‘A Floating Piece of History’: How the Gucci Family Restored This 214-Foot Sailing Yacht

Allegra Gucci’s first palpable memory was aboard her family’s sailboat, the 214-foot Creole. As she recalls growing up, the world’s largest wooden sailing yacht formed a playful cocoon for water fights, running along hundreds of feet of teak decks, swallow dives into the ocean, and, at peak performance, adrenaline rushes as the boat thundered at full sail in the Mediterranean.

Fun and games belie this superyacht’s stature. Creole is a head-turning behemoth with a crown of sails and an ink-black hull. Born in 1927, the boat is a work of genius from Charles E. Nicholson, the era’s greatest naval architect. “Creole is Nicholson’s masterpiece,” Gucci tells Robb Report in a rare interview, noting the boat has been in her family since her father purchased the then-dilapidated three-masted schooner in 1983, two years after she was born.

Having grown up cruising and racing Creole, Gucci remains both nostalgic and practical about the classic vessel. She views the majestic, nearly century-old schooner as a responsibility—her responsibility—to present to the world as its finest self. “She is iconic—you have to keep her like this,” says Gucci, noting the details that define Creole but also require an uncanny amount of maintenance. “The varnish, the brass, the lights, and the soul of the sailing yacht represent the history of naval architecture.”

Creole also represents a rare combination of meticulously preserved maritime history and European glamor. Ranked among the most photographed yachts of all time, luminaries from Sophia Loren to Spanish King Juan Carlos have been snapped alongside her.

In her younger years, Gucci viewed Creole as simply her family vessel that defined the yachting season, with weeks typically spent aboard with parents, sister and crew in the Western Mediterranean. “One summer, we said ‘we’ll just follow the wind,’” she says. “We went to the Balearic Islands just enjoying the sailing, the wind and the sea. We could be free from everything, sailing day and night.”

Creole was indeed designed to cruise the world—fast. It’s capable of reaching 17 knots which, when pushed to its limits, seems more like a living, heaving beast than a boat. “With a full set of sails and perfect conditions,” Gucci says, recalling idyllic days of full-adrenaline sailing, “the energy the boat has is incredible.”