Yacht name: Pacha III
Formerly: Briseis • Cardigrae • Priamar • Arlette II
Length: 119 ft • 36 m
Year: 1931
Builder: Camper & Nicholsons

Princess Caroline’s beautiful classic yacht Pacha III , named with the initials of her three children Pierre, Andrea and Charlotte

Yacht name: Fair Lady
Length: 121 ft • 37 m
Year: 1928
Builder: Camper & Nicholsons

Photo: NT • Monaco • June 2008

This classic Camper & Nicholsons built motor yacht was spotted by NT the other day flying the White Ensign. This ensign, I understand, is usually flown at the stern during daylight hours and at the main mast while under way, by Royal Navy ships, ships of the Royal Yacht Squadron or those accompanying Queen Elisabeth II.

length - year: 121 - 1928

Yacht name: Mabrouka
Length: 60 ft • 18.4 m
Year: 1926
Builder: Camper and Nicholsons

Once owned by Lawrence Olivier (? see comment), restored to the original plans in 2000…

length - year: 60 - 1926

Yacht name: Partridge
LOA: 21.88 m - 71 ft 8 • LOD: 14.9 m - 49 ft 2 • LWL: 12.7 m - 41 ft 7
Formerly: Tanagra
Year: 1885
Builder: Camper & Nicholson
Design: J Beavor-Webb

Alex Laird & Peter Saxby found Partridge lying on her side in Tollesbury in 1979. After some detective work, which revealed her history and pedigree, restoration was started and finally completed in 1997.

length - year: 1885

Yacht name: Tanit
Length: 149 ft • 45 m
Year: 1967
Builder: Camper & Nicholsons

Lower photo: Tatiana Hughes • Upper photo: monacoeye.com • September 2007

Tanit now has a blue hull…

length - year: 149 - 1969

Yacht name: Velsheda • J K7
Length: 128 ft • 39 m
Year: 1933
Builder: Camper & Nicholson
Refit: Gerard Dijkstra

Photos: Monaco Classic Week October 2005 & Voiles de Saint Tropez October 2006

Named after first owner WL (Woolworth) Stephenson's three daughters Velma, Sheila and Daphne, Velsheda was the second of four legendary UK J-class yachts. She was restored in 1984 and then more recently completely reworked from the bare hull by Dijkstra and Mumford, with carbon-fibre mast and refaired hull, in Southampton, in 1998.

Yacht name: Hirondelle
Length: 32 m • 104 ft
Year: 1862
Builder: Camper & Nicholsons, Gosport
Owner: Prince Albert I, Albert Grimaldi of Monaco (1848 - 1922)

The Hirondelle was Prince Albert's first serious yacht (he had previously owned a small cutter Isabelle II). In 1875, he converted Hirondelle from pleasure yacht to explorer yacht with on-board lab to examine specimens and map the sea floor. Thus started his life-long passion for oceanography…

Photo credit: By kind permission of NOAA Rice Library of the NOAA Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. Image ID: ship4638, NOAA Ship Collection. The HIRONDELLE. Plate III, figure 6. In: "Results of the Scientific Campaigns of the Prince of Monaco." Vol. 84.

NOAA have kindly permitted monacoeye.com to show photos of the four great explorer ships sailed by Prince Albert at the turn of the century, reproduced from their archives. Many thanks!

The model photos were taken in the Oceanographic Museum.

Yacht name: Norge
Formerly: Philante
Length: 263 ft 2 • 80.2 m
Year: 1937
Builder: Camper & Nicholsons

Location: Stockholm
Photo date: Summer 2005

Photographer: Anders Linden

This right royal smorgasbord was captured by Anders Linden on the occasion of the Norwegian royal state visit to Sweden. Nowegian King Harald, Queen Sonja and Prince Haakon came on the royal yacht Norge to commemorate 100 years of independence from Sweden and were greeted by Swedish Princess Victoria.

Yacht name: Savvy
Formerly: Ocean Liberty • Rampager • Piropo • Criniera d'Oro • Blue Oliver
Length: 127 ft 1 • 38.7 m
Year: 1966
Builder: Globe Engineering
Architect: Camper & Nicholsons

Location: Monaco
Photo date: 22 August 2006

Yacht name: Yanneke Too
Length: 116 ft 3 • 36 m
Launch: 1996
Builder: Camper & Nicholsons
Architect: Bill Dixon
Stylist: Terence Disdale

Photo: 16 July 2006 • monacoeye

length - year: 116 - 1996

Yacht name: Black Swan
Length: 108 ft • 32.9 m (40.5 m)
Year: 1899
Builder: Camper & Nicholson

Photo: monacoeye • Monaco Classic Week • September 2005

Yacht name: Creole
Formerly: Vira • Magic Circle • Creole • Mistral
Length: 215 ft • 65 m
Year: 1927
Builder: Camper & Nicholson, Gosport, UK.
Naval architect: Charles Nicholson
Former owners: Stavros Niarchos then Maurizio Gucci (restoration)
Owner: Alessandra & Allegra Gucci

Yacht name: Avel
Length: 59 ft 9 • 18.25 m
Year: 1896
Restored: 1994
Builder: Camper & Nicholson
Naval architect: Charles Nicholson
Owner: Gucci family

Photo: monacoeye • Monaco Classic Week • September 2005

Yacht name: Our Blue Dream
Length: 121 ft • 37 m
Year: 1999
Builder: Camper & Nicholson Yachts

Yacht name: Shamrock V • J K3
Formerly Shamrock V -> Quadrifoglio
Length: 120 ft • 36 m
Year: 1930 • Refit: 1980 • 2001
Builder: Camper & Nicholson
Refit: Gerard Dijkstra

Three days away from the 7th Monaco Classic Week 2005, three famous, and rare, J class racing yachts have already arrived.

Here is Shamrock V, the oldest of the J class sloops, built in 1930 for Sir Thomas Lipton's last America's Cup. Designed by Nicholson and built by Camper and Nicholson, she is also the only remaining J class to have been built in wood.

Shamrock V was owned by two famous aviators Sir Sopwith and Sir Richard Fairey, then passed into Italian hands. Mario Crespi installed the bird's eye maple interior and in 1962 Piero Scanu had her fully rebuilt at Camper and Nicholson's.

Since then she was well kept, in Newport, Rhode Island, and refitted in 1989 by Elizabeth Meyer. Now back in the UK she has just completed another refit at the Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth.