The Original Windstar Yachts: Wind Star, Wind Song & Wind Spirit
Windstar Cruises is best known today for its intimate sailing yachts, but the concept dates back to a remarkable experiment in the 1980s. Wind Star, Wind Song and Wind Spirit were not simply small cruise ships with sails added for decoration. They were purpose-designed to use the wind as a genuine source of propulsion, combining modern computer-controlled sailing technology with the luxury cruise experience. Their story began with an unlikely partnership, an ambitious French shipyard and a group of engineers who had to invent much of the technology as they went along.
A crazy idea becomes a cruise line
The story begins during one of the more difficult periods for the French shipbuilding industry. The Ateliers et Chantiers du Havre were looking for new work as the traditional passenger shipbuilding market slowed, while the oil crisis had renewed interest in finding ways to reduce fuel consumption. Engineers at the Le Havre yard had already been studying wind-assisted propulsion for commercial ships when Finnish-American businessman Karl G. Andren and French cruise executive Jean-Claude Potier came forward with an idea that sounded slightly crazy but, after a serious market study, started to sound more feasible: modern sailing ships designed specifically for luxury cruising. The two men founded Windstar Cruises in 1984 and put out an international tender for the ships that would make the idea possible.
Read more about the complete history of Windstar Crusies
The winning proposal came not from one of Europe’s major cruise shipbuilding firms, but from a smaller yard in Le Havre, France. The resulting ships were unlike anything then operating in the cruise industry. Wind Star and Wind Song were about 440ft (134m) long and measuring 5,307 gross tonnes. Their smaller size was intentional. Potier wanted to create a new type of cruise vacation aimed at passengers who were attracted to the romance and sporty image of sailing, while also giving the ships the ability to visit smaller ports and islands that could be difficult for conventional cruise ships to reach.
What really separated these ‘Wind ships’ from traditional sailing vessels was what happened above the deck. The sails were not there simply to make the ships look pretty. Bureau Veritas classified them as sailing vessels with auxiliary mechanical propulsion, rather than conventional motor ships with decorative sails. Under favorable conditions the sails could provide substantial fuel savings, with the original research estimating reductions of 25 to 30 percent under typical wind conditions and potentially far more in strong beam winds. The entire system was automated, with hydraulic machinery and computer controls handling the sails, while independent safety systems could reef or furl them even in the event of a power failure.
Wind Star leads the way
Wind Star was the first of the three and became the proof that the concept could actually work. Her keel was laid at Le Havre in early 1985, and she was launched on November 13 of that year. The ship then spent another year undergoing the enormous amount of work required to turn an innovative hull into a working luxury yacht. Her four masts were more than 50 meters tall, and each carried a sophisticated system of booms, hydraulic cylinders, winches and self-furling sails controlled from the bridge. Even details that seem almost insignificant today required new solutions, including managing smoke from the funnel so that it would not contaminate the sails and automatically shifting ballast water to reduce the effects of heel.
Wind Star was delivered on October 12, 1986, after completing her sea trials in the English Channel. Her departure from Le Havre was a major local event, with tens of thousands of people turning out to see the unusual four-masted ship leave the port. She headed for the Caribbean after a brief promotional tour on the east coast and established a completely different kind of cruise product. With just 74 ocean-view cabins, a watersports platform at the stern and even an outdoor helm where guests could experience handling the ship under supervision, Wind Star was designed around the idea that the voyage itself was as important as the destination. Windstar still operates Wind Star today, and the ship remains one of the company’s defining vessels.
Then came Wind Song and Wind Spirit
Wind Song followed in 1987, essentially taking the Wind Star concept to French Polynesia. She made her inaugural voyage toward New York in April 1987 before beginning her first season in Tahiti, where the combination of a small yacht, shallow draft and sailing capability proved especially well suited to the islands. The three ships were never quite identical, and by the time Wind Spirit was being completed, the engineers were already incorporating the lessons learned from the first two. Wind Spirit left Le Havre on March 28, 1988, and began her career in the Mediterranean, operating seven-day cruises from Monaco. Her 94-person crew served only 160 passengers, and the ship was modified in several areas, including her interior layout, exterior steering stations and propulsion system. Most significantly, her electric propulsion motors were increased to 1,750 kilowatts, reflecting a more ambitious itinerary that would eventually take her between the Mediterranean and Caribbean.
By the time Wind Spirit entered service, the experiment had already proven itself. The first two ships were achieving approximately 80 percent occupancy, enough to demonstrate that there was a real market for this unusual combination of luxury, sailing and small-ship cruising. The original Windstar plan had contemplated a fourth ship, but financial limitations prevented the company from immediately expanding the fleet. Instead, the concept would evolve in a different direction. The larger vessel that had originally been envisioned as Wind Surf eventually became Club Med 1, before being acquired by Windstar in 1998 and renamed Wind Surf. At more than 187 meters and carrying more than twice as many passengers as the original Wind ships, she was clearly an evolution of the concept rather than simply another sister.
A more detailed history of the vessel can be found on our ship tour of the MSY Wind Surf
The three original Wind yachts ultimately gave Windstar something much more valuable than a unique fleet. They established the identity that still defines the company nearly four decades later. Wind Song was lost after an engine-room fire in French Polynesia in 2002, but Wind Star and Wind Spirit survived and remain in service alongside Wind Surf. Windstar now groups the three surviving sailing yachts together as its Wind Class, and the company is in the middle of a multi-year refurbishment program intended to update their interiors while retaining the character that made these ships special in the first place.
That is probably the most remarkable part of the story. In the mid-1980s, the engineers at Le Havre were essentially inventing an entirely new type of cruise ship, combining the technology of modern automation with the very old idea of using the wind to move a ship. They had no directly comparable cruise ship to copy, so they tested the hulls in towing tanks, studied the sails in wind tunnels and developed the control software from scratch. What emerged were three ships that looked like something from another era but were, for their time, highly advanced pieces of engineering.
Today, Wind Star and Wind Spirit are living pieces of that experiment, while Wind Surf represents the larger branch of the concept that eventually joined the fleet. I have separate tours of Wind Surf and Wind Spirit, while the broader story of how these three ships eventually became the foundation of the modern company is covered in The Complete History of Windstar Cruises. But before Windstar became the company we know today, there were three French-built yachts and one very unusual idea: that a cruise ship could use the wind not just to look beautiful, but to actually move.
As part of my research for this article, I uncovered some interior sketches of the public spaces, hallways, and the unique cabin setup with the bathroom arrangements. The were created during the inception phase of the project. These photos are courtesy of the book Paquebots made in France.
