Sea Cloud Cruises

Three Ships, One Sailing Tradition

Sea Cloud Cruises operates three tall ships – Sea Cloud, Sea Cloud II, and Sea Cloud Spirit – each carrying between 64 and 136 guests under hand-set sails. The Hamburg-based company has operated since 1979 and is founded on a single distinguishing principle: genuine sailing, at sea, on a vessel that moves through the water as tall ships have always moved. The engines exist for port manoeuvring and calm-weather passages; when the wind allows, they are shut down, and the ship sails.

There are very few operators in the world where this is reliably true. It is the reason we recommend Sea Cloud Cruises to guests for whom the sailing experience is the journey, not merely the backdrop.

The Fleet

The Sea Cloud, launched in 1931 and commissioned as Marjorie Merriweather Post’s private yacht, is the oldest and most extraordinary of the three. She carries 64 guests in 32 outside cabins, with the original owner’s suites on the main deck retaining their period antiques, Carrara marble, and gold-plated fixtures exactly as installed nearly a century ago. Four masts and 29 hand-set sails. This is not a replica. It is the original vessel, still at sea.

Sea Cloud II, built in 2001, carries 94 guests under three masts and 23 sails. She offers a more uniformly contemporary standard of accommodation while maintaining the same sailing-first character. The Steinway grand in the lounge, music voyages, and participation in classic sailing regattas – including Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez – give her a particular character within the fleet.

Sea Cloud Spirit, the newest ship (2020), carries 136 guests under three masts and 28 sails across 69 outside cabins. She is the most spacious and contemporary of the three: a spa, fitness room, Lido bar, and private balconies for many cabins sit alongside the same hand-set-sail seamanship that defines the fleet. Guests may climb to the first mast platform on all three ships, safety-harnessed, with the crew.

On-Board Experience

Dining on all three ships is at open seating in a single restaurant – no assigned tables, no fixed sittings. The atmosphere is that of an exceptionally well-run private vessel: the crew-to-guest ratio on Sea Cloud approaches one to one, and every guest is known by name within the first day at sea. The working language on board is German and English; the international crew is drawn from sailing traditions across Europe and beyond.

On deck, the ship works. Lines are trimmed as wind conditions change. The sails are set and struck by hand. On a broad reach in good wind, the hull accelerates in a way that is simply not available on a motor vessel, and the resulting quiet – no engine noise, only water and rigging – defines what makes these ships unlike anything else at sea today.

Destinations

The fleet sails the Atlantic arc: Mediterranean coasts, Greek islands, the Adriatic and Amalfi, the Canary Islands, Madeira, and transatlantic passages to the Caribbean. The shallow draft of all three ships allows entry to anchorages and small harbours that are beyond the reach of any conventional cruise vessel. On a Sea Cloud voyage, the ship often anchors off a beach or cove where no other passenger vessel has followed.

Why We Recommend Sea Cloud Cruises

For guests who want to experience the sea as it was experienced before the era of motor ships, there is no closer equivalent available at this level of comfort. The three ships represent three different scales and budgets while sharing the same irreplaceable thing: sails set by hand, moving a ship through open water, with 64 to 136 guests on board to watch it happen.