To get your copy, call 1-800-442-0556 or e-mail brochures@starclippers.com.

In observance of the U.S. national holiday Memorial Day, we are not posting an entry today.

We will return tomorrow with more great Star Clippers Blog content.

Star Flyer’s new seven-night cruises between Athens, Greece, and Istanbul, Turkey, sail from June to August to some of the most picturesque ports in the region. With the exception of Mykonos and Patmos, Greece, and Dikili, Turkey, all of the ports on the two itineraries are maiden.

The “Greek Isles & Turkey” cruise calls at Mykonos, Kos, Patmos and Chios, Greece, and Dikili and Canakkale in Turkey. The “Yachtsman’s Paradise” itinerary calls at Canakkale, and Myrina (Limnos), Sarti, Skopelos, Skiathos, Skiros and Poros, Greece.

The town of Skiathos.

From Canakkale guests can take an optional tour to Troy, the famous city best known for being the focus of the Trojan War; Pergamon, an ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey, can be toured from the port of Dikili; and in Skiathos guests can see where the movie musical “Mamma Mia” was filmed. Scenic cruising past the Mount Athos Monasteries will excite even the most experienced photographer.

The Mount Athos Monasteries.

In June and August, Star Flyer will sail seven-night itineraries between Valletta, Malta; Monte Carlo, Monaco, and Athens. The two cruises that sail between Valletta and Monte Carlo call at Porto Empedocle, Sicily, where guests can tour the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento; Hammamet and Tunis, Tunisia; Costa Smeralda, Sardinia, and Calvi, Corsica.

The Athens and Malta cruises sail throughout Greece and Italy, introducing the port of Monemvasia, Greece, to Star Clippers guests. Other port calls include Mykonos, Santorini and Pilos, Greece, and Siracusa, Sicily.

The ship also continues round-trip Monte Carlo cruises along the French and Italian rivieras to Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and France. Guests looking to enjoy a longer Star Clippers sailing vacation can combine this itinerary with an Athens departure to create a “Grand Voyage” in the Mediterranean.

Hope to see you on one of the new itineraries!

BAY BREEZE

Ingredients:
Vodka — 4 cl
Pineapple Juice — 6 cl
Cranberry Juice — 6 cl

Glass:
Plain beer glass

Garnish:
A slice of orange with cherry.

Shake all ingredients with ice cubes and pour into the glass.

Also known as pit logs pitometers are devices used to measure a ship’s speed relative to the water. They are used on both surface ships and submarines. Data from the pitometer log is usually fed directly into the ship’s navigation system.

Pitometers date back to days of sail when sailors tossed a log attached to rope knotted at regular intervals off the stern of a ship. The sailors would count the number of knots that passed through their hands in a given period of time. Today sailors still use the unit of knots to express a ship’s speed. The speed of the ship was needed to navigate the ship using dead reckoning, which was standard practice in the days before modern navigation instruments like GPS. During World War II, pitometer logs were often interfaced directly into warship fire control systems. This interface was necessary to allow gunnery and torpedo fire control systems to automatically track tar.

Here is Part 2 of Larry Haugh’s interview with Vacation Agent magazine.

Who’s your typical client?
We’ve found that 50 percent of our passengers have been involved in boating at some point in their life. Anybody who owns boats…[or belongs to] any type of sailing club or yacht club, whether they’re power or sail boats, are potential clients. Our passenger is an average age of 55 with a household income of $120,000 who takes about three weeks vacation a year.

We offer a four-star product and we [use] actual sailing ships—our ships are designated SPV, for sail passenger vessel. We have engines, but we go primarily by sails as much and as frequently as possible. Over 80 percent of our American guests have been on previous cruises, and then they come to us because they want to do something different. We’re truly experiential when it comes to travel.

What sorts of programs do you have for travel agents?
Travel agents are the primary source of our business. One exciting new program is for groups in 2010 and ‘11 that gives clients savings of up to 50 percent off the brochure rates. A group size with us is only nine paying guests, and the 10th sails free, so you earn TCs much faster. We do have a maximum of two tour conductors per group, occupying the same cabin. If agents achieve group numbers, they can earn a $500 to $1,000 bonus commission per group. We’re currently redoing our website, and in the spring we plan to have a new, improved travel agent area on it as well. We don’t have a booking engine, but we have postcards and e-mails and flyers that can be customized.

Larry Haugh is vice president of sales for Star Clippers Americas.

Larry G. Haugh, Star Clippers’ vice president of sales based in the company’s Miami office, recently sat down with “Vacation Agent” magazine to discuss programs and new itineraries. Here’s what he had to say.

Star Clippers has some interesting new itineraries planned for the upcoming year. Tell us about the new Costa Rica program by Star Flyer.
Our owner decided that it would be a good idea to have all three ships in Europe for the summer. Half of our business comes from Europe, so we have a drive-up market. Star Flyer is currently doing a pretty interesting repositioning sailing, going 34 nights from Papeete, Tahiti, to Balboa, Panama. From there, it will move on to Europe in May. We cannot move the ship back to Tahiti for the fall, so we will move it to Costa Rica for the first time. We listen to what our passengers are saying and what they like. We’re always looking for new opportunities.

We’ll visit 40 new ports of call this year, which is exciting to offer new passengers but also gives our past passengers the opportunity to sail into new wonderful ports. Over 55 percent of our passengers return. As we say to our agent friends, once you get passengers on Star Clippers, they’ll definitely come back, and they will tell their friends.

What’s on tap for the summer Mediterranean season?
Once the Star Flyer comes back from Tahiti, it will operate western Mediterranean cruises from Monaco or Cannes. During the summer, the Star Flyer also will do a series of sailings out of Rhodes along the Turquoise Coast of Turkey. The Royal Clipper sails from Barbados in April back to Rome and will do a series of seven-night Rome roundtrips visiting Sorrento, Taormina and other places. It will also do a series of 10- and 11-night sailings in July, August and September up the Dalmatian Coast to Venice and back. Star Clipper will be sailing from Athens to the Greek Isles and Turkey, which is quite popular. There are a couple of sailings that go from Athens to Venice and back along the Dalmatian Coast.

Star Clipper is not returning to the Far East. Why not?
The ship will spend next winter in the Caribbean, operating alternating itineraries from St. Maarten. We’re moving the Star Clipper out of Asia due to the rise of piracy in the Strait of Malacca, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and the increasing boldness of the pirates. The stability of the region is too unpredictable at this time. We hope that the piracy situation can be alleviated, and when that happens, we plan to return to Thailand and Malaysia.

The Larry Haugh interview will be continued tomorrow in another post. Stay tuned!