About the family
Three generations on the water.
The story of Princess Sailing Cruises — a third-generation Rhodian, a handcrafted wooden boat, and a quieter way to sail.
The founder
Built in Rhodes. Run by a family.
Captain Vasilis Makarounas grew up in Mandraki harbour. His grandfather built caïques here in the 1950s; his father skippered the harbour ferry for forty years. Princess Sailing Cruises is his quiet answer to mass tourism — a wooden boat, a crew of three, and time to do things properly.
“The sea does not reward people who are in a hurry. It rewards the ones who slow down enough to notice.”
— Vasilis
The boat
Built by hand. Maintained by hand.
Our boat is a traditional wooden vessel — varnished mahogany, brass fittings, white sails. She was built by craftsmen who still work the way their fathers did, and she is maintained the same way.
She holds up to fifty guests, but on most days carries far fewer.
The table
Cooked the way our grandmothers taught us.
The food on board is family food — fish caught nearby, vegetables from the garden, bread, olives, white wine the families have always made. There is enough of everything, and almost nothing on the menu changes from one season to the next.
Sister brand
Makarounas Fishing Trip.
When Vasilis is not sailing the Princess, he is running half-day fishing trips on a smaller boat — the same hospitality, on a quieter scale.
Visit Makarounas Fishing Trip →