Errol Flynn"One ship sails east, the other west, by the self same winds that blow; it's the set of the sails, and not the rules, that decides the way to go"
Sirocco & Zaca
Errol Flynn Larger Boat Gallery and Flynn the Yachtsman
In the 50's Errol would rent the Zaca out to raise funds. In 1958 a family rented the Zaca, watch the home movie of their trip. Zaca 1958
Barbary Yacht apparently bought by Errol Flynn after a winning night at cards. In 1973 Barbary was refitted and joined the Greenpeace anti-nuclear protest to Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, but in 1976 broke moorings in a storm and became wrecked in Auckland. After major restorations, she is once again a stunner and a charter yacht in New Zealand. Information relating to Barbary would be appreciated.
In 1929 Errol's father purchased the cutter Sirocco in Sydney from Lars Halversen for his son to journey back to New Guinea. As manager of a tobacco plantation at Laloki he wrote columns on New Guinea life for the Sydney Bulletin, became the subject of his first book Beam Ends (1937). Sailing remained a lifelong hobby and passion. The Sirocco was apparently chartered by Chauval (who ultimately cast him in Wake of the Mounty). The second story is that American film makers, wanting to make a film about New Guinea headhunters who also took footage of Flynn which was shown in Australia before being ship wrecked.
After being built under the signature of John Alden, American specialist, the 75' classic wooden ketch was launched in 1929 as Karenita, sold and became Aviner in '30, Simoon in '33, Watchette II in '34 and renamed Karenita in '36 when she was bought by a gentleman who belonged to four Boston area yacht clubs. Errol Flynn bought her in 1938 and renamed her Sirocco, which is the same name of a boat he'd owned in the late '20s and early '30s in Australia and New Guinea. [Lloyd's Register at the New York YC]
The Sirocco was the scene of some pretty wild parties, attended by some pretty famous people. One being Ronald Regan (the Gipper) used to say as President he only worked with Errol in a couple of films, when in fact he would hang out with Errol up at Mulholland Farm and go on his ketch the Sirocco which was a floating bordello. [Photo by Peter Stackpole, Catalina California, 1941]
Restored by Bill Coffman and renamed to her 1929 name Karenita, she was and remains an emblematic sailing boat off the Gulf of Saint-Tropez and frequently takes part in the regattas of the ships of its category.
It should be known that all impassioned of sailing boats are cordially invited to visit her (Karenita) by its new owner.[by Photographer]
If you have an interest the gorgeous Sirocco is for sale or 2nd site
Errol Flynn's 118 foot Schooner "Zaca" (the Chumash word for 'chief' and in Samoan meaning 'peace') was commissioned by Templeton Crocker who was the grandson of Charles Crocker, one of the "Big Four" in California history (railroad pioneer and banking) and cost $200,000.00. Crocker employed Garland Rotch to design the schooner who borrowed the lines for the second Zaca from Canada’s famed Bluenose. Zaca was at the Nunes Brothers yard at Hurriane Gulch Sausilito in 1929 and launched by Marie Dressler. Crocker sponsored expeditions to Polynesia, traveled the world in his yacht and helped rejuvenate the California Historical Society. Rotch was Zaca's first captain and her maiden voyage in 1930 was the first time a private yacht circumnavigated the globe from the West Coast. The crew included, scientists, about a dozen professional sailors as well as a photographers. Templeton Crocker met S.M. Lambert in Fiji. Lambert, a doctor in tropical medicine for the Rockefeller Foundation, entertained Crocker with tales of isolated and unexplored regions in the Solomon Islands. There, said Lambert, lived a tribe of Polynesians who, having had no contact with white men, were twenty thousand years behind modern man and the only relics of a prehistoric civilization.
In 1941, every seaworthy
private yacht over 75'was requisitioned by the U.S. Navy. Crocker was paid
just $35,000 for his beloved $350,000 schooner. She was used as a West Coast radio ship, to patrol for enemy ships and rescue downed pilots, she was renamed IX-73. She was fitted with anti aircraft machine guns and is credited with communicating positions of passing Japanese ships while off of the California coast.
She was purchased at auction for $14,350.00 in 1945 and in 1946 purchased by Flynn who proceeded to do a full, much needed restoration and de-militarization. After loosing Mullholland Farm for partial back alimony to Lili Damita Flynn made Zaca home amd stayed at Palma de Mallorca. Zaca was Flynn's pride and joy and he owned her until his untimely death in 1959.
After Flynn’s death in 1959, Zaca stayed at her berth at the Club Nautico, the crew keeping her up with the little money Patrice would give them. The attorneys for Flynn’s Estate in the meanwhile were plotting to get rid of her. Eventually they agreed to consign her to English millionaire playboy Freddie Tinsley who promised he could sell her in France. Once in France, Tinsley stripped Zaca of everything of value and, in 1965, abandoned her in the boatyard of Bernard Voisin in Villefranche. Voisin eventually claimed Zaca for non-payment of rent. Zaca further deteriorated and turned into a ghost ship. The locals claimed there were emanations of Errol Flynn coming from the vessel and the sound of wild parties at night. This all ceased after a dual Anglican-Catholic exorcism in 1979. In 1987 English electronics mogul Phillip Coussins purchased Voisin’s boat yard just to get Zaca but the deal ended up in French courts for two years. In 1990 Coussins wound up selling a now horribly deteriorated and stripped Zaca to Italian businessman Roberto Memmo. [Zaca Website]. Stories of Flynn's spirit on the Zaca
Lady from Shanghai (RKO 1947)- Film-Noir classic with Orson Welles & Rita Hayworth. Trivia: The yacht (Zaca) on which much of the action takes place belonged in real life to Errol Flynn. He skippered the yacht in between takes. Flynn also did all the aerial photography for that film's yacht scenes and is in the film incognito. For what it's worth (and I've seen many photo's of a very sober Flynn!) Kevin Jack Hagopian writes, "Much of the film was shot on location near Acapulco aboard Errol Flynn's infamous yacht Zaca, which Flynn maintained as a perpetual floating party. A drunken Flynn often captained the boat during shooting, and his rages and debaucheries put the film hugely behind schedule. When on the first day of work on the Zaca, a camera assistant died of a heart attack, Flynn ordered the corpse sewn inside a duffle and buried at sea. Quietly, the body was put ashore in Mexico and the incident hushed up." [Latitude 38]
Roberto Memmo, who, among other things, had restored the Renaissance Pallazo Ruspoli in Rome, brought 50 of the best shipwrights and craftsmen to Brest, France, for a restoration that required 18 months, 200 tons of Alaskan cedar, miles of caulking, truckloads of teak and tons of bronze. Three architects were hired to refit the interior to be as original as possible. By the time the restoration was completed in the late '90s, she was one of the most spectacular yachts in the Med, a Picasso hung in her salon, and she was berthed at Port Fontveille in Monaco. [Latitude 39]
Zaca made her grand reappearance at Monaco’s classic Regatta in 1993. Zaca is regaled as one of the finest yachts in the world. 
During the summer, Zaca can be seen in person at important Regattas in the Mediterranean. In the winter she can be found in her berth in Port de Fontvieille, Monte Carlo.