‘Eros’ on Display Today at St. Francis

After enduring an exhaustive 18-year refit, the magnificent 103-ft schooner Eros (ex-Fair Sarae) was turning heads on the Bay last week when owners Bill and Grace Bodle took her out for a shakedown cruise. 

In celebration of her re-entry into the local sailing scene, Bill and Grace will be giving a talk today at the St. Francis YC’s weekly Yachting Luncheon (12:30 p.m.; open to all PICYA club members) on the schooner’s colorful history and stem-to-stern refit. Brief dockside tours of the yacht will follow the luncheon. If you can’t be there, be sure to check out our feature on Eros in the October edition of Latitude 38. 

Launched in England in 1939, this 103-ft thoroughbred is currently the largest private sailing yacht based in the Bay Area — and arguably the most prestigious. Not only was she called into service during the evacuation of Dunkirk, but her past owners include shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos and Don and Lucy Bancroft.