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 Life is really unpredictable. Take Robert Watt, 31, from Northern Ireland, one of the world's best bagpipers, who spends his winters in the Austrian mountains of Innsbruck as a certified ski instructor. In mid-Septmber, he was at a festival in Switzerland entertaining the crowds. A few days later he was standing on the stern of a century-old sailing yacht a quarter-mile off the coast near Monaco playing Scotland the Brave into a grayish sky. Spread before him on the deep-blue sea was an entire armada of venerable old sailing yachts interspersed with vintage Riva and Craft speedboats, their gas-guzzling V-8 engines gurgling happily in the water. Mr. Watts was heralding the principality of Monaco's bi-annual ritual, The Monaco Classic Week (in 2009 it was on September 16-20) when the local Yacht Club parades, races and pays homage to some of the world's finest old sailing yachts, motor yachts and speed boats. |
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| This is a celebration of luxury as defined by ease and comfort. Along for the display this year were some grand training ships, like the Russian steel-hull windjammer Sedov, which once hauled grain and coal across the Atlantic under its original German flag. The Italian three-master Signora del Vento, which was built in Poland in 1962, was also present and even carried select spectators out to watch the regattas. |
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| The sailing yachts included some of the world's grandest exemplars, notably the Pen Duick, the first vessel owned by the late solo Atlantic crosser Eric Tabarly, or the Eleonora, an exact replica of the Westward, a racing schooner built in 1910. |
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| Among the motor yachts was the superbly renovated SS Delphine, whose dramatic history includes a fire and sinking, a major crash, and service under the name USS Dauntless as the flagship of the American Navy during World War Two. In 1945, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met aboard to discuss--one can only suppose--the upcoming conference in Yalta. This super-luxurious boat, which was built in 1921 in Michigan for Horace Dodge one of the two brothers of Dodge motorcar fame, is at home in Monaco. Included was a display of ancient Lancias (the company is one of several partners) all lovingly restored and in working order, Riva speedboats, and even an ancient airplane with an Anzani three-cylinder semi-radial engine on its nose and a hand-carved propeller. This was the engine that powered the first flight across the Channel by the French pioneer aviator Louis Blériot. |
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| The Classic Week is the Mediterranean's "playground for the rich" and, hence, their accountants. The mood this year was upbeat, thanks in no small part to a continuous flow of Champagne offered by one of the event's partners, Moët & Chandon. It may have been further boosted by the newsflash on September 18 that after much negotiating, Monaco was to be removed from the infamous OECD's 'grey list' of countries friendly to tax evaders. Having put that worry aside, attention focused on this year's core event, the birthday of the Tuiga, the Monaco Yacht Club's flagship. This sleek, 92-foot gaff-cutter was built in 1909 by William Fife III as the twin to the King of Spain's Hispania. She was not the only vessel at the confab to come from that famous Scottish yard, but she did prove that 100 years makes little difference to the well-built by taking first place at the September 17 regatta. "Some of the best sailing weather I have ever experienced," said one member of the crew on the Moonbeam IV, another of Fife's famous boat, which came in second at the race. |
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The Monaco Classic Week is also an occasion to honor other fine yachts and their owners, and for that it has designed a special prize, the Belle Classe. The winner must demonstrate "the observation of marine etiquette, reciprocal assistance, mutual support, and a worthy reception on land, as on sea; respect for the environment, and due honor to those that are skilled in their crafts--these are important traditions to pass on to future generations."
This year, the Belle Classe went to the Italian entrepreneur and enthusiastic sailor Daniele Canelli for his four years of intense work on the Javelin. This elegant ketch was built in 1897 by Thomas Edward Payne, who also made vessels to help British customs officials hunt down smugglers. Another highpoint of the event is the naming of a "Personality of the Sea", a distinction that went to the South African extreme explorer Mike Horn for his intensive work exploring the seven seas and all the continents. |
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| The dominating spirit of the Classic Week is genuine passion and a sense of decorum and conviviality typical of the sailing crowd. It is a grandiose spectacle that attracts people from many walks of life, not just the well-heeled. For five days, a colorful and friendly crowd milled about the quay around the Club.On the Sunday afternoon, with the wind still near zero force, the crowds began thinning as a continuous stream of shuttles carried visitors back to the airport in Nice. The Sedov steamed out to the loud tooting of the other yachts, passing regally under the duckbill nose of an obtuse modern ferry that saddled the swell like some morose suburban office building.The tangle of masts, sails and cables slipped away, once again revealing the city's high-rises, where the accountants are busy turning numbers into dreams and dreams into numbers. It was back to the grind after five days of magic.As for piper Robert Watt, he flew off to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to entertain more rugged folk. And for some reason, perhaps a bureaucratic glitch, Monaco woke up Monday morning and found itself back on the 'grey list.'
Life really is unpredictable. |
| PHOTO CREDITS: Marton Radkai |
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| © 2010 ROMAR TRAVEL GUIDES |
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