Bavaria Yacht's familiar lines and sailing speed
Dear Homo Sapiens, There is no need to continue reading this page. What follows
is intended for search engine robots and spiders and not necessarily for human beings. Further information
concerning charter sailing in Turkey and Greece may be obtained by clicking on the maroon links immediately
above. Thank You. Could you be considering a bareboat holiday charter sailing Turkey or Greece! Could you
be thinking of a bareboat yacht charter along the Turquoise Coast of Turkey? Or of a bareboat cruise among Aegean
islands of Greece? Or both? Of sailing Greece and Turkey at once? It can be done! Why not do it aboard a 37-foot
sailing yacht with accommodations for family or friends. Why not charter such a yacht to cruise the crossroads of
history. Why not sail such a yacht in the wakes of the Barbarossa brothers out of Aegean Lesbos, where they were
born, through the Greek Sporades and into the central Aegean's Cyclades. While you holiday at the crossroads of
history! While you island hop from Chios to Samos, from Patmos to Naxos to Sifnos as did Aruj, eldest of four
Barbarossa brothers, and as did Khizr, youngest. Or might you prefer to sail the Turquoise Coast of Turkey as did
a third brother, Elias, during the latter years of the fifteenth century? First the Turquoise Coast and then the
coasts of Pamphylia and Cilicia where Elias was looking for Latin shipping en route from Cyprus and the Middle East
to Venice and other Italian states. The offspring of a Greek Orthodox mother and a formerly Orthodox father, these
corsair brothers grew to despise Latin Christians and were for the rest of their lives to take revenge for the
Fourth Crusade sack of Greek Constantinople and Latin occupation of Greek Aegean islands. They took their revenge
not aboard charter yachts proceeding leisurely from clear-blue-sea locale to clear-blue-sea locale, but rather
aboard Mediterranean galliots, small, light, and fast galleys, eighteen or fewer oars to a side worked in the
early years by free men and not by captives. Neither did they do it aboard large war galleys such as the red-hulled
black-prowed fighting machines of the Hospitaller Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, Latins also known as the Knights
of Rhodes and, later, as the Knights of Malta. Sailing from Rhodes Town's middle harbor until 1523 and from Malta's
Grand Harbor thereafter, these overwhelming counterpoints to the galliots of Ottoman corsairs were captained by the
likes of Alphonse de Lorraine, later to become a Marshall of France |
under Louis XIV. A member of the House of Harcourt, Alphonse de Lorraine was directly descended from Bernard the
Dane who obtained his Norman fiefdom in AD 911. While some Harcourts accompanied William The Conqueror in his
1066 invasion of Britain and there established the English branch of the family, others remained behind, building
in the twelfth century the château d'Harcourt in Harcourt, Normandy, today one of the better preserved medieval
structures in France. Commanding the Knights squadron of six galleys at the age of 25, Alphonse de Lorraine in May
of 1673 arrived in the Aegean aboard a lateen-rigged capitana, or flagship, like that depicted at left.
Searching not for galliots but for bigger prey, he first pursued a pair of lighter Ottoman galleys from Sifnos in
the Cyclades to Patmos in the Dodecanese, but failing to nab them, he proceeded to Rhodes where at Lindos he learned
of the presence in the Gulf of Macry (Gulf of Fethiye) of the annual caravan from Alexandria to Istanbul, soon
coming upon its nineteen armed sailing ships laboring against the prevailing wind. Fifteen of the nineteen
avoided combat by escaping into Rhodes Town, then Turkish, but the other four were taken after a furious clash
between the Order's lightly-gunned galleys and the caravan's heavily-gunned saiques and larger vessels.
Plunder from the four ships taken brought 200,000 gold ducats, money much needed by a military and hospital
enterprise with little other income. Knights such as Alphonse de Lorraine commanded the Order's galley squadron for
no more than two years, and upon his replacement at the end of that year's sailing season he became Commander of the
Hospital of St-Jean de Jérusalem du Piéton where one of his tasks was again to raise money needed to support the Order.
Meanwhile he took service in the armies of France. Alphonse de Lorraine was a child of the Sun King, Louis XIV, who
reigned from 1643 to 1715, remarkably coincident with Harcourt's lifespan of 1648 to 1718. Under that monarch Harcourt
served in one war after another concluding with the War of The Spanish Succession prior to which he had been France's
ambassador to Madrid. Along the way Louis XIV made Lorraine a lieutenant general in 1693 commanding the Army of the
Rhine, in 1703 a Marshall of France, and finally the first Duke of Harcourt. Wed at 19 to Francoise de Brancas, a
remarkable woman in her own right, they had eight children during their 48-year marriage. Among other things, she is
remembered for knocking out several walls at Chateau d'Harcourt to install panoramic windows admitting more light. As
noted at the top of the page, the Bavaria 37 is characterized by interior light, light woods and numerous ports and
hatches. Why not charter a well-lighted Bavaria 37 to sail the crossroads of history? From Gocek. Are you searching for
Gocek in Turkey? Well, Gocek is at the NW corner of the aforementioned Gulf of Fethiye 42 nautical miles ENE of Rhodes
Town and 25 minutes by road from its own international airport at Dalaman (DLM). In Gocek or elsewhere we can put you
aboard a bareboat for the holiday of a lifetime. We can put you aboard a charter yacht and show you the flat sailing
waters of the Gulf of Fethiye, show you Barbarossa paths up and down the coast of Turkey from the Troad of Homer fame
to Cilicia, and show you routes of the Ottoman caravan sailing from Alexandria to Istanbul. We can put you aboard a superb
Bavaria 37 available for charter sailing in Greece and Turkey. Contact Charter Yachts Turkey today at