Legendary sailing yacht SEA CLOUD to be modernised in Bremerhaven

From November 2010, the world's most stunning sailing vessel, the SEA CLOUD, will be overhauled at the Motorenwerke Bremerhaven (MWB) shipyard to ensure compliance with the new SOLAS (“Safety Of Live At Sea”) safety standards. At the same time, the windjammer will be fitted with the latest technology, whilst carefully preserving the SEA CLOUD’S nostalgic character.

The crew quarters of the 79-year-old four-masted bark, sections of the deck and rigging as well as a number of passenger cabins, including ensuites, will be lovingly restored. The renowned Hamburg-based nautical architect's firm "Partner Ship Design", specialised in new buildings and conversions of elegant cruise ships, has been chosen to provide the designs. When the Sea Cloud has its 80^th birthday in May 2011, the vessel will once again shine with renewed splendour, ready to set sail to destinations throughout the Western and Eastern Mediterranean as well as the Adriatic Sea.

When the Sea Cloud, then known as Hussar, was built in 1931 by the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel for the New York heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, she was the world's largest private yacht of its day. The Sea Cloud’s history is both glamorous and turbulent. After having been a luxurious home at sea for Lady Marjorie in the 1930s, setting the stage for high society functions and the reception of heads of state, the Sea Cloud was drafted into two-and-a-half years of active military service, radioing weather data from the waters around the Azores and south of Greenland to the US. Following WW II, the Sea Cloud saw a rapid succession of owners, until a captain from Hamburg finally brought her back to Germany in 1978. This was indeed a fortunate turn of events which, in 1979, rang in a new chapter for the beautiful four-masted bark, one that saw her as the flagship of the fleet owned by blue-chip cruise operator Sea Cloud Cruises. The Sea Cloud has set the benchmark for the two other vessels marketed by the Hamburg shipping company: the stately bark Sea Cloud II and the exclusive river yacht River CloudII.

For more information, ask your travel agent or Sea Cloud Cruises GmbH, An der Alster 9, 20099 Hamburg, Germany, Phone +49 40 30959250, Fax +49 40 30959222 or visit www.seacloud.com.