STEERING THE CHRISTINA O

Under the watchful eye of...



...Igor, the Ukranian helmsman on the afternoon watch of the Christina O, and with Captain Stewart Parvin giving the commands, Meg was allowed to steer the 99-metre yacht for a few minutes the afternoon Leslie and Meg were out to watch the racing in Valencia last week (photo courtesy of teammate Karen Brodie).

The ship was built in the 1940s by the Canadian Navy and saw duty in WWII as a convoy escort. Onassis bought her in 1954 for $34,000 and spent close to $5,000,000 million converting it to his floating home, office and entertainment center. After Onassis died, his daughter gave it to the Greek government, but the socialists had no use for it and it languished in a shipyard until 2000 when a private consortium bought and restored it for chartering.

Below, Captain Parvin (GBR) with teammate and good friend Mark "Tugboat" Turner (NZL, head of our boat building department) on the bridge of Christina O during the fleet racing last week.