Star Clippers' newest, biggest sailing ship, Flying Clipper, was officially launched last month when its hull met the water for the first time at the Brodosplit shipyard in Croatia. The 300-passenger, 162-metre-long square-rigger is scheduled to start sailing in the Mediterranean early next year.

"This is the realisation of my boyhood dream when I sailed in the Baltic Sea," said Star Clippers' owner, Mikael Krafft, at the shipyard. "It is not easy to build such a boat and it is very exciting to see that in today's time the sailing vessels not possible 100 years ago are being made."