PHOTOGRAPH: XXXXXXPHOTOGRAPH: XXXXXXCreole has passed through many owners in her 90 years, including a US carpet manufacturer, an English baronet and a Greek shipping magnate. The huge schooner has
also seen wartime service as a mine-hunter and been used as a training vessel by the Dutch navy. As a result she was “like a wreck” by the time the Gucci family bought her174
“Another great memory is crossing the Med, from Spain to France or to
Greece. I remember the beauty of the dark sky, the silence of being in the
middle of the sea in perfect conditions and enjoying the quiet and the magic
of the night. I remember lying in the cockpit covered by towels to protect
me from the humidity.”
But at 65 metres, this fantasyland of a yacht was never going to be a
practical training boat for the aspiring sailor. “I started learning on little
dinghies, when I was around 10 years old, like normal kids do,” she says.
She sailed a Laser around the lake at St Moritz, brushing up at summer
camps in England, Brittany and Mallorca. “I always loved the sea – it is
something like my ecosystem: the water, the sun, the wind.”
When she was still small her father decided he needed something rather
humbler than Creole to enjoy regattas on – “it was becoming dangerous
racing on Creole, there were lots of little boats on the circuit” – and he came
across Avel. “She was built in 1896 but in 1927 the
owners could not keep her in the water, so they
put her in the mud and built a house boat on top.
The hull remained in a perfect state because of the
humidity of the mud.”
A quick refit was undertaken by the specialist
Harry Spencer and she was on her way. Of a more
manageable size than Creole, this was the family
boat that provided the young Gucci with practical
experience – “My objective was to be on the
foredeck. I started on jib sheet, then finally after
years I conquered my position on the foredeck” –
and also inspiration.
“I was fascinated that you could stay on a boat
that was built as long ago as 1896 – it’s a little piece
of history,” she says. “I just fell in love with this
world. When you go sailing on a classic boat it is
magic. The feeling, the sound of the boat on the
water is something you cannot describe. With
modern boats, yes, you can go very fast, and you
have the adrenaline. But with a classic – it’s pure, it’s like poetry. When
you have the boat that is perfectly balanced, with the sails and the wind,
it’s something fantastic.”
It’s worth noting that Avel has no engine. She’d never had one and the
family wanted to respect the original design as much as possible during the
refit. It means that she must be towed to the start line in regattas, but it doesn’t
seem to have held her back. From 1994 she started to rack up the awards on
the Med circuit, notably the Grimaldi Trophy and most prestigiously, “in the
season of 2011 and 2012 we won the Les Voiles des Saint-Tropez”, says Allegra.
“It’s not a racing boat – it’s a Camper & Nicholsons design, not as fast as a Fife
design for example. But we gave Avel a chance to be fast because it’s always
been the same core crew racing her for 20 years, so we know what she’s good
at and, more importantly, what she’s not so good at.”The success is also due to a bold decision that was made after her father’s
death. “When Avel was being restored (with a new mast and boom) we
couldn’t find the original sailing plans. After a while, thanks to friends, we
found them – the mast we had created was too tall and the boom was too
long. So we decided on the philosophy of my father that the boat ought to
be as the architect drew her, so we cut the mast and the boom. Everybody
was a little bit scared – maybe the boat would go slower if we reduced the
sail area of the main? But actually she didn’t, because she was much more
balanced and fast.”
Following her victory at Les Voiles, Allegra, who was pregnant and unable
to sail, decided the boat should be given a rest from racing. “I was on board
for all the races Avel has done because it was fun for me. I’m not going to
give the crew the fun to race without me!” But she couldn’t resist a little
competition – Creole started participating in a few regattas and in 2013 won
the Monaco Classic Week.
Her parents may have spent the 1980s at
cocktail parties with Jackie O and the Kennedy
clan in New York, but it was her father’s seadog
friends who left young Gucci star-struck. “In my
childhood I was very lucky to have the chance to
meet fantastic sailors and people who were
involved in the yachting world, such as Harry
Spencer and Mark Ratsey. They were like
superheroes to me, with so much experience and
so many stories to tell. Mark became a special
friend and I have learned from him most of the
things I know about sailing. He was the best
tactician you could possibly want and a very
special person. We have done many, many regattas
together in the last 20 years.”
Today, with a child under the age of three, the
time she spends aboard the boats is more limited.
“Creole is a big boat, so having a child running up
and down becomes a bit difficult. We go sailing –
but maybe not with 28 knots of wind.” Leisurely cruising works better, with
the Med’s cruising grounds at the top of the list. “It’s the perfect place for
classic yachts. You have nice wind and in some places you don’t have too
much swell that gives shocks to the boat.”
The Balearics have proved a family favourite and Gucci’s best-loved
beaches are the white sands of Formentera. “I remember going there once,
not to a specific place – and we said ‘let’s just follow the wind’. That was great- going sailing for two days with more wind, or less wind, and just enjoying
time on the boat. It gives you the sense of freedom. I have the same
enthusiasm that my father had for sailing and a true respect for our old
ladies, Creole and Avel.” Indeed, this year the family will celebrate Creole’s
90 th birthday. It’s a mark of that respect that this Italian fashion dynasty has
lavished as much substance as style on its two favourite models. B
http://www.boatinternational.com | June 2017“I remember the
beauty of the dark
sky, the silence of
being in the middle
of the sea in perfect
conditions and
enjoying the magic
of the night”
0123456789 0123456789174
BLACKYELLOWMAGENTACYAN 91BOIJUN17294.pgs 26.04.2017 17:34ART
PRODUCTION
CLIENT
SUBS
REPRO OP
VERSION
Feat Boat Creole, 7