere.

“Since I was 14, my father would take us all to his office every summer,” he says. “We would go and sit in fake offices, signing fake papers and typing fake documents. But it wasn’t serious because we were the boss’s children. Then after school, I did an internship with another shipping company. Finally, I studied maritime business in Southampton and worked with some brokerage firms and shipping companies.

“I didn’t really like it. I would always leave a bit earlier to go to the boat to find crew or talk to the captain. I started seeing that I really enjoyed spending time on the boat as a guest, but also choosing the specific blanket, coaster, etc – every detail of what we had on the boat. I started talking to my father and said I prefer yachting – providing a service rather than being in the office and watching numbers on a screen.”

Despite the weight of centuries of ship-owning ancestors staring down at him, Lemos’ father was open minded and encouraged his youngest son to take on the charter management of Arktos. “I started by managing our boat, but there were so many people asking for advice on buying or chartering,” says Lemos. “I grew into it naturally.”

He soon joined Capital Yachting, a fledging charter, brokerage, refit and management business founded by Konstantinos Ladas that prides itself on offering highly personalised yachting experiences to discerning clients. He doesn’t like the word broker, judging that it sounds too transactional.

“I would prefer consultant,” he explains. “I stay until the end of the charter and make sure that any special requests are catered for. It’s about the experience, it’s not just a business.”

Though Capital has 80-metre and 90-metre yachts on its books, the sweet spot for Panagos is in 30- to 50-metre yachts, just as he’s grown up with. “I don’t go above 50 metres because I don’t really believe that they are ‘boats’ anymore – they’re ships, and you don’t see or feel or smell the sea in the same way. I don’t work with these types of boats, and I don’t have this type of client, either – my clients love to feel close to the sea.”

It is an approach that has attracted wealthy charter customers from across the globe, eager to experience the fantastic sailing and vibrant life shoreside that Greece has to offer.

Lemos believes that strong demand will naturally lead to growth in Capital’s charter fleet, and he welcomes it. Within certain boundaries. “With me, everything is organised around the client – it’s not about the boats. I would like to have special boats with character, but I want it to be all about the client.”

There is life outside boats for Lemos, and it is mostly focused on Athens or visiting family and friends in London. Unlike his father, who spent time living in Japan as he oversaw the construction of a ship, Lemos thinks the Greek capital is the best place he could live. “I would not live in any other city for a long time,” he says emphatically.

It is there that he indulges in another passion: classic cars. Along with a friend, he just launched a new business that gives owners advice about where to find and service classics in the region. Named Toys for Boys, it also sounds calculated to indulge Lemos himself in the opportunity to discuss a subject that’s very close to his heart.

“We are making a space for people who share the same passions as us – supercars, classic cars, boats, watches, cigars, wines, refined spirits, music and anything gadgety,” explains Lemos. “We have jukeboxes, pinball machines, old and new cars in our showroom and will offer consultancy services for all of the above, as well as a space for someone to enjoy a drink and talk.

“I’m not a good collector because I drive the cars all the time,” he admits. “I just can’t look at the car in the garage and say I’m going to keep the mileage down. I love tech and am a gadget freak, but I love the timeless beauty and elegance of classic things, whether that’s a car or a boat or piece of furniture.”

Currently filling his idle hours is a black Mercedes 560SL roadster with tan leather interior and 105,000 kilometres on the clock, as well as a slightly more recent Porsche 911. “The Mercedes is my dream car, alongside a vintage 911 Targa. If you have these two cars, then you’re a happy man!”