​It may be only nine years old, but the Royal Clipper, the world’s largest five-masted sailing ship, belongs to a bygone maritime age. Roger Southern  enjoys a taste of floating luxury on a cruise with a difference . . .

The five-master Royal Clipper pictured off the south of France

When you’re the best-looking girl in town, you have to expect plenty of attention. And that goes for the most handsome cruise ship plying the world’s oceans.

Which is why a holiday on board the fabulous Royal Clipper – the world’s largest five-masted vessel, weighing nearly 5,000 tonnes – gives an insight into what life must be like for a celebrity pursued by the paparazzi.

You soon become immune to the endless glint of cameras pointed from quaysides and passing vessels. You quickly get used to the powerboats circling and helicopters whirring overhead.

But it was a bit of a shock when I opened the porthole curtain in my cabin off the coast of Croatia and came face-to-face with an inquisitive bearded man in a kayak.

I gave him a wave and he paddled away, no doubt to regale his friends about his close encounter with a beautiful barquentine. The irony, of course, is that many passing predators get to enjoy the sight of the 400ft Royal Clipper in her full, 42-sailed glory while passengers can only marvel from within.

Never mind, none of us would have traded places and on one occasion, we did get the chance to take to a lifeboat and enjoy some circuits of our tall ship in sail.

It was a truly magnificent sight, which underlined our good fortune to be enjoying such a distinctive experience in an age when the choice of cruise ship sizes seems to be huge, monster or leviathan.

Arriving at the Italian port of Civitavecchia for a voyage around Italy and into the Adriatic, our eyes scanned the huge harbour. There, amid a stack of floating hotels, lay the initially incongruous form of Royal Clipper. From a distance she appeared to be a relic of a bygone age.

Only when you get very close (which perhaps explains the presence of the snooping kayaker) does it become clear that the ship – just nine years old – is a high-tech recreation of classic vessels that, 200 years ago, “clipped” the waves to bring cargoes of tea, silk and spices to Britain from the Orient.

She is the flagship of the Star Clippers fleet founded by Swedish entrepreneur Mikael Krafft, which also includes the smaller Star Clipper and Star Flyer.

Modelled on Preussen, the pride of Germany’s Flying P line which met an ignominious end on rocks after a collision near Dover in 1910, she maintains the traditions of a century ago while offering an ultra-comfortable and relaxed atmosphere.

The dining room onboard the Royal Clipper

After rigorous boarding checks on the quayside, including temperature checks for swine flu, we ascended the gangway and entered a wonderful Edwardian world of wood and brass in the company of only 150 fellow passengers.

A welcome cocktail brought immediate acquaintance with the on-deck Tropical Bar and its ever-smiling staff. We soon discovered this is the epicentre for meetings, socialising and daft after-dinner games.

Our cabin, enhanced with traditional nautical features, was a testament to the skills of British designer Donald Starkey, who has created the decor for many of the world’s classiest mega-yachts.

Soon it was time to visit the dining room, situated beneath a dazzling three-level atrium that delivers warm Mediterranean light to your table (you dine when you like, where you like and with whom you like).

On the first night, waiters hurried to serve meals before departure – a symbolic experience that few guests elected to miss on this or any other occasion.

Trooping out on to the main deck, we found the crew furiously raising jibs via a complex series of ropes and winches. The main sails, operated mechanically, were dropping slowly from housings on the masts. And all this was accompanied by the mournful yet inspiring melody of Vangelis’s Conquest Of Paradise piped through the ship’s sound system.

You must enjoy this track – it’s the captain’s favourite and he plays it frequently.

Our skipper, a blond Estonian named Sergey Utitsyn, who delivered just the right mix of experience and entertainment, steered Royal Clipper out of Civitavecchia – straight into an unexpected swell, which took guests by surprise.

The bar on board

For the rest of the 11-day idyll we enjoyed a super-smooth passage, contradicting doom-mongers who say seasickness is endemic on small cruise ships like this.

It’s only fair to point out that while Royal Clipper glides in and out of ports in full sailing regalia, she possesses a powerful engine which takes over in the open sea to ensure schedules are met.

After short hops to Italian island ports of Ponza, Capri and Taormina, where we went ashore by ship’s tender for an hour or two, an unbroken day on the water saw Royal Clipper cross the sparkling Ionian Sea to Corfu.

Cue the full sailing ship experience: The captain raising and lowering sails to demonstrate the vessel’s remarkable mobility, and a chance for teams of volunteers to man jib ropes, chanting “heave” like sailors of old.

Brave souls offered to climb the rigging to a crow’s nest halfway up one of the main masts – fully harnessed, of course. We watched these exertions, then retired to the most scarily-relaxing place on board – a sling of rigging beneath the bowsprit from where you lounge while enjoying the feeling that gravity dictates you really shouldn’t be there!

There’s much to try on the boat. After the library, spa treatments and exercise machines, we spent afternoons on a watersports platform lowered from the stern.

Here, while the adventurous snorkelled with a qualified dive master and took hair-raising rides at speed in a Zodiac inflatable, we simply swam in the warm sea before flopping on airbeds strung together in the water.

Moderate inactivity suited most guests, a healthy mix of Britons, Germans, Americans, French and at least 20 other nations. Demand is high – but not overpowering – for the ample sunbeds, many under cover from the heat of the sun.

But they were all empty on the morning of our arrival in the remarkable bay of Kotor in Montenegro. After navigating a narrow, mile-long strip of sea, a fully-in-sail Royal Clipper emerged into a huge, flooded valley surrounded by rocky peaks.

This southernmost fjord in Europe is a slightly surreal experience. As we hugged the shore, locals laid on an incredible welcome of horns, bells and waves.

A memorable day was compounded by a visit to the medieval walled town of Kotor, where a maze of narrow streets and alleys display a charm best described as crumbling chic. We left this corner of the Adriatic knowing that only Britons on a small-ship cruise will ever enjoy such an experience.

On to Dubrovnik for a walk in the rain around the restored city walls, before sunshine was restored for visits to the impossibly scenic Croatian islands of Korcula and Hvar.

Our last day was spent moored off the bustling little Croatian coastal town of Rovinj before Royal Clipper made her final majestic entrance up the Grand Canal of Venice  – a fitting finale.