Christina O
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The Christina O is a mega yacht that was converted from a warship for Aristotle Onassis ; today (May 2020) it is still at number 40 on the list of the longest motor yachts .
history
The yacht was built in 1942/43 at the Canadian Vickers shipyard as the Stormont River-class frigate (K327) for the Canadian Navy and also took part in the Allied landings in Normandy. In 1948 the ship was bought by Aristotle Onassis for only 34,000 US dollars and converted at the Howaldtswerke from late 1952 to mid-1954 for four million US dollars. It has a range of over 5000 nautical miles .
The captain of the yacht was Willy Schlatermund from Hamburg from 1953 to 1960. He also made a film in which Maria Callas and Onassis dance together on the deck and which shows the cabins and salons.
Numerous personalities were guests on the Christina O or took part in its trips. Winston Churchill took part in a total of eight trips. On one of these trips he met the young John F. Kennedy , on another he celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with Clementine. Churchill received the Yugoslav President Tito and the Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis on the yacht. Onassis never took advantage of his friend's celebrities or contacts, he also looked after him personally. When the Royal Family of England wanted to go on a cruise, but Churchill did not want this, this was unloaded.
Jackie Kennedy was first invited in 1963 after her sister Lee Radziwill introduced her to Onassis. Grace Kelly and Rainier III's wedding celebrations were also held on the yacht . (Monaco) held. Almost every booth has had celebrity users, including Maria Callas, Frank Sinatra , Richard Burton with Elizabeth Taylor , Greta Garbo , John Wayne , King Faruk of Egypt, Aga Khan , Marilyn Monroe , John D. Rockefeller, and J. Paul Getty . The yacht was also used for business negotiations, important deals were signed here, for example with J. Paul Getty.
After Onassis' death, his heiress Christina Onassis gave the yacht to the Greek state, which used it as the state yacht Argo in the 1980s . In 1990 the state decided to part with the yacht for cost reasons; However, it took many years for the state to find a buyer because the purchase price was too high and costly investments had to be made in the substance of the ship.
Refit
In 1998 the shipowner Ioannis Pavlos Papanikolaou bought the yacht. As a child he was a guest on the Christina O. with his parents . By 2003 he had it restored and converted into a charter yacht : the work was carried out by the Croatian shipyard Viktor Lenac. Contrary to expectations, a large part of the hull had to be replaced. While the first inventory report assumed 65 tons of steel that had to be replaced, it ended up being 650. The electrics were completely renewed, and the original steam engines from 1943 were replaced by two MAN diesel engines and three MAN generators. The exchange of the steam drive for a diesel drive made it possible to build additional cabins and a dining room. The interior was supplemented by numerous memorabilia , such as the Maria Callas room with the diva's only gold record.
Since then, the yacht has been chartered out for up to 450,000 euros per week and has been chartered out by Anna Nicole Smith , Paul McCartney , Puff Daddy , Donatella Versace , Tommy Hilfiger , Prince Andrew with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson , Madonna , Johnny Depp and Tommy Lee (Mötley Crüe) used.
In mid-2014 the "Christina O" was up for sale for 25 million euros.
Design and equipment
The architect Caesar Pinnau chose a streamline shape typical of the 1950s, the bow was rebuilt in canoe shape. The total length since this conversion is just over 99 meters (325 feet, 6 inches). The children's room on the yacht was designed and painted by Ludwig Bemelmans . There is a helipad in the front area and a swimming pool in the rear, the pool of which is covered with a Minoan mosaic. This floor can be raised hydraulically to serve as a dance floor. Pat Nixon said of the yacht's equipment:
"Ari has more gold in his bathroom than most governments have in their national treasuries."
"Ari has more gold in his bathroom than most governments in their treasury."
"Ari's Bar"
Ari's Bar is the most famous room in the yacht. Wood from a former Spanish galleon was used . The bar is equipped with nautical collectibles, such as ship models, harpoons and sea chests. The bar stools were covered with leather from the foreskin of whales (today cowhide), kicks and armrests are made of polished whale teeth. Onassis is said to have once said to Greta Garbo: "You are sitting on the largest penis in the world".
literature
- Luxury Yachts of the World. 1/2008, ed. by Peter J. Bryant, European Seas Limited, Ringwood, Hampshire, UK, pp. 354-359.
- Horstman: Ari's »Christina« is now a passenger ship. Schiffahrt international, 10/2001, Schiffahrts-Verlag "Hansa", Hamburg, p. 23.
Web links
- Website of Christina O ( Memento from August 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c Katja Iken: Party life on the Onassis yacht. Celebrate, cheat, full speed ahead! In: Spiegel Online . July 8, 2014, accessed May 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Maria Callas in private. In: Welt.de . September 23, 2006, accessed May 15, 2019 .
- ^ Paul Addison: Churchill: the unexpected hero. P. 244.
- ^ Mary Soames: Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills. S. XX.
- ↑ Chris Wrigley: Winston Churchill: a biographical companion. P. 326.
- ↑ a b Peter Age: Winston Churchill (1874-1965): Life and survival. P. 278.
- ↑ Peter Alter: Winston Churchill (1874-1965): Life and Survival. P. 276.
- ↑ Mike Donaldson, Scott Poynting: Ruling Class Men: Money, Sex, Power. P. 221.
- ↑ Photo 32/32 of the photo series. July 7, 2018, accessed May 15, 2019 .
- ^ New York Magazine. Dec. 2, 1991, p. 130.