| IMO | 8700785 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 14,745 GT |
| Length | 187 m |
| Beam | 20.0 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 310 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 342 |
| Crew | 210 |
| Service speed | 11 knots |
| Builder | Ateliers et Chantiers du Havre |
| Hull number | 274 |
| Launched | 1989 |
| Maiden voyage | 1990 |
| Operator | Windstar Cruises |
| Status | Active |
| All names | Wind Surf; Club Med 1; La Fayette |
Overview
Wind Surf is a five-masted staysail schooner and one of the largest sailing cruise ships in the world. She combines a full cruise-ship hotel with computer-controlled sails, diesel-electric propulsion and a shallow draught that lets her use harbours closed to larger vessels. Built in France for Club Med, she spent her first eight years as Club Med 1 before joining Windstar Cruises in 1998, where she became — and remains — the largest ship in the Windstar fleet.
Her significance is scale under sail. Windstar's earlier motor-sailing yachts carried about 148 passengers at roughly 5,350 tons. Wind Surf more than doubled that concept, at 14,745 GT and, in the dataset, 308 passengers maximum. She is not a replica sailing ship with cabins added; she is a purpose-built cruise ship whose primary visual and experiential identity is her rig — five masts and seven triangular Dacron sails, self-furling and operated from the bridge.
Key specifications
The dataset records 14,745 GT, a length of 188 m and a beam of 20 m, a service speed of 15 knots and a maximum capacity of 308. Wikipedia's infobox gives a closely related set: 187 m length, the same 20 m beam and 14,745 GT, with speed described as 12 knots on engines alone and 15 knots with wind assistance. That distinction matters: the 15-knot figure in the dataset is best understood as the sail-assisted figure, not a sustained engine-only cruise speed.
Propulsion is diesel-electric. Four generating sets drive two electric motors, while the sail plan — about 2,400 square metres in seven staysails — provides auxiliary thrust and, in favourable conditions, a meaningful share of propulsion. Her draught of about 5.09 m, recorded on Wikipedia, is shallow for a ship of her length and explains much of her deployment flexibility over her career.
Two dataset figures need careful reading. The dataset lists launched as 1998 and maiden voyage as 1989, which cannot both be literal build dates. Wikipedia records launch in January 1989, completion on 27 December 1989, and a maiden voyage in 1990. The 1998 date corresponds to her sale to Windstar and renaming as Wind Surf, not to her launch. This guide follows Wikipedia for the build chronology in prose and logs the conflict in the batch notes.
Design and construction
Wind Surf was built by Société Nouvelle des Ateliers et Chantiers du Havre in France, hull 274 — the same yard that built Windstar's smaller sailing ships and her sister Club Med 2. She was ordered, according to Wikipedia, in 1986, laid down in 1988 and launched in January 1989, initially under the name La Fayette.
The design scaled up an already proven idea. Windstar had shown that computer-controlled sails, a yacht-like profile and small-ship intimacy could command premium fares. Club Med wanted the same formula at resort scale. The result kept the staysail schooner rig but stretched the hull, added decks and roughly doubled passenger numbers. Eight decks are recorded on Wikipedia. Accommodation in Windstar service is described there as 150 ocean-view staterooms, 18 ocean-view suites and two bridge suites — a layout that underlines the ship's all-outside-cabin character, unusual at the time of building.
Structurally, she is a steel cruise ship first and a sailing vessel second: the masts and sails are integral to her identity and economy, but she is fully capable under power alone, and her hotel systems, safety systems and manoeuvring do not depend on sail.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Launched as La Fayette in January 1989, she was renamed Club Med 1 on 14 January 1990, according to Wikipedia. She was completed on 27 December 1989 and made her maiden voyage in 1990 for Club Med. The single Roman numeral distinguished her from the later Club Med 2, launched in 1992 from the same yard — the pair were, for a time, the centrepiece of Club Med's sea-going resort offer.
Her present name dates from 1998. When Windstar acquired her, it restored a version of her intended Windstar identity: the two large ships had originally been planned for Windstar as larger sisters to Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Song, before the project passed to Club Med with Windstar interests retaining first-refusal rights. The 1998 purchase exercised, in effect, that long-standing connection.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 1989–1990 | La Fayette | — (building / pre-service) |
| 1990–1998 | Club Med 1 | Club Med |
| 1998–present | Wind Surf | Windstar Cruises |
The dataset's names list records only "Wind Surf; Club Med I" and a single operator history of Windstar Cruises, which omits both the brief La Fayette name and the Club Med operating years. The table above follows Wikipedia's fuller name and operator chain.
Under Club Med she operated as a floating resort, marketed on sport, informality and the spectacle of a large sailing ship. Under Windstar from 1998 she moved upmarket, trading resort scale for a more yacht-like, destination-led product while retaining the same hull and rig. Registry history on Wikipedia shows Le Havre, then Mata-Utu (Wallis and Futuna), then Nassau, with a brief Rotterdam period in 2006–2007 before returning to Nassau — a paper trail that reflects ownership and flag changes rather than changes to the ship herself.
Onboard character
Era-defining character here means the sail experience itself. Passengers sail — audibly and visibly — under a working rig tended by computer, not by large deck crews hauling lines. Sail-aways, open-bridge access in suitable conditions (a noted Windstar tradition, except when entering or leaving port) and a watersports platform made possible by her size and stern design became signatures of the type.
Otherwise she is deliberately low-key for her size: no vast atrium spectacle, a yacht-club rather than resort-palace atmosphere, and public spaces scaled to a few hundred guests. That restraint was the point. In 1990 a 14,745 GT ship carrying only around 300 passengers offered a space ratio that mass-market ships of the day did not attempt, and Windstar preserved that positioning after 1998.
Major refits and incidents
No major casualty is recorded in the sources used for this guide. Her career has instead been marked by periodic refurbishment to keep a 1989 hull competitive in the premium segment, including the refits that accompanied her 1998 transfer to Windstar and later Windstar fleet refreshes.
She was featured in series 7, episode 3 of the Discovery series Mighty Ships, a useful contemporary record of her sail handling and shipboard operation in Windstar service.
Sister ships and class
Her direct sister is Club Med 2 (1992), still sailing for Club Med — a rare case of near-sisters spending most of their lives with different operators. In design lineage she is also a large development of Windstar's Wind Star, Wind Spirit and the lost Wind Song, all built at the same Le Havre yard with the same computer-controlled staysail concept at smaller scale. The dataset leaves the class field blank, and no formal class name is in general use; she is best described as a one-of-two large development of the Windstar motor-sailing yacht design.
Fate and where she is now
The dataset records her status as active and her fate as "Operating; formerly: Club Med I", which Wikipedia confirms: she remains in service with Windstar Cruises, the largest ship in that fleet, still sailing under her five-masted rig more than three decades after launch — an unusually long front-line career for a cruise ship of her generation, sustained by the fact that no newer ship quite replaces what she is.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_Surf