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1930 ?

Of all the yachts nosing into Mediterranean and Adriatic ports, certainly the most original and ornamental is Madame José Maria Sert's *Saint Alexis*. It is a snub-nosed, broad-beamed fishing-boat called a *trabaccolo*, such as Venetian fishermen have sailed ever since the Greeks came to colonize their shores. It is twenty-seven meters long, comfortable and seaworthy, provided with eyes to see, a nose to smell the wind, two big sails (and complementary Diesel engines) to speed it along.

Last summer, Madame Sert cruised as far as Constantinople on the *Saint Alexis*. Its home port is Venice, and its Italian crew are famed in Venice for their good looks—proof of which you can see in the picture opposite. On week-days, their rig is definitely pirate, but on Sundays they are turned out neatly and fashionably in white ducks and navy-blue jerseys. And Madame Sert dresses like them. FOR HER-

Madame Sert bought the boat a year ago from a fisherman, painted the hull black with a white line, completely tore out the interior, and built in incredibly comfortable, luxurious, and spacious cabins. The breadth of the boat made it possible to have a really big salon filled with comfortable lounges

covered in green billiard-cloth. Madame Sert's own cabin has walls and chairs upholstered in green, and the four guest cabins are done in various pale shades of green.

The luxury inside is in complete contrast to the almost pirate aspect of the deck—a mass of large coils of rope, big kegs of red wine and water, cushions and mattresses covered with black leather like those in gondolas. In the summer, there are always on the deck beautiful Italian Viscontis and Arrivabenes (the young Comtesse Nadina Visconti and Comte Toni Arrivabene are shown opposite), plus a sprinkling of French and American beauties such as the Comtesse de Castéja and Madame Gaston Bergery. Madame Sert adores her strange, decorative boat and plans to spend five months on it this year.

Another romantic craft in the Mediterranean is Sir War-den Chilcott's *Dolphin*, which once belonged to the Duke of Westminster. Lying at anchor in the port of Marseilles, it looks like a moving-picture set of a pirate ship, with its black-and-gold superstructure. It is actually a relic of Edwardian splendour, which has always been beautifully kept up and which is still in perfect sailing order. (Continued on page 112)