Promise Kept
A voyage on the clipper ship Star Flyer exceeds expectations

The Robb Report, July 1998

Copyright 1998, Dale Leatherman

    The music -- men’s voices chanting against a throbbing background of drums and stringed instruments -- is mesmerizing. Written for the Columbus movie, 1492, the Vangelis piece provides a perfect background for the scene aboard the clipper ship Star Flyer.

    As the music pulses throughout the long, trim vessel, passengers leave what they’re doing to gather on deck. Some watch, coffee mugs in hand, while others fall in beside sailors to haul on lines. Slowly, 16 massive sails snake their way up four masts and the bowsprit, rising more than 200 feet above the scrubbed wooden deck.

    A cheer goes up as the sails billow, catching a sultry breeze scudding across the Andaman Sea toward Malaysia. At the stern a flag dances, giving life to its emblazoned red dragon, and a spume of white wake trails off toward the empty horizon. The music fades and a gong breaks the spell. Breakfast is served.

    Raising and lowering sail to the music of Vangelis is still new to the 170 passengers who boarded the Star Flyer the night before in Phuket, Thailand. When she set sail, most were in their cabins sleeping off the effects of long plane rides. But this morning they’re on deck, and there are broad grins all around.

    They’ve come from all over the world for a unique experience -- and it’s begun. The next seven days, to be spent sailing down the coast of Thailand and Malaysia, promise to be exotic and unforgettable.

    "This is not a cruise, it is a voyage of adventure," says Captain Gerhardt Lickfett as he introduces his officers and international crew of 72 to the passengers. Among them they speak 15 languages.

    Just being aboard is an adventure, a moment snatched from history. In the late 1800s, Clipper ships were the fastest vessels afloat. Built long and narrow and carrying enormous amounts of sail, they sped cargo and passengers around the world, setting sailing records that have never been broken.

    When steam replaced sail and the Suez Canal opened shorter routes to the Orient, the brief, romantic clipper era ended. Those ships that remain –- vessels such as England’s Cutty Sark, the Balclutha and Star of India on America’s West Coast, and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Eagle – are either museum relics or military trainers. The Star Flyer and her two sister ships are the first new clipper ships built in more than 100 years. . . . (more)

Contact me to read the rest of this story or discuss second rights or a rewrite. daleatherman@cs.com