A FRIEND WHO has had some sailing in the Creole
has come back to real life with a slightly dazed feeling that he has enjoyed himself. 'Fabulous' may be an adjective that is overdone nowa- days, but it fits this yacht, just as it fits her owner. Mr. Stavros Niarchos. The Creole is bigger and better than any yacht afloat in European waters. That goes almost without saying. as also the fact that she is luxurious. But she is also lovely. Even those tempted to feel sardonic about Mr. Niarchos cannot include the Creole, unless it is their habit to feel sardonic about great beauties. This one is now preparing to take part in the Torbay- Lisbon race, for sail training-ships manned by .cadets and sea- men under training. She is not everyone's idea of a training- ship, but the handicapper must be left to deal with that one, even though handicaps are determined by a rating arrived at mathematically, not by known or suspected performance. If there were to be following winds all the way, the square-riggers would beat her, but that is a very improbable event. The Creole is a three-masted schooner of 699 tons Thames measurement. For the race she has been provided with a spinnaker. And what, a boom! It had been blowing too hard in the Solent to set the sail and my friend only saw the spar lashed on deck, but what he saw made him feel that the owner's whisky was as special as other things. The racing crew will consist mainly of cadets from Dartmouth, Pangbourne, the Conway and the Worcester, and their officers, with the Greek captain and a reduced comple- ment of the normal Greek crew. The race•starts on July 7.
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