SET SAIL

More than just a race, the Richard Mille Cup brings together 15 magnificent pre-war classic yachts, paying tribute to their great design, fine workmanship and racing legacies. Prestige climbs aboard the Atlantic, one of the competing schooners, to experience the highly anticipated inaugural event.

- CRYSTAL LEE

Out on The Solent, a strait in the UK, the weather feels erratic. The temperature on the Weather app reads 19 deg C, but I’m freezing one moment and peeling off my Gore-Tex jacket the next in the warm sunshine. Thankfully, it never gets too hot, and if I have the chills, I can always escape the strong winds below deck.

The said cabins are also as luxurious as can be. After all, I’m aboard the replica of the legendary Atlantic, one of the most famous and beloved racing schooners of all time. Launched in 1903 and designed by William Gardner, one of America’s foremost designers of large yachts, the three-master made history in the spring of 1905 when she won the Kaiser’s Cup in a transatlantic race from New York to England. Her incredible record of 12 days, four hours and one minute stood 100 years, broken only in 2005 by Mari-Cha IV in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge.

Like the original, the Atlantic is breathtakingly beautiful. She measures an imposing 56m, with spars towering some 45m above the waterline supporting a staggering 1,750sqm of sail. The lobby is finished in marble and the interior was fitted out with the finest mahogany panelling. She has heating, refrigeration and electric lighting. There are two double and three single staterooms, a full beam saloon, a dining room, three large tiled bathrooms (with bathtubs) and a large galley.

WAVE OF NOSTALGIA