Yacht history: Mega yacht Christine O

Every yacht designer or yacht lover knows about Christina O. Im sure of that. And for me, its where it all started. Learning and knowing things about this Yacht has never stopped...whether i am learning about Aristotle, searching through history of yacht design or reading Jackie Kennedy's biography. It has been an inspiration not only to me but also to many designers all over the world.

I took a description from Wikipedia, since i don't know everything by heart... except the stories. True or not, i have heard a lot of them and trust me history was made on this yacht.

Christina O is a private motor yacht. At 99.06 metres long she is number 29th among the Top 100 largest yachts in the world. She was originally a Canadian anti-submarine River-class frigate called HMCS Stormont and was launched in 1943. She served as a convoy escort during the Battle of the Atlantic and was present at the D-Day landings.^[2] After the end of the Second World War she was one of many surplus naval vessels; Greek shipowner Aristotle Onassis purchased her for its scrap value,^[3] US$34,000, and then spent US$4 million to convert her into a luxurious superyacht renamed Christina, after his daughter. Upon Onassis' death, Christina donated the yacht to the Greek government; the vessel is now owned by John Paul Nicolaou, an Onassis family friend also in the shipping business, who in 1998 secured the then-decaying yacht in a government-sponsored auction spent $50 million to retrofit her. He lets the yacht for elite charters and cruises.

Apart from Onassis' mistress Maria Callas and his wife Jackie Onassis, celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, Richard Burton, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Rudolph Nureyev, Greta Garbo, Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy have sailed on her.

When Aristotle Onassis died in 1975, he left the yacht to his daughter, who gave her to the Greek government for use as a presidential yacht in 1978. She was rechristened theArgo but was allowed to decay. She was put up for sale at US$16 million in the early 1990s, although there were no buyers. In 1996, a sale to an American (Alexander Blastos, whose deposit check bounced^[10]) fell through; he was later convicted of wire fraud in relation to his attempt to purchase the yacht. Finally in 1998, she was purchased by Greek shipowner John Paul Papanicolaou, an Onassis family friend^[11] who had sailed on her as a child. He changed her name to Christina O, in tribute to Aristotle Onassis, and undertook a major refurbishment between January 1999 and April 2001 that cost over $50 million.^[12] In 2005, she became available to charter via Camper & Nicholsons International, the oldest yacht brokerage company in the world. She is currently available for Charter from 455,000 Euro per week.

Christina O has a master suite, eighteen passenger staterooms, and numerous indoor and outdoor living areas, all connected by a spiral staircase. Compared to a typical 21st-century superyacht, her staterooms are small andChristina O lacks the indoor boat storage that is now standard; on the other hand, the number of living areas is large, and the amount of outdoor deck space is very generous. The aft main deck has an outdoor pool with a minotaur-themed mosaic floor that rises at the push of a button to form a dance floor, and there is a helicopter platform on the promenade deck. In Ari's Bar, the barstools retain the original upholstery crafted from a very soft, fine leather made from the foreskin of a Minke Whale.

Yours truly,
S.