Classic Week - the Cruise Ship

Even Classic Week doesn't stop the massive great cruise ships arriving in Monaco. This is the Ruby Princess, her decks crammed with passengers getting their first view of Monte Carlo.

Classic Week - the Bubble Car, Audrey Hepburn & 'Monte Carlo Baby'

This BMW Isetta or Bubble Car as they came to be known is moored alongside a yacht that displays a poster for an Audrey Hepburn film. Look behind the car and you can see the poster. Presumably the car appeared in the film?

Monte Carlo Baby was made in English and in French (Nous irons à Monte-Carlo) and Audrey Hepburn, who spoke fluent French, was the only actor who appeared in both versions. It's one of the earliest films Audrey Hepburn made (1953) and on the set she met Colette, who suggested her for a role in the stage production of Gigi, leading to the film version and the rest, as they say, is history.

Classic Week - Hospitality

Organising Classic Week takes a lot of staff. Here we see some of those involved in hospitality at the Yacht Club of Monaco.

Classic Week - 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell'

How about this! A poem on a piece of kit. 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell' is a well-known ballad by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert written in 1866 and rejected by the editor of Punch as ‘too cannibalistic.’ It has often been compared to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' (1798).

You can read the whole poem by clicking on the link, but here's a taste - pardon, the pun...


'And then we murdered the bo'sun tight,
And he much resembled pig;
Then we wittled free, did the cook and me,
On the crew of the captain's gig.'

Classic Week - Flying the Flag on 'Tuiga'

This crew member has climbed Tuiga's massive mast to fly the flag of the Monaco Yacht Club. Tuiga, who celebrated her 100th birthday two years ago, is owned by the Club. You can read about this gaff cutter, a beautiful maritime ambassador for the Principality - HERE. There is even a club in Monaco for her admirers called 'Spirit of Tuiga.'

In the photo below you can see how far the sailor has had to climb - not a job for the scaredy-cats amongst us...

Classic Week - Happy 100th Birthday to Mariquita

Mariquita (Ladybird in Spanish), is a 38 metre gaff cutter and is the only survivor of this class of racing yacht, which disappeared after the Great War. This year she is 100 years old. From 1911 to 1913, Mariquita raced 69 times, winning 35 regattas - no small feat. After the war she went to Norway, was renamed Maud IV, then came back across the North Sea in 1924 to sail under the flag of her new co-owners: Sir Edward Illife and Alan Messer. Then, in 1939, Mariquita's history took a dramatic turn - once again she was sold and literally dismembered and remained for more than fifty years in a boathouse. She was saved from her Pin Mill mud berth in 1991. Restored by Fairlie Restoration, and launched again in 2004, Mariquita immediately took up racing in line with her glorious past and successes.

It takes a dozen strong sailors to haul Mariquita's 500-pound gaff to the top of the mainmast, dragging hundreds of pounds of sailcloth up with it. (see first photo) Today Mariquita is rigged with synthetic fiber rope, but otherwise the yacht is sailed just as she was when she left the Scottish shipyard of William Fife & Sons in 1911.

Classic Week at Port Hercule

Monaco's fabulous Classic Week started yesterday - real boats that sail...

We'll take a closer look over the next few days.