type cruise line industry transportation fate went bankrupt in late 2007 . assets were liquidated in september 2008 . founded 1947 defunct services 2007 company 2008 headquarters miami beach florida products cruises website windjammer.com windjammer barefoot cruises was a leisure cruise line based in miami beach florida . 1 founded in 1947 the company scheduled one and two week cruises in the caribbean and central america using a fleet of sailing ships . the ships were former yachts and commercial vessels that were refurbished as cruise vessels accommodating 60 100 paying passengers and 20 40 officers and crewmembers . the ships were refitted to resemble 19th century sailing vessels called windjammers . caribbean itineraries included the british virgin islands french west indies grenadines the abc islands and the bahamas . recent and former central american itineraries included costa rica panama and belize . in september 2007 windjammer s entire fleet was suspended from operating any further cruises . although the company initially stated that it intended to resume service no significant steps in that direction took place . customers who were already booked on future cruises did not receive refunds from the canceled voyages . all remaining parts of the company that were still operating were shut down in april 2008 . later that year the company s assets were auctioned off . the four ships they operated are all laid up and were left in a neglected state of condition . 2 3 in 2014 sail windjammer a brand new company not associated with wbc began operating the s v mandalay part of the original windjammer barefoot cruises fleet . the s v mandalay is an original 236ft . tall ship that holds 58 passengers and sails out of grenada for one and two weeks cruises in the grenadines and the bvi s. in 2009 a successor organization island windjammers was founded by a group of former passengers of windjammer barefoot cruises dedicated to bringing tall ship cruising back to the caribbean . sailing weekly on six day cruises diamant a 101 foot brigantine schooner began operation in november 2009 out of st. george s grenada . 4 contents 1 fleet 2 issues 2.1 loss of s v fantome 2.2 2007 financial difficulties 3 references 4 external links fleet edit retired ships s v yankee trader s v flying cloud m v amazing grace s v fantome see below the fleet listed below were active at the time the company shut down . s v legacy s v polynesia s v mandalay s v yankee clipper issues edit loss of s v fantome edit in october 1998 hurricane mitch was responsible for the loss of the s v fantome a four masted schooner operated by windjammer . all 31 crew members aboard perished ; passengers and other crew members had earlier been offloaded in belize . the story was recorded in the book the ship and the storm by jim carrier isbn 0 07 135526 x . the ship which was sailing in the center of the hurricane experienced up to 50 foot 15 m waves and over 100 mph 160 km h winds causing the fantome to founder off the coast of honduras . 5 2007 financial difficulties edit according to reports in the wall street journal and elsewhere windjammer had been in serious financial trouble since 2007 or earlier . 6 the journal article explained that crews had gone unpaid and the fleet of ships was found to be in disrepair . there were also reports that cruise passengers had complained of being stranded either aboard the ships or at intermediate destinations . after ceasing operations for several weeks the company planned to relaunch cruises on its fleet of ships starting with s v legacy on november 3 2007 followed by the other ships in the spring of 2008 . on april 27 2010 the s v legacy was spotted tied up at puerto caldera costa rica in run down condition . in a series of 2007 press releases however the company later canceled all sailings through january 2008 . 7 no further information has been distributed by the company since november 2007 and no cruises are currently scheduled . the last press release on their website was released on december 21 2007 . 8 the florida department of agriculture and consumer services has received numerous complaints about windjammer since its shutdown because the company has not refunded prepaid fares for the canceled cruises . the department has responded to these complaints with statements indicating that windjammer is no longer in business . 2 references edit contact us . windjammer barefoot cruises . february 2 2004 . retrieved on january 9 2010 . a b windjammer cruises officially out of business . april 2 2008 . retrieved april 5 2008 . motter paul november 16 2007 . windjammer barefoot cruises the end of an empire . cruisemates.com . retrieved december 24 2008 . tall ship sailing returns to the caribbean with island windjammers pdf . islandwindjammers.com . october 24 2009 . retrieved may 24 2015 . corzo cynthia . a cornered ship 31 men and a date with doom . retrieved april 5 2008 . keates nancy august 23 2007 . a rough ride on windjammer cruises . the wall street journal . retrieved april 5 2008 . press release archive . windjammer barefoot cruises . retrieved april 5 2008 . windjammer barefoot cruises sail a tall ship to the caribbean external links edit miami portal companies portal windjammer.com archive retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title windjammer barefoot cruises & oldid 727252042 categories companies based in miami dade county floridadefunct cruise linescompanies established in 1947companies disestablished in 2008defunct shipping companies of the united statesdefunct companies based in florida1947 establishments in floridahidden categories use mdy dates from february 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 june 2016 at 18 36 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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