Seafaring Experience Unfurls at a Good Clip on Largest Sailing Ship

Blinking sleep from his eyes, a tall, dark-haired man in his mid-30s stumbled over the high threshold that led to the open decks, then glanced at the majestic display of unfurled white sails swelling above him, five masts of 42 sails measuring 5,980 square yards. He gasped, and his face lighted up like a child looking at a Christmas tree.

He was aboard the world’s largest sailing ship, the 228-passenger Royal Clipper from Star Clippers, and he seemed enthralled by its sails. He spent most of every day on deck watching the crew set the sails, or he clambered into the mesh webbing on the bowsprit to watch the sails fill with wind. And he was always in the front row when Capt. Jurgen Muller-Cyran, who has also served aboard the historic four-masted sailing ship Sea Cloud, gave lectures on navigation and seamanship.

The Royal Clipper can be a terrific vacation for the right people--sailing fans, romantics, families with kids older than 6, stressed-out working couples who want to spend a week wearing shorts and deck shoes and then go ashore in exotic tropical ports for a seafood lunch or dinner. Fussy cruise veterans looking for an ultra-luxury cruise with fine dining, chilled champagne, elegant evenings and flawless service should search elsewhere. Although Star Clippers offers a much more polished sailing experience than the stalwart tall ships of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises or the Maine Windjammer Assn. ships, it is not a cruise vacation but rather a sailing trip aboard a glamorous, almost glitzy new vessel.

The ship’s three-deck atrium begins in a sunken area in the center of the dining room, where buffet tables are spread. The second level overlooks the buffet from a circular gallery framed with wrought-iron railings, while on the third level more wrought-iron railings, a piano bar and richly upholstered sofas and chairs are set around the atrium. Overhead is a glass-bottomed swimming pool that allows dappled light to play on the surfaces below. Swimmers in the pool are also on view, at least the parts of them that are underwater.

Most of the social activity takes place at the Tropical Bar on the open deck, which is also inhabited by a parrot.

A cozy library furnished with leather sofas, a fireplace (with an electric simulated fire) and a sparse collection of reading material was the preferred hangout for cell-phone users during our trip in August. At the opposite end of the deck is an observation lounge, which doubles as a lecture room.

Dress on board is casual, but many passengers donned resort-style silks and linens in the evening. Smoking is not permitted in the cabins, so the open deck, the piano bar and the smoking side of the dining room can get polluted. On our cruise a table of French passengers smoked so much one night during dinner that they set off the smoke alarm.

Cabins are small; the word “shipshape” comes to mind. Besides a bed, there is a kneehole desk with a stool, a small nightstand with three drawers, a dresser with three drawers, one chair and an attractive bathroom with black and white marble tile floors and a shower. When booking, specify whether you want a double bed or twins, because many of the beds cannot be converted from one to the other. The wardrobe area is sparse, with no full-length hanging space; our closet had only nine hangers for two of us.

Because there is no elevator on board and because the gangway is long and steep, doorsills are extra high and some ports of call are accessible only by tender (a small boat boarded from the gangway while the ship is at anchor), so we would not recommend the Royal Clipper to anyone with impaired mobility.

Entertainment was simple: a pleasant pair of retired Irish schoolteachers who sang and played on deck at cocktail time and after dinner in the piano bar. Occasionally our cruise director, nicknamed Attila the Hungarian (Attila Denes from Budapest), led a dance competition.

Although the ship is dazzling, the food preparation and service seem to get less than full attention, despite lavish buffet spreads and menus that read enticingly. This could be partly because basic supplies often seemed less than prime quality. Tomatoes were rock hard and often white or green inside, although we were cruising off France and Italy in August, when street markets were full of juicy, ripe fruits and vegetables.

Supplementing the seafood buffets were innumerable dishes of small stewed chickens. At breakfast, the fresh fruit consisted of large chunks of unripe pears, peaches and nectarines heaped on plates, and at lunchtime, vast displays of desserts based on gelatin, cakes and cream puddings were set out with nary a bowl of berries or fresh-baked cookies in sight. On the plus side, the lunch buffets always offered a salad bar and a platter of cheese. Except for the first night out, dinner was served course by course at the table.

In summer the Royal Clipper sails the western Mediterranean and in winter the Caribbean, departing from Barbados on Saturdays until April 20. Itineraries alternate, with Windward Island ports (Martinique, Iles des Saintes, Antigua, St. Kitts, Dominica and St. Lucia) one week and Grenadine Island ports (Martinique, St. Lucia, Bequia, St. Vincent, Tobago Cays and Grenada, plus the captain’s choice of one of the Grenadine Islands) the following week. Passengers who would like to sail for two contiguous weeks get a $300 discount on the second cruise.

Brochure fares start at $1,445 per person, double occupancy, plus $155 port charges, for a small inside cabin. A slightly larger outside cabin in a mid-category starts at $1,915, a smallish suite at $3,465 per person, double occupancy. A child sharing a cabin with two adults sails for $445 for the week; 27 of the cabins offer a third berth.

To get a free brochure for Star Clippers, ask a travel agent, call (800) 442-0551 or log on to the company’s Web site at www.starclippers.com.

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Shirley Slater and Harry Basch travel as guests of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears twice a month.