Argo Navis

Argo Navis is the year-round half of the Hindu Charters family: a 75-foot sailing catamaran berthed at the Ocean Key Resort Marina at the foot of Duval Street, tied up directly alongside Sunset Pier, so the walk to the boat is the walk to the sunset. She is the last commercial sailing vessel built in Key West, and she reads more private yacht than tour boat: broad decks, a 35-foot beam, and a turn of speed (11 knots on a good reach) that makes her one of the quickest big platforms in the sunset fleet.

Her backstory is an odd one. Bought in 2016 by the Hindu partners, one of them her designer, to run high-end charters to Cuba, she was refitted for public sailing when the Cuba rules changed, certified for 91 passengers in 2018, and slipped into the schedule that December while the schooner Hindu was away for maintenance. The certificate is not the crowd she carries: public sails are capped at 50 guests and private charters at 70, so there is room to move around. Her earnings helped pay for a four-year, top-to-bottom restoration of the family’s century-old flagship, the schooner that now splits her year between Key West and Provincetown.

The public lineup runs year-round: sunset cruises and a Sunday brunch sail. Private charters cover the rest, from daysails and sunset sails to weddings, chef dinners, and dockside corporate events, and summer trips add swimming, snorkeling, and time on the trampoline nets at the bow. She draws four feet, so a sandbar stop is a private-charter add-on made by skiff rather than a trip of its own. Every fare includes food and drink (wine, craft beer, and signature cocktails), which is the whole pitch: the family motto is “sail as you are,” and the boat handles the rest.