|Canadian Vickers| 99.13M | "Christina O" | 1943/01/18/|

She was built by Vickers in Montreal in 1943 and was part of a group designed by the Royal Navy as 'twin screw corvettes', larger, faster and better armed than their smaller single screw cousins. Canadian Admiral Percy Nelles suggested they be called Frigates to differentiate them and so they were. They were built variously in England, Canada and Australia. Only 2 survive, the Christina O as a yacht and the HMAS Diamantina as a preserved frigate in an Australian maritime museum. She was laid down in 1943 and served in the North Atlantic and supported the Normandy invasion. She was sold for conversion to a cargo ship in 1947 but this never happened and in 1951 Onassis bought her for yacht conversion. That cost 4,000,000 at the time, about 40 million in today's dollars and was completed by 1954. Upon Onassis death his daughter donated the yacht to Greece for use as a presidential yacht. She was renamed Argo but never used and essentially left to rot. She was rescued by shipping tycoon Papanicolaou who spent anther 50 million to revive her. He died in 2010. She continues in charter to this day but I'm not sure who owns her. Seems to be kept in top shape.

Her Canadian Navy name was HMCS Stormont, The ships were know as 'River Class" and in the Royal navy they were indeed named after rivers. Canada already had River Class destroyers so the new frigates were named after towns and villages but the class name stuck.

I'm very surprised there is no thread talking about this yacht. The history and the history of it I thought a thread was made for this yacht ages ago.

A senior Forum member reported her being for sale July 9 2013 through Edmiston and asking 32.4 million and a brief discussion amongst members ensued. Who bought her and for how much was not revealed. She is currently managed and represented by a company in Monaco and can be chartered for about 600,000 Euros per week and up depending on season plus 'expenses'. Maybe there's a Covid discount. Bon Voyage!

I read an article about 10 years ago that mentioned that the aft deck bar had the bar stools covered in whale foreskins! Not sure if they are still.

I was opposite her in Monaco in the late 80's. Showing a photo to my Aunt who also worked there in the late 50's asked "Has she ever moved from that berth"?
She was lucky to be saved.

Or scrotums depending on the source you read. A choice that was made in response to Ari asking if there was a leather that was impervious to the effects of salt air and water. Upon being advised and possessing a famously coarse sense of humor he was delighted and ordered them at once, no doubt to the chagrin of the whales. The leather is also famously soft they say and Ari took great humor in seeing the many famous bottoms which perched thereon. As of the most recent sale they were still there. As far as I can discover the yacht is now either owned outright by Irish super lawyer Ivor Fitzpatrick or a consortium of Irish business folks headed by him.

Christina O seems to be in great shape. My parents, my older brother and I were on board her as guests during a party in Port Hercules in the very early seventies. When looking at the video above, she must have had some changes to her interior. Very tastefull designed, I must say. The famous bar stools are obviously gone.

Aristoteles Onassis used to tell the ladies, sitting on those bar stools, the origin of the leather of these stools. He thought it was funny, when the girls jumped up frightened.



A. Onassis had one of the biggest Whaling Fleets in the world at that time. Means, the resources for this leather, he had inhouse . The big Whaling Motherships and some of his Oil tankers were built at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg. His orders were the first larger contracts for B&V after the war.

Tina O. is a yacht with a great history but her original owner would not be the person, I would like to call a friend today. Very illustrious personality but rumours were telling at his time, that his wealth was not really legally won.
He was the type of entrepreneur literally walking over dead bodies on his way up, obeying the law only if absolutely neccessary.

This famous yacht really deserves to be treated here on YF.