| Gross tonnage | 634 GT |
|---|---|
| Length | 64 m |
| Launched | 2011 |
| Operator | 88parsec |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Running on Waves is a three-masted barquentine sailing cruise ship launched in 2011 at Gdańsk, Poland, and operated by the company recorded in the dataset as 88parsec. At 64 metres overall she is marketed by her operator as one of the largest sailing passenger ships in the world, and she is a genuine sailing vessel of high ocean class — built to cruise under canvas first and under power second — rather than a motor ship with decorative masts. Her trade is the small-ship sailing cruise and, in large part, the full-ship charter market.
The dataset row for this hull records little beyond her launch year, her gross tonnage of 634 GT and her length of 64 metres — no IMO number, builder or capacity are recorded. The remaining figures in this guide therefore come from the operator's own published material and from yacht-industry listings, and they disagree with each other more than cruise-ship figures usually do — guest capacity alone is quoted between 36 and 45 in different listings — so ranges and flags are used where they do rather than false precision.
Key specifications
The operator's brochure gives the ship as 64.00 metres long overall — the 43.40-metre figure in the same particulars is her maximum mast height, not a hull length — a steel hull with aluminium/composite superstructure, a sail area of about 1,200 square metres (1,300 m² in some charter listings), and classification as a high-ocean-class sailing passenger ship. Her gross tonnage is 634 GT, the figure in the dataset, confirmed by Boat International's superyacht directory; the 656 figure quoted as tonnage in some brokerage listings is her displacement of 656 tons in the operator's own particulars. Her beam is 9.0 metres and her design draught 3.20 metres, both per the operator's brochure — the shallow draught being a deliberate feature, letting her use small marinas and coves closed to larger ships.
Her single main engine is a Volvo Penta D16 of 650 hp, with two Volvo Penta generators. Boat International's directory and the operator's brochure agree on her performance under power — 8.5 knots cruising and a maximum of 18 knots under power — and the operator also claims 16–17 knots under sail in a favourable wind; some brokerage listings give a lower maximum of 10 knots under power. Guest accommodation is in 18 cabins, with capacity quoted between 36 guests (Boat International) and 45 and a crew of about 19–21, depending on the listing.
Design and construction
Running on Waves was built in Gdańsk, Poland, in 2011 — the dataset's launch year matches the operator's July 2011 build date. Her naval architecture is credited to Zygmunt Chorzeń of Gdańsk (the design office appears as "Choren Design & Consulting" in industry listings), a designer known for large modern sailing vessels, and her interior to the Stroganov Art Academy — the credits given in Boat International's superyacht directory, which names Chorzeń as both designer and naval architect. She was conceived as a modern clipper: the silhouette, rig and deck layout of a nineteenth-century barquentine over a steel hull engineered to contemporary passenger-ship safety rules, with pitch-reducing stabilisers, full desalination plant and a hydraulic stern platform for swimming and water sports, all of which the operator's material emphasises.
The design's premise is the opposite of the mega-ship's: sail as the primary propulsion and the experience itself, a small guest count in 18 cabins, and access — through shallow draught and modest length — to small harbours and anchorages that are the natural territory of yachts, not cruise ships.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
No naming ceremony, sponsor or maiden-voyage date for Running on Waves is recorded in the sources used for this guide. She was completed and launched in 2011 at Gdańsk under the name she still carries — she has never been renamed in any source consulted — and entered charter and cruise service under her own name, initially in the Mediterranean. Her name is a piece of poetry rather than a brand: it describes what the ship is for, and the operator has kept it untranslated and unchanged across her career.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2011–present | Running on Waves | 88parsec |
A single name and a single operator, as the dataset records. Within that career her employment has been substantially in the charter market — whole-ship charters for groups and events as well as per-cabin sailing cruises, marketed in Greece and the wider Mediterranean: her operator's own material says she "operates mostly in the Mediterranean", and a current brokerage listing places her in Greece. She has also been listed for sale through yacht brokers — Boat International reported a brokerage listing as early as 2014, and a World Yacht Group sale listing was live at the time of this recheck — at an asking price that is not reproduced here, as prices are outside this directory's evergreen rule; no change of ownership is recorded in any source consulted.
Onboard character
Running on Waves's era-defining quality is that the sailing is real. Her three masts and roughly 1,200 square metres of canvas are her main propulsion in a fair wind, her decks are teak, and the daily rhythm of the ship — sail handling, open decks, swimming from the stern platform — follows the wind rather than an entertainment programme. Below, the operator fits the expected small-ship amenities of her decade — a restaurant, lounge spaces, a cinema and conference room, a deck jacuzzi and a diving centre in the original charter descriptions — into a hull a twentieth of the tonnage of a mainstream cruise ship.
She belongs to the small late-twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century revival of the cruise clipper, alongside the Star Clippers and Sea Cloud types of ship, but as a 2011 build she is one of its youngest members: a ship built from new for sail-cruising at a time when almost nobody else was building such vessels at all.
Major refits and incidents
Her operator states that she undergoes a profound refit every winter, and yacht listings record an extensive refit in 2021; no structural rebuild is recorded. No incident involving Running on Waves was found in the sources consulted for this guide. She is a young ship in continuous service under her original name and operator, and no structural alteration is recorded in any listing used.
Sister ships and class
Running on Waves has no sister ship: she is a one-off design, built as a single hull. Her class, for directory purposes, is a type rather than a family — the modern sailing cruise ship, a handful of vessels worldwide, from the 1980s Windstar and Star Clipper ships to the great Sea Cloud of 1931. She is distinguished within that company by being among the largest built purely as a sailing passenger vessel in the twenty-first century — her operator's brochure likewise calls her "one of the biggest sailing ships in the world".
Fate and where she is now
Running on Waves remains in active service under her original name and operator, recorded in the dataset as 88parsec and flagged in Malta — the flag given in her operator's own particulars, in Boat International's directory and in current brokerage listings alike. Her fate to date is continuity: a one-off modern clipper still doing the work she was built for — carrying a few dozen guests under sail — in an industry that otherwise grows by the hundred thousand tons.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://running-on-waves.com/media/2690/row-brochure-2018.pdf, https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/the-superyacht-directory/running-on-waves–39875, https://navisyachtcharter.com/running-on-waves-cruise-ship-charter-mediterranean, https://www.tourradar.com/o/running-on-waves/ship/m-s-running-on-waves, https://worldyachtgroup.com/yachts-for-sale/running-on-waves/, https://akasiayachting.com/running-on-waves-yacht-for-sale