One elegant schooner is calling you to race.
The 180-foot Elena of London can be chartered during this year’s Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, giving you the chance to compete in one of the Mediterranean’s largest and most prestigious regattas.
Set in the glamorous French Riviera town of Saint-Tropez and the surrounding gulf, the nine-day event will bring together classic schooners, turbo-charged maxis, and modern racing yachts. Elena of London will also join the mix for the 28th edition.
The sailing yacht is a replica of the legendary 20th-century schooner Elena. The original Elena dates back to 1910, when former New York Yacht Club commodore Morton Plant enlisted American naval architect and designer Nathanael Herreshoff to “build me a schooner that can win.” Herreshoff did exactly that, with the yacht going on to win the King’s Cup Transatlantic Race in 1928.
Her contemporary successor was drawn directly from Herreshoff’s original plans, resulting in an incredibly accurate recreation. Elena of London was built in Spain over four years, with skilled craftsmen using the same materials chosen nearly a century earlier. The lower spars and booms are Oregon Pine, while the upper masts, gaffs, jackyards, and spinnaker boom are Alaskan Sitka Spruce. The yacht carries a wardrobe of jibs, staysails, gaff main and gaff foresail, and topmast and fisherman staysails, setting eight sails in her full racing configuration.
