Eye of the Wind

A Brig That Has Sailed the World

The Eye of the Wind is a brig – one of the classic two-masted square-rigged vessels that served the world’s merchant fleets for centuries. Her hull dates to 1911, and the decades that have followed have taken her across almost every ocean on the planet. She carries 12 to 16 guests today with the same directness and capability that the brig rig has always promised: relatively small, genuinely seaworthy, and capable of long passages in conditions that would deter a less well-found vessel.

The Eye of the Wind has appeared in films and has a following among sailing enthusiasts worldwide. But her character is defined not by celebrity but by accumulated sea miles and the kind of practical competence that only comes from doing the real thing, repeatedly, across real oceans.

Atlantic and Caribbean Voyages

The Eye of the Wind’s programme takes her across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean – passages that suit her capabilities and her proportions well. Trade wind sailing under square rig in the Atlantic has a particular quality: steady winds, long swells, warm nights, and the sense of travelling in the wake of centuries of ocean crossers who made the same passage in the same kind of vessel.

Caribbean itineraries allow the ship to work through island chains and anchorages that reward a vessel of her modest draught and flexible programme. Where larger ships must stand off, the Eye of the Wind can tuck into a bay and stay.

Life on Board

Twelve to sixteen guests share the Eye of the Wind in conditions that are comfortable without being luxurious. Cabins below decks provide private sleeping space, with shared facilities in keeping with the ship’s honest, seafaring character. The saloon is the centre of on-board life – meals together, evenings together, the spontaneous conversations of a group that has spent days at sea and knows what it has shared.

Crew and guests mix freely. There are no barriers between the working parts of the ship and the guest areas – this is not that kind of vessel. The brig is sailed openly, and those who want to understand what is happening and why will find plenty of willing explanation.

The Brig Rig Under Sail

Two masts, square sails on both, and the particular combination of power and manoeuvrability that made the brig the favoured vessel of naval commanders and merchant captains for two hundred years. Under full sail in a good Atlantic breeze, the Eye of the Wind moves with a determined authority that is immediately apparent to anyone aboard. This is sailing in its original and most direct form.