From mid-June to the end of August, Northern Europe offers a cruising season that feels wholly different from the Mediterranean: eighteen hours of daylight, fjords so deep the hull sits over a thousand metres of water, waterfalls that fall straight into the sea, and villages reached by no road. Norway is the headline, Geirangerfjord, Sognefjord, the Lofoten archipelago. Scotland offers the Hebrides and a whisky distillery at every anchorage. Sweden and Finland open up a skerries cruise between Stockholm and Helsinki that is one of the most under-booked in yachting. Intimate itineraries for two, with chef-led tasting menus, private-beach set-ups, and crew trained to vanish on cue. Matched to Northern Europe, the fleet narrows to the yachts that actually deliver on the brief in practice, rather than on paper.