STAR CLIPPERS                               Travel Report
Mediterranean, Asia, Greece, Turkey, Caribbean, transatlantic
STAR CLIPPER; STAR FLYER
Passenger Capacity: 170
Built: 1991; 1992
Length: 360 ft. (including 46-ft. bowsprit)
Beam: 50 ft.
Draft: 18 ft.
Elevator: None
Officers: European, American
Staff and Crew: 72;  from 20 different countries

• Itinerary: You can do a one-week cruise or combine itineraries for two weeks. The Star Flyer cruises the Far East, Indian Ocean, the Greek Isles, and Turkey. The Star Clipper cruises the Mediterranean during the summer and the Caribbean in the winter. There are transatlantic repositioning cruises and a 35-day repositioning cruise between Athens and Phuket. A cruise from Antigua goes to St. Barts, Tortola, Norman Island, Virgin Gorda, St. Maarten, and St. Kitts, on alternate weeks to Dominica, St. Vincent, Bequia, Tobago Cays, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Illes des Saintes. A cruise from Cannes goes to Calvi, Bonifacio, Costa Smeralda, Portoferraio, Portofino, St. Tropez, Ile Rousse, Ajaccio, Porto Rotondo, Giglio, Portovenere, and Monte Carlo. Cruises from Athens stop at Kusadesi, Bodrum, Delos, Mykonos, Cesme, Patmos and Serifos or Paros, Bodrum, Daylin River, Rhodes, Astipalasia, and Santorini. Cruises from Phuket go to ports in Thailand and Malaysia, alternating ports each week.
• Cabins: 85. Cabins range from 95 to 150 sq. ft. and have individually controlled air-conditioning. Most cabins are outside and have twin beds convertible to queen. Others have fixed twins, double bed, or have a third berth, and lowest category cabins have upper and lower berths. Aft cabins on lower decks should be avoided because of engine noise. All outside cabins have direct dial satellite phone, VCR, safe, and private bath with shower. Some cabins have a minibar and a whirlpool tub. An owner’s cabin has a queen-size bed, sofas, mini bar, four portholes looking aft, a marble bathroom with gold faucets, a jacuzzi tub, and a hatch to the pool deck above for emergencies or midnight swims. Smoking is not permitted in cabins.
• Dining: There is an open-seating dining room for passengers and officers, so that passengers get to know the officers, a pleasant tradition often missing on ships today. Breakfasts and lunches are buffet. Food and service are excellent, and our waiter (from Croatia) and the dining room captain (from Colombia) had us laughing at every meal.
• Dress: Casual during the day. Informal "casual elegance" at night, with no cocktail dresses or high-heeled shoes to be seen. At captain’s dinner men wear jackets and women wear mostly long cotton skirts or dressy but sequin-free outfits.
• Facilities and Activities: These are identical sister ships, modern barkentine schooners that are modern versions of  classic clipper ships of earlier centuries. There are four masts (one is 226 ft. high) and 16 sails including five square ones. The square sails are furled electronically with remote controls from the helmstation. Power winches and men raise all other sails. Most of the time the ship is totally under sail, is under diesel power when necessary, sometimes both. Speed under sail usually is between 8 and 12 knots. There are anti-roll tanks and bilge keels for stabilization. There are two pools (one fresh, one salt) and a piano bar directly beneath one of them, so you get a pool view while sipping and listening. There is very little entertainment except for a steel drum band one evening and piano concert another. The library, with original marine paintings, has current and classic titles and daily news faxes in several languages. You can visit the bridge at any time. A lecture by the captain on sailing a square-rigger is part of every cruise. Passengers can take the wheel, join the helmsman on watch, and help hoist the sails; or you can lie on a deck chair or in the netting on the bowsprit and read a book as you hang over the water. Four multilingual instructors supervise watersports. There is a fleet of zodiacs, sunfish, windsurfers, banana boats, and boats for water-skiing and underwater viewing. Snorkeling and scuba gear is available. There is no charge for equipment, but there is a charge for each dive and air-tank refills. On one day you can dive off the ship’s side or climb the rope ladder to the crow’s nest. The internal stairs, as in most sailing vessels, are steep so passengers should be reasonably fit. In April one cruise is in Antigua for the annual Classic Yacht Regatta, and instruction in sailing, navigation, and seamanship is offered on board by guest instructors. The ship usually anchors out and tenders take passengers to shore.  Zodiacs can be taken to remote coves for snorkeling, diving, windsurfing or swimming. Departures are often in the early morning, giving passengers time to sample life ashore on some evenings. Terrific moments: leaving harbor with Dvorak’s New World symphony booming from the ship’s speakers and on deck at midnight with the ship under full sail, the wind whistling through the shrouds.
• Typical Rates and Special Deals: Rates for seven-night cruises range from $1,345 (upper/lower berths inside) to $2,525 per person double occupancy, plus port charges. Third person in a cabin is $395. If you book at least six months in advance you can get an early bird discount and sometimes a category upgrade. A group of 10 gets one free cabin on some sailings. There is a discount for past passengers. Air/sea packages are available for a week on land before or after the cruise.

• Itinerary: There are 7 and 14-day cruises in the Caribbean from Barbados to the Grenadines and Windward Islands, and in the Mediterranean.
• Cabins: 112. There are 90 outside cabins (148 sq. ft.), 16 suites, and 6 inside cabins (100 sq. ft.). Queen-size beds are convertible to singles, and 22 cabins are available as triples. Each cabin has VCR, radio, safe, and satellite telephone and has a private bath with shower. The suites have a private veranda, whirlpool tub and butler and meal service available around the clock. Two owner’s suites (320 sq. ft.), are accessed by a private stairway and may be combined to accommodate up to eight guests.
• Dining: There is single seating. One corner of the dining room can be closed off for a private group. Officers and passengers eat together.
• Facilities and Activities: This is a sailing ship, designed after the Preussen, the fastest clipper ship in the world that carried cargo between Chile and Germany in the early 1900s. The ship has five masts and 42 sails, most of them square-rigged. There are three pools, an observation lounge, a piano lounge with dance floor, shops, hairdresser, massage spa, exercise room, and a library. The Captain Nemo Club is at the bottom of the ship with thick glass portholes overlooking underwater life. There are two tenders, carrying 150 persons, and two landing craft, carrying 60 persons and with a drop bow for easy shore access. When the ship is at anchor, a dock hinges out from the stern and a swimming float is tethered 50 feet behind. Scuba, snorkeling, water-skiing and banana boats are available. Anti-heeling tanks are filled with 160 tons of water directed from one side to the other as conditions require. Passengers who wish are allowed, in safety harness, to climb up to a yardarm and handle sails. Lectures are given by oceanographers and experts on the history of old sailing ships. Passengers may learn sail handling, knot tying, and use of a sextant.
• Typical Rates and Special Deals: Rates for seven-night cruises begin at $1,445 per person double occupancy, plus port charges. Third person in a cabin is $495. Transatlantic crossings begin at $1,695.