biggest sailing yacht owner

Largest Sailing Yachts in the World (with Price & Owners)

In this list of the largest sailing yachts in the world, you'll discover the top 20 remarkable ones, from the groundbreaking Sailing Yacht A at 469 feet to Jeff Bezos' massive Y721 (aka Koru) that spans 416 feet. The owners of these magnificent yachts are often influential figures in various industries, such as technology, finance, and real estate.

Sailing Yacht "A", the largest sailing yacht in the world, is owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, who also owns Mikhail S. Vorontsov and Hetairos. Other large sailing yachts are:

• Black Pearl
• Maltese Falcon
• Sea Eagle II

The yachting industry is bound to keep evolving and pushing the limits of what's possible. Who knows, maybe by 2024, the new Somnio "yacht-liner" might redefine our concept of luxury sailing altogether. For now, let's get to know more about these 20 sailing yachts, their prices, and their owners.

• Sailing Yacht "A", built in 2015, is worth $600 million. It can accommodate 20 guests and 54 crew members.
• The largest sailing yacht was designed by Philippe Starck and built by the German shipyard Nobiskrug.
• Andrey Melnichenko is a prominent figure in the worlds of business, yachting, and philanthropy.
• Top-notch industry players such as Oceanco, Lürssen, Royal Huisman, and Vitters Shipyard are known for their attention to detail and form-function balance, which could potentially increase the yacht's price.

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20 largest sailing yachts, the largest sailing yacht in the world, world's largest yacht is owned by....

Sailing Yacht A — 142.81M (468.6 Ft.)

You may have heard of Sailing Yacht A, a luxurious superyacht measuring 143 meters in length. Owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, this yacht is famous for its blend of modern design and cutting-edge technology. Its price is estimated to be around $500 million.

Sailing Yacht "A" is unique for its futuristic design, which includes a towering masts that are among the tallest in the world, a curved hull, and a striking all-black exterior. The yacht also features a state-of-the-art hybrid propulsion system that allows it to sail silently and efficiently under wind power, as well as a range of luxurious amenities such as a swimming pool, a helipad, and a spa.

Koru — 127M (416 Ft.)

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the breathtaking Oceanco's record-breaking 127-meter sailing yacht, Koru. This sailing giant was built in the Netherlands in 2023.

Koru is unique for its custom design, which was created by the renowned naval architect Ron Holland and features a sleek and modern exterior with clean lines and a metallic silver finish. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing.

Sea Cloud — 109.5M (359 Ft.)

At 109.52 meters, the elegant Sea Cloud is a breathtaking four-masted sailing ship built in 1931. It operates primarily as a luxurious charter yacht, providing guests with a unique, unforgettable experience.

Sea Cloud is unique for its historic charm and elegance, having been built in 1931 as a private yacht for a wealthy American couple. The yacht has since been restored and converted into a luxury cruise ship, but still retains many of its original features, including a wooden deck, brass fittings, and period furnishings. Sea Cloud also offers a unique sailing experience, with guests able to help hoist the sails and steer the ship.

Black Pearl — 106.7M (350 Ft.)

The eco-friendly Black Pearl, measuring 106.7 meters in length, boasts state-of-the-art DynaRig technology and holds the title of the world's largest sailing yacht, at least, when it comes to sail area.

Black Pearl is unique for its advanced technology and cutting-edge design, including a revolutionary DynaRig sail system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing, as well as a hybrid propulsion system that can switch seamlessly between diesel and electric power. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa.

Eos — 93M (305 Ft.)

The stunning 92.92-meter sailing yacht Eos has a classic design and high-performance capabilities. Owned by American fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg and American businessman Barry Diller, it is one of the largest private sailing yachts in the world.

Eos is unique for its size and spacious interior, which includes a range of luxurious amenities such as a full-size bar, a cinema, and a spa. The yacht also features a hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing, as well as a classic and elegant design with traditional features such as wooden decks and brass fittings.

Athena — 90M (295 Ft.)

Athena, an impressive 90-meter superyacht, includes five en-suite cabins, a gym, and a library. Built by Royal Huisman, this classic schooner combines luxury with deep sea exploration capabilities.

Athena is unique for its classic design and traditional sailing techniques, having been modeled after the famous J-class yachts of the 1930s. The yacht features a wooden hull, a towering mast, and a range of vintage features such as brass fittings and period furnishings. Athena also offers a range of luxurious amenities, including a swimming pool, a gym, and a library.

Maltese Falcon — 88M (289 Ft.)

You'll be amazed by the innovative Maltese Falcon, a 88-meter sailing yacht. It features a revolutionary DynaRig system and is owned by Greek socialite Elena Ambrosiadou.

Maltese Falcon is unique for its innovative DynaRig sail system, which allows for efficient and flexible sailing without the need for traditional sails and rigging. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a unique interior design that combines modern and traditional elements.

Aquijo — 85.9M (282 Ft.)

The 85-meter superyacht Aquijo is the perfect example of elegance and high-performance on the water. With an impressive interior, it offers the ultimate sailing experience.

Aquijo is unique for its large size and spacious interior, which includes a main salon with a double-height ceiling, a full-size bar, and a dining area that can seat up to 20 guests. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a unique hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing.

Sea Eagle II — 81M (266 Ft.)

The 81-meter Sea Eagle II, built by Royal Huisman, features a plumb bow, an exceptional sailing performance, and spacious interiors.

Sea Eagle II is unique for its classic design and traditional sailing techniques, having been modeled after the historic tall ships of the 19th century. The yacht features a wooden hull, a towering mast, and a range of vintage features such as brass fittings and period furnishings. Sea Eagle II also offers a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a spacious and comfortable interior with a classic and elegant design.

M5 — 78.4M (257.2 Ft.)

Owned by American businessman Rodney Lewis, the 75-meter M5 is a luxurious yacht built by Southern Ocean Marine with impressive sailing capabilities.

M5 is unique for its advanced sail system, which includes a set of high-tech carbon-fiber sails that can be adjusted automatically to optimize performance and efficiency. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a sleek and modern interior design with clean lines and contemporary furnishings.

Enigma — 74.5M (244 Ft.)

Enigma, formerly known as Phocea, is a 75-meter sailing yacht known for her sleek profile and extraordinary speed capabilities.

Enigma is unique for its sleek and modern design, which includes a striking silver exterior and a minimalist interior with clean lines and contemporary furnishings. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing.

Badis I — 70M (230 Ft.)

Badis 1, a 70.8-meter sailing yacht, boasts a stunning aluminum hull, a powerful rig, and a luxurious interior accommodating up to 12 guests.

Badis I is unique for its classic design and traditional sailing techniques, having been modeled after the famous J-class yachts of the 1930s. The yacht features a wooden hull, a towering mast, and a range of vintage features such as brass fittings and period furnishings. Badis I also offers a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a spacious and comfortable interior with a classic and elegant design.

Vertigo — 67.2M (220 Ft.)

Famed for its contemporary design, Vertigo is a 67-meter sailing yacht built by Alloy Yachts. With impressive features and an award-winning interior, it's a dream come true for sailing enthusiasts.

Vertigo is unique for its striking and modern design, which includes a sleek and minimalist exterior and a spacious and comfortable interior with clean lines and contemporary furnishings. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing.

Hetairos — 66.7M (219 Ft.)

Hetairos, owned by a Russian billionaire, is a 66.7-meter high-performance sailing yacht. With an advanced composite hull, it promises excellent speed and luxurious amenities.

Hetairos is unique for its advanced composite construction, which makes it one of the fastest and most efficient sailing yachts in the world. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a striking black and silver exterior design.

Adix — 65.5M (215 Ft.)

The 65.5-meter three-masted schooner Adix is a beautiful sailing yacht known for its timeless design and quality craftsmanship.

Adix is unique for its classic design and traditional sailing techniques, having been modeled after the historic tall ships of the 19th century. The yacht features a wooden hull, a towering mast, and a range of vintage features such as brass fittings and period furnishings. Adix also offers a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a spacious and comfortable interior with a classic and elegant design.

Mikhail S. Vorontsov — 63.4M (208 Ft.)

The Mikhail S. Vorontsov is a 64.5-meter sailing yacht with a completely wooden hull, offering a classic and captivating charm.

Mikhail S. Vorontsov is unique for its opulent and extravagant design, which includes a range of luxurious features such as a grand staircase, a full-size ballroom, and a range of ornate decorations and furnishings. The yacht also features a range of modern amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing.

Perseus^3 — 60M (197 Ft.)

The high-performance sailing yacht Perseus^3, measuring 60 meters in length, includes a carbon-fiber mast, a powerful regatta rig, and cutting-edge features for the ultimate sailing experience.

Perseus^3 is unique for its advanced sail system, which includes a set of high-tech carbon-fiber sails that can be adjusted automatically to optimize performance and efficiency. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a sleek and modern interior design.

Ngoni — 58M (190 Ft.)

Ngoni, a stunning 58-meter sailing yacht built by Royal Huisman, is known for its innovative design and advanced sailing technology.

Ngoni is unique for its unconventional design, which includes a striking black and gold exterior and a minimalist interior with clean lines and contemporary furnishings. The yacht also features a range of luxurious amenities, including a beach club, a cinema, and a spa, as well as a hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing.

Twizzle — 57.5M (188 Ft.)

Last but not least, the 57.5-meter sailing yacht Twizzle offers exceptional sailing performance paired with timeless elegance, making for a luxurious experience on the water.

Twizzle is unique for its spacious and comfortable interior, which includes a range of luxurious amenities such as a full-size bar, a cinema, and a spa. The yacht also features a hybrid propulsion system that allows for efficient and flexible sailing, as well as a sleek and modern design with clean lines and contemporary furnishings.

Fleurtje — 57.4M (188 Ft.)

Fleurtje is a classic sailing yacht that was built in 1961 by the Dutch shipyard De Vries Lentsch. The yacht underwent a major refit in 1993, which included the installation of a new engine, a new mast, and a range of modern amenities.

Fleurtje features a classic design with a wooden hull and a traditional rig, which gives it a timeless and elegant appearance. The yacht also features a spacious and comfortable interior with a range of luxurious amenities, including a full-size bar, a cinema, and a spa. It is also known for its impressive sailing performance, with a top speed of 12 knots under sail and a range of advanced technologies that allow for efficient and flexible sailing.

Is Sailing Yacht "A", which is 143 meters long, 24.88 meters wide, has a draft of 8 meters, and weighs 1428 tons. It can accommodate 20 guests, and has 54 crew members.

The crew sizes, and operating costs of these yachts can vary widely depending on a number of factors, including the size and complexity of the yacht, the level of luxury and amenities onboard, and the location and frequency of use.

Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko. Melnichenko is known for his extravagant lifestyle and his love of luxury yachts. He is the owner of the largest and iconic Sailing Yacht "A", which is considered one of the most expensive and technologically advanced yachts ever built. He is also the owner of the motor yacht "A", which was built by the same shipyard as Sailing Yacht "A" and features a similarly striking design.

Melnichenko was born on March 8, 1972, in Gomel, Belarus. In addition to his business and yachting interests, Melnichenko is also a philanthropist who supports a range of charitable causes through his Andrey & Aleksandra Melnichenko Foundation. The foundation focuses on supporting education, science, and culture, and has provided funding for a range of projects in Russia and around the world.

Melnichenko is one of the wealthiest people in Russia, with a net worth of over $18 billion, according to Forbes. He made his fortune in the energy and chemical industries, having founded the fertilizer producer EuroChem and the coal producer SUEK. He is also a major shareholder in the power company Siberian Generating Company and the pipe producer TMK.

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SAILING YACHT A – World’s Biggest Sailing Yacht – $600 Million

SAILING YACHT A measures 143 meters making her the world’s biggest sailing yacht.

SAILING YACHT A is far more than a luxury vessel. She is a masterpiece of design and innovation combining sleek metal surfaces with futuristic naval architecture that took over two years to complete.

Launched in 2017, both the interior and exterior of this mega sailing yacht were designed by Phillippe Starck, who calls SAILING YACHT A one of his most high-profile projects.

The superyacht has taken on voyages all around the world and was most recently spotted sailing off the coasts of Gibraltar and Cyprus.

SAILING YACHT A interior

Both the interior and exterior of SAILING YACHT A were designed by Philippe Starck , a French architect known for his wide range of design projects.

He famously worked on the impressive MOTOR YACHT A, and the two iconic vessels share a lot of similarities in their layout and specifications.

Both yachts look incredibly futuristic and are sure to attract attention wherever they go.

While no exact details are known about the interior of SAILING YACHT A, it is rumored that she has an underwater observation pod with 30 cm (1 ft) thick glass located in the keel of the vessel.

This is one of the few parts where design mockups are publicly available, and the style of the interior can be examined.

The observation pod appears to have cream upholstery that stretches across the floor and ceiling of the cabin.

Two large symmetrical glass windows allow guests to view the breathtaking underwater world without even having to leave the yacht.

A third window is located at the bottom of the pod, which lets it feel like a true 360-degree experience and is almost comparable to a submarine.

A small floating side table provides guests with a space to place drinks or snacks in the pod and enjoy a one-of-a-kind dining experience in this unusual location.

Since the pod is located at the keel of the yacht, the large propellers are most likely visible from the windows suggesting it is most commonly used at anchor.

The superyacht has ten cabins that can accommodate 20 guests as well as a further 54 crew member.

Paparazzi photos and the work of yacht spotters provide a rare glimpse into the interior of SAILING YACHT A.

No official footage of cabins or salons has been released, although Starck’s past work suggests that the yacht would be furnished with opulent elements that perfectly combine luxury with style.

Silver and metal decorations play a large role and tie the interior design of the yacht together. 

However, SAILING YACHT A was launched much later than her motorized companion suggesting her interior might be more modern with minimalistic elements rather than lavish furnishings.

Occasional photographs shot through open doors, and portholes show expensive art pieces decorating the interior of the yacht and rather absurd design choices like a set of chairs shaped like large human heads.

The yacht appears to feature a large, open salon with an elevated seating area and symmetrical arches on either side.

While details aren’t known to the public, it is rumored that SAILING YACHT A features a luxurious spa area, a sizable gym as well as an owner’s suite with several rooms that is only accessible via fingerprint.

The massive private area is said to feature a 60-inch television that disappears into the floor as well as a rotating bed. 

Considering she is the largest sailing yacht in the world, it is surprising that SAILING YACHT A can only host 20 guests.

This suggests that there are spacious entertainment areas located on board, including several saloons and ample below-deck space for crew members.

Due to her large size and a small number of cabins, it is assumed that SAILING YACHT A can welcome a large number of day guests onboard for special events and celebrations.

Biggest sailing yacht controversy

It has been the topic of debate that SAILING YACHT A is not the largest yacht in the world but instead the ‘largest sail-assisted motor yacht.

Depending on the definition used, that would make BLACK PEARL the biggest sailing yacht in the world.

The most expensive sailing yacht

SAILING YACHT A is the most expensive sailing yacht in the world and cost an estimated price of US $600 million – a relatively “affordable” price considering her large size and tonnage.

A calculated US $48,000 per ton is considered low in the yachting industry, where European yachts are usually priced at US $60,000 per ton and over.

This average price would bring the value of SAILING YACHT A up to nearly US $800 million. However, due to the fact that the official sales price has not been released to the public, these numbers are mere estimates and cannot be validated officially.

Since the yacht is a custom project and one of a kind, it can be assumed that the total value of SAILING YACHT A lies far higher than her initial price.

In addition to any cost for the crew, supplies, and docking fees, she has annual running costs of US $50-75 million.

SAILING YACHT A is currently not available for sale or charter.

Specifications

SAILING YACHT A is incredibly large for a sailing yacht, and even compared to the longest motor yachts in the world, she would rank in the top ten.

Paired with her unusual futuristic design, this mega sailing yacht has a length of 143 meters (469 ft), a beam of 25 meters (82 ft), and a draft of 8 meters (26 ft) making her a more than an impressive vessel.

SAILING YACHT A was built by Nobiskrug , a German superyacht builder at their Kiel shipyard, and launched in 2017 after more than two years of construction.

To date, SAILING YACHT A is the largest yacht ever built by Nobiskrug and remains their flagship.

It is considered the most complicated project to ever be completed in the sailing industry and gained international media attention on its launch date. It has a total volume of 12.558 tons and is powered by hybrid diesel-electric engines. 

SAILING YACHT A is considered the longest sailing yacht in the world and is more than 36 meters (118 ft) longer than BLACK PEARL, which ranks in second place on the list.

Coincidentally her project name was WHITE PEARL which is a reference to her brilliant white exterior, although it couldn’t have referred to BLACK PEARL since she was only launched in 2018, a year after Melnichenko’s masterpiece.  

Her three-carbon masts stand at an impressive 100 meters (328 ft), making them some of the largest in the world and taller than Big Ben in London.

However, her large size is sometimes also limiting as she struggles to fit underneath most bridges and is therefore constrained to certain routes.

She once passed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with only 20 feet to spare between her masts and the bottom of the famous bridge.

She is rumored to have an electric gimbal crow’s nest, which allows for remote operation and advanced wind measurements. Her sails are all white, and her masts have nearly sickle-like shapes, which add to her striking futuristic appearance.

It is noteworthy that she is commonly photographed with her sails down, which suggests she might be using her support engines more frequently than true wind power.

With a sail area of more than 3.700m^2 (40.000 square ft), she can reach top speeds of up to 21 knots which is supported by her twin 4895 Horsepower MTU engines .

Her average cruise speed lies at 16 knots, and her total range is estimated to lie at 5320 nautical miles. She features a state-of-the-art sail system that is able to raise and lower the sails and anchors at the touch of a button. 

SAILING YACHT A has a steel hull and composite steel superstructure, which is unusual in the superyacht industry as most shipyards choose aluminum to reduce weight and keep the vessel light.

She currently sails under the flag of Bermuda, which is common for prominent sailing yachts.

During construction, SAILING YACHT A was called project WHITE PEARL, a fitting name for this sizable vessel.

Like her interior, the exterior of SAILING YACHT A was designed by Philippe Starck, although the Dutch studio Dykstra Naval Architects played a role in the naval architecture of the vessel.

They specialize in sailing yachts of all sizes and have been involved in many prominent projects in the industry over the years.

She features eight teak decks with a large swimming pool located in the center and several elevators spread across the yacht.

She is even said to carry a submarine. The main pool is lowered into the deck allowing for additional privacy for the owners.

Her hull has 24 shell doors, which are used to access equipment and provide additional deck space if needed. She is accompanied by four tenders also designed by Philippe Starck and built by Lloyd Stevenson in New Zealand.

Their sleek and elegant design matches that of the main vessel, and they are used for transporting guests and taking them on excursions.

One of the tenders of SAILING YACHT A is a carbon fiber speedboat especially reserved for the owner who can operate the vessel autonomously whenever required without the aid of crew members.

This allows Melnichenko, who is a fan of driving high-speed cars to be independent when staying aboard his luxury yacht. The tender is small but powerful, reaching speeds of up to 53 knots.

The larger tenders can seat up to eight passengers and feature panoramic windows ideal for sightseeing and exploring but are much slower at only 30 knots. 

The aft features a large garage used for storing jet skis, tenders, and other equipment.

High-profile artists such as Snoop Dogg are rumored to have performed here, although detailed evidence of such concerts remains unknown.

Whenever the aft isn’t used for performances or parties, it can be transformed into a swimming platform designed in the yacht’s iconic futuristic style. 

However, despite her cutting-edge design features, SAILING YACHT A surprisingly also includes classic nautical elements. She has a wooden steering wheel that is reminiscent of a pirate ship, although it is not operational.

The captain of the vessel can instead use modern technologies to operate the massive yacht via a small joystick and touchscreen.

There are symmetric extendable balconies that protrude from the bridge of the yacht and allow the crew to have a better view to be able to gauge the dimensions of the immense vessel.

Of course, SAILING YACHT A has a modern underwater lighting system that illuminates the vessel perfectly at night.

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Sea Eagle II: The inside story of the world’s largest aluminium sailing yacht

• June 17, 2020

Rupert Holmes talks to the build and design teams behind the 81m Royal Huisman flagship Sea Eagle II, which recently completed her sea trials off the coast of the Netherlands

Royal Huisman has an enviable track record of producing superlative sailing superyachts , with hundreds of projects completed to date. Yet the latest vessel to leave the shipyard is extraordinary even by these standards. She is the world’s largest aluminium yacht and is one of the top ten biggest sailing yachts ever built. 

Sea Eagle II is a magnificent 81m/266ft three-masted Panamax schooner, created by the same Dykstra and Mark Whiteley Design collaboration that produced the stunning 56m/186ft Royal Huisman ketch Aquarius just over a year ago. 

Her very experienced owner has sailed all his life and spent a lot of time at sea. “ Sailing around the world in the weekends is a phrase often used to outline his days on board,” says Royal Huisman project manager Arjo Spans. He is also a repeat client – the original Sea Eagle is a 43m/143ft Frers/Rhoades Young design launched by the Dutch yard in 2015. 

Sea Eagle II is due to be delivered to her owner in July 2020. Photo: Tom Van Oossanen

Initially the brief for the new boat was for a more classical yacht, similar to the 79m/259ft three-masted gaff schooner Athena , which Royal Huisman built for Silicon Valley mogul Jim Clark in 2004. However, the owner quickly realised he would prefer a more modern yacht: a fast-looking hull shape with straight lines, long waterline and plumb bow. The concept of Sea Eagle II was born. 

“Having worked with him to build the original Sea Eagle , we understood the owner’s priorities from the start,” says Spans. “These are: low maintenance, functionality, and safety, including ease of moving around the yacht, even when heeled at sea.

“For each of the key aspects of the boat he asked for three proposals, he would then choose one of them and leave us to implement it,” Spans adds. “He put a huge amount of trust in the shipyard and in our craftsmanship.”

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The scale of this yacht is nothing short of astounding. The sleek hull lines belie the 4m/13ft freeboard and the two-tier deckhouse, including a half-raised bridge, looks entirely in proportion. The main deck-level accommodation has a huge expanse of glass, with the 360º view interrupted only by minimal mullions. There are also acres of cockpit space, with room left over for a long sweep of uncluttered aft deck.

Mark Whiteley was responsible for developing the interior and refining the exterior styling. He created a simple and modern style for the interior, with straight lines. Lacquered Alpi walnut wall panels, brushed natural oak floors and dark stained wenge trims are complemented by light colour leather handrails and upholstered wall panels.

Part of the brief was for the yacht to be able to host business meetings – the forward part of the superstructure therefore includes a large saloon with expansive seating, plus a 16-seat table for formal dining.

The largest winches are capable of a tremendous 18-tonne pulling load. Photo: Rondal

A technical challenge 

Dykstra Naval Architects drew a narrow and efficient hull shape with a maximum beam of only 12.4m/40ft, while displacement has been kept down to a relatively light 1,050 tonnes at full load. The final shape was achieved following extensive computational flow dynamics (CFD) calculations, velocity prediction programming (VPP), and testing in both tow tanks and wind tunnels. These all helped to determine sail balance, keel position and predicted rudder angles.

The plumb bow is balanced by a modest, but graceful, stern overhang, with a contemporary, relatively wide transom at deck level. Twin knuckle lines extend aft from near the bow, merging into one amidships and then forming a chine aft. Right aft the hull has negative curvature on the flare below the chine, which gives interesting reflections in the gleaming paintwork.

The lead naval architect, Dykstra’s Erik Wassen, told me he introduced the knuckle lines to give the hull “a bolder and more interesting shape.” The owner liked the concept and Mark Whiteley helped to refine the detail. Wassen describes the underwater shape as being: “a very modern round bilge shape, with a nice slender hull that gives good sailing capabilities.” Appendages are a conventional fin keel and balanced rudder.

Photo: Priska van der Meulen

The latter presented an interesting technical challenge, according to Wassen. Initially they looked at fabricating the rudder stock in steel, but that alone would weigh three tonnes. Screening a number of alternatives led to a decision to use carbon for the stock, with a foam core section clad in a relatively thin composite skin for the blade. 

The result is what it’s producer, Royal Huisman’s sister company Rondal, believes to be the biggest ever carbon rudder, weighing only 1,250kg, which helps to keep weight out of the ends of the boat. The weight saving here also enabled the intended fore and aft trim to be achieved with the ballast in its optimal location.

The rudder includes load sensors to record and verify torque, side forces and bending moment while sailing. “There is not much load data available for rudders of this size of sailing yacht, so it’s very conservatively engineered,” says Spans. Fibre-optic sensors are incorporated to enable a database to be created that will help with designing future composite rudders for very large yachts.

Due to the distance of the helm stations from the rudder, the steering is via an electric-hydraulic system, which means there’s no feedback from the helm. The plan is to investigate whether data from the sensors can be used in a feedback system to give a more natural feel to steering the boat under sail. 

Structural engineering

This is one of the most interesting elements of yacht design, yet is all too often under appreciated. Extensive modelling showed a couple of unexpected problems that needed clever solutions during Sea Eagle II ’s design and engineering. 

Instead of the hull flexing smoothly under load, like an I-beam, the presence of a forward intermediate deck introduced hard spots in this area, resulting in stress concentrations at the forward end of the superstructure. This required a lot of design work to create a smooth transition of stress from the lower deck to the intermediate one and then on to the upper deck.

Structural engineering was extensively modelled for Sea Eagle II

The roof of the superstructure also posed a challenge, in that the inside surface of a beam needs to become shorter as it flexes. But the original plan for the aluminium roof wasn’t able to accommodate this, with the result the modelling showed stresses concentrating in the corners of the mullions and in the glass itself. 

The solution was to avoid welding the top of the mullions to the roof, opting instead for a flexible joint that allows for movement when necessary. Wassen likens it to the joints in large buildings that need to be included to allow for thermal expansion and contraction.

Whiteley also helped to refine the exterior styling. In addition to the detail of the knuckles, his input helped to refine the shapes – particularly curves and softening corners – in the superstructure.

COVID-19 restrictions meant her delivery date had to be pushed back by 3 months. Photo: Crea Fragma / Rondal

Panamax rig

The requirement to be able to clear the Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific end of the Panama canal called for the schooner rig with three equal masts. All are of carbon and are made by Rondal, with integrated sail handling systems and Carbo-Link carbon standing rigging.

Each mast has in-boom furling, while the aft two have staysails for use when reaching. The tank and wind tunnel testing was used to verify different headsail options, particularly to determine the differences between a large blade jib versus a large staysail or yankee.

“Obviously you have better windward performance with a large blade,” says Wassen, “but as soon as you bear away the yankee is much more forgiving in trimming, so we decided that made more sense.” A further advantage is that when the yankee is part furled the sheeting point remains the same. 

Rondal’s Integrated Sailing System consists of the three carbon Panamax masts with furling booms, hydraulic boomvangs, headsail furling systems, deck winches and equipment, captive winches and continuous solid carbon standing rigging by Carbo-Link, all equipped with load sensing capabilities. Photo: Rondal

In addition, a blade jib requires much higher sheet loads to maintain leech tension. Even though Sea Eagle II is a three-masted yacht, the yankee sheet loads are still predicted to reach 18 tonnes – but this still allows standard-size captive winches to be used, rather than larger custom-made units.

The Panamax limitation obviously poses the question as to whether sail area needed to be compromised to fulfil this criteria. However, this is clearly not the case for Sea Eagle II . Hull speed is close to 20 knots and the yacht is clearly capable of surfing at much higher speeds, despite being designed as a pure cruiser. This role, of course, suggests keeping heel angles to a maximum of 10-15°. 

Nevertheless, the VPP figures suggest potential boat speeds of 17-18 knots in 16 knots of true breeze with a true wind angle of 70°. “As soon as you can ease the sheets a little bit, we have a lot of sail area,” says Wassen, “so on a beam reach, I wouldn’t be surprised if a steady 20 knots is possible.” 

Specification

LOA: 81m (266ft) Air draught: 62m (205ft) Hull: Aluminium Guest accommodation: 11 Crew accommodation: 14 Exterior styling: Dykstra Naval Architects and Mark Whiteley Design Naval Architecture: Dykstra Naval Architects Interior design: Mark Whiteley Design Classification: Lloyd’s MCA (LY-3)

First published in the April 2020 edition of Supersail World.

The largest yachts owned by tech billionaires, from Mark Zuckerberg to Jeff Bezos

• Megayachts have become a status symbol for the richest of the rich.
• In recent years, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have splurged on enormous boats.
• These are the biggest yachts owned by tech billionaires.

The average Joe celebrating a personal renaissance after, say, the end of a long-term relationship or when approaching a fresh decade might commemorate it with an ankle tattoo or a sports car. But if you're a billionaire, you may instead spend hundreds of millions on a yacht .

A few years after he and his wife divorced, Jeff Bezos shelled out on a megayacht. Last year, Bezos debuted the 127-meter vessel "Koru," a Māori symbol that signifies a fresh start — perhaps referring to that with his fiancée Lauren Sanchez.

Earlier this year, just before his 40th birthday, Mark Zuckerberg became the rumored owner of a yacht originally built for a Russian oligarch.

Superyachts have increasingly become ultrawealthy status symbols , providing highly secluded leisure and networking sites. They are — even more so than real estate — the single most expensive asset you can own.

"It's a bit of a celebration of your success in life, of wealth," Giovanna Vitelli, the chair of the Azimut Benetti Group, the world's biggest producer of superyachts, told Business Insider.

While many tech billionaires have bought yachts, the richest of the rich, like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, have gone bigger. Their boats are virtual palaces at sea, decked with amenities like gyms, spas, pools, nightclubs, and movie theaters.

A look at these megayachts — broadly defined as over 70 meters long, mostly custom-built, and often costing nine figures — offers a glimpse into how the .00001% lives. It's something few others will ever get to experience. Even chartering a yacht of this size for a week typically costs upwards of $1 million.

One major thing that hundreds of millions of dollars can buy is privacy. There are likely yachts that have not been publicly recorded or registered — for example, Evan Spiegel is rumored to own the 94-meter megayacht Bliss. In an industry ruled by discretion , deciphering who owns what is typically an exercise in stringing together many clues.

Here are the largest yachts owned by tech billionaires, listed in order of length.

Jeff Bezos: Koru and Abeona

Amazon founder Bezos' $500 million megayacht, the 127-meter Koru, made a splash last year as she crisscrossed the Mediterranean in her first summer at sea, with her 75-meter support vessel Abeona in tow.

The sailing yacht, which is hard to miss thanks to her massive size and unique design, was host to Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez's famous friends . The couple held an engagement party on board, which reportedly drew guests including Bill Gates, Ari Emanuel, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Just a week later, they were seen on the streets of Dubrovnik, Croatia, with Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry, and Usher.

Even before her completion, Koru made headlines. She drew the ire of some Dutch people, who vowed to hurl eggs after she was announced a historic bridge in Rotterdam might be taken apart to allow the Oceanco boat through. Luckily, the shipyard made alternative plans, and an egg crisis was averted.

Among yacht world insiders , Koru is widely praised for her craftsmanship.

"I heard back in 2018 or something that somebody had ordered a classic sailing yacht," one superyacht expert told BI. "You order 125 meters, that's not really going to be classic. But it is. I think it's pretty cool."

Mark Zuckerberg: Launchpad

Earlier this year, the yacht world was rife with rumors that Zuckerberg purchased Launchpad, a 118-meter superyacht originally designed for a sanctioned Russian businessman.

The ship made her maiden voyage in March, going from Gibraltar to St. Maarten and mooring in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Little is known about her interior, but photos show a large swimming pool and helipad. Her price, too, has been kept under wraps but is said to be nine figures.

Eric Schmidt: Whisper

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt made waves last year when he agreed to buy the Alfa Nero , the yacht of a sanctioned Russian oligarch, for $67 million in an auction conducted by Antigua and Barbuda. But he backed out of the deal following legal issues over her true owner. He quietly purchased Kismet instead. The 95-meter-long Lürssen-built boat was formerly owned by the Jacksonville Jaguar's billionaire owner Shahid Khan . Schmidt renamed her Whisper.

The ship can fit 12 guests and a crew of 28, according to Moran Yacht & Ship, which oversaw her construction. She features a master deck with a private jacuzzi, full-service spa, lap pool, movie theater, and outdoor fireplace.

While her final sale price was not public, she was listed for 149 million euros (about $161 million at current exchange rates), and at a charity auction in January, one week aboard the ship went for $2.4 million, according to industry outlet Yacht Charter Fleet.

Barry Diller: Eos

Barry Diller , the chairman of digital media company IAC, co-owns the megayacht Eos with his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg , who is immortalized by a figurehead sculpture by Anh Duong.

One of the largest private sailing yachts in the world, the three-masted Lürssen schooner measures 93 meters long. She took three years to be built before being delivered to Diller in 2009, and since then, little has come to light about her interior and features.

The power couple has hosted many celebrities on the Eos, which spends her summers crisscrossing the Mediterranean and New Year ' s Eve in St. Barts . Over the years, guests have included Oprah Winfrey, Emma Thompson, Anderson Cooper, and Bezos, leading some to believe she provided inspiration for his Koru.

Jim Clark: Athena

Netscape founder Jim Clark purchased the 90-meter sailing yacht Athena in 2004.

"I could easily have built a 50- or 60-meter motor yacht that would have had the same space as Athena, but I was never really interested in building a motor yacht," he told Boat International in 2016. "To my eye, she's one of the most gorgeous large sailing yachts, maybe the most gorgeous large sailing yacht in the world."

Athena has room for 10 guests and 21 crewmembers, and the only change Clark says he'd make in her design is adding more space for his kids.

"If I was forced to change something, I would convert the office on the lower deck into a children's room," he said.

The former Stanford professor tried to sell her at various points — listing her for $95 million in 2012 , $69 million in 2016, and $59 million in 2017 — but she has yet to change hands.

Larry Ellison: Musashi

Oracle founder Larry Ellison has owned several superyachts over the years, including the Katana, the Ronin, and the Rising Sun — which he sold to fellow billionaire David Geffen .

He purchased his current boat, Musashi, in 2011 for a reported $160 million from custom-yacht giant Feadship.

Named after a famous samurai warrior, the 88-meter-long yacht has both Japanese and Art Deco-inspired design elements. She also boasts amenities including an elevator, swimming pool, beauty salon, gym, and basketball court.

Ellison is known for his extravagant spending — private islands, jets, a tennis tournament — and yachting is among his favorite and most expensive hobbies. He took up racing them in the 1990s and financed the America's Cup-winning BMW Oracle Racing team .

Laurene Powell Jobs: Venus

Steve Jobs' wife, investor and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, inherited a nearly finished 78-meter yacht named Venus when the Apple cofounder died in 2011.

After spending years vacationing on Ellison's yachts, Jobs wanted one for himself. He designed Venus with French starchitect and decorator Philippe Starck , and she was worth $130 million at completion.

"Venus comes from the philosophy of minimum," Starck said of her design. "The elegance of the minimum, approaching dematerialization."

Jobs and Starck began working together in 2007, the designer told Vanity Fair , and held monthly meetings over four years. Venus was delivered in 2012 to Jobs' specification: six identical cabins, a design to ensure spaces of absolute silence, and the most up-to-date technology.

"There will never again be a boat of that quality again. Because never again will two madmen come together to accomplish such a task," Starck told the magazine. "It was not a yacht that Steve and I were constructing, we were embarked on a philosophical action, implemented according to a quasi-religious process. We formed a single brain with four lobes."

Charles Simonyi: Norn

Early Microsoft employee Charles Simonyi has purchased two megayachts from the German shipyard Lürssen: the 90-meter Norn and 71-meter Skat.

Delivered in 2023, Norn is full of luxe features, including an outdoor cinema and a pool floor that lifts to become a light-up dancefloor. She shares a militaristic style with Skat , which Simonyi sold in 2021.

Skats's name is derived from the Danish word for treasure, and she had a listing price of 56.5 million euros and was launched in 2002.

"The yacht is to be home away from my home in Seattle, and its style should match the style of the house, adapted for the practicalities of the sea," Simonyi once said .

Sergey Brin: Dragonfly

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has built a flotilla of yachts, boats, and toys known as the "Fly Fleet."

Named after a once-secret Google product , the largest of Brin's armada is the sleek Dragonfly , which boasts a movie theater and a helipad. The 73-meter-long vessel was built by the Australian shipyard Silver Yachts and can fit up to 18 guests and 16 crew members, according to SuperYacht Times.

Also in his fleet is the superyacht Butterfly, a mere 38 meters long. Often moored in the Bay Area, her crewmembers spend their downtime kitesurfing and giving swimming lessons to local kids.

The rest of his marine lineup includes a smaller boat called Firefly, as well as Jet Skis, foilboards, dinghies, and kiteboards. She takes a team of 50 full-time employees to manage, steer, and maintain the entire operation.

Sindhu Sundar contributed to an earlier version of this story.

Correction: May 6, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated Giovanna Vitelli's title. She is the chair of the Azimut Benetti Group, not a vice president.

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As Far As You Can Sea: World’s Largest Superyachts

Multimillion-dollar mega yachts.

by Emma Treagus Published on February 2, 2024

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With onboard swimming pools, cinemas, helicopter landing pads, and spas, the world’s largest superyachts have more facilities than your ‘average’ five-star hotel.

Owned by some of the world’s wealthiest people—along with a few anonymous owners who’d prefer to keep their luxury transport a secret—these mega yachts redefine the word “boat” into something indescribably sleek, stylish, and seriously impressive. 

If superyachts are your thing, you’ll want to read on for all the facts and figures on all of the largest yachts in the world.

The 26 largest yachts in the world

Multimillion-dollar mega yachts: our ranking methodology.

A superyacht or mega yacht is typically a motor yacht or sailing yacht with a length of 30 meters (100 feet) or more. For this ranking, we looked at the superyachts and luxury expedition mega yachts that are used privately or made available for charter. We excluded so-called ‘residential superyachts’ (think Njord and The World), which are essentially luxury apartment buildings at sea where people own private residences inside the superyacht rather than the whole yacht. By researching diverse, reliable sources like Wikipedia and the Superyacht Times, we compile a list of the largest yachts in the world.

Curious about other striking superlatives? Check our round-up of the most expensive cars in the world and the most expensive private jets in the world . They are both perfectly good alternatives to owning a yacht. And if you prefer to stay home, we’ve ranked the biggest homes and the most expensive houses in the world to give you some inspiration too.

26. Y721 (aka Koru) | 417 feet—127m

Ever wonder where Jeff Bezos spends his downtime? As of today, we’re predicting it to be on his $500 million superyacht. Y721—nicknamed Koru—is 127m long. And featuring three sky-high slender masts, Koru is said to be the largest sailing yacht in the world . 

With dark exteriors and natural wooden decks, Koru is inspired by another one of Bezos’ yachts—the Black Pearl. The clean lines and classically curved bow speak to an understated elegance despite the yacht’s mammoth size. While a long line of portals indicates at least 9 guest cabins. In light of all the secrecy surrounding Koru, we doubt Bezos will ever charter her out, but we can still dream.

25. Al Mirqab | 436 feet—133m

Adorned with cascading chandeliers and gold accents, Al Mirqab is renowned for its unrivaled interiors. Surrounded by suspended glass artworks, a grand staircase floats throughout the four floors. And inspired by authentic Arabian styles, the magnificent superyacht is reminiscent of a magic carpet ride through the seas . 

Built for the former Prime Minister of Qatar, Peterswerft-Kusch spared no expense in delivering Al Mirqab to an impossibly high standard for luxury. The large swimming pool is a standout feature as it opens up into the sea, creating the ultimate playground for adults. Al Mirqab has a capacity for up to 60 guests and is manned by an equal number of crew. Although you have to be invited by the politician himself as Al Mirqab isn’t available for private charter.

24. Serene | 439 feet—134m

Adeptly named, the magnificent superyacht embodies the serenity of a life at sea. Serene was built in Italy for a Russian owner in 2011. She was leased to Bill Gates for the Summer in 2014 for $5 million per week. 

Designed by Reymond Langton, the 134m mega yacht marries elegant sophistication with state-of-the-art technologies. The seven decks leave ample space for guests to soak in scintillating views. While the underwater viewing room—nicknamed the Nemo room—is a permanent gallery of resplendent sealife. The real-life snow room makes up to four inches of snow. And whilst this may seem odd when your billionaire boss asks for snow—you make it snow.

23. Crescent | 445 feet – 136 m

Yet another Lurssen masterpiece, Crescent pays homage to classic naval designs with traditional architecture and elegant interiors. Formerly named Project Thunder, she was built in Germany and delivered to Igor Sechin in 2018. The Russian oligarch’s superyacht was seized by Spain after sanctions were placed on Russia in 2022. 

Crescent features low bulwarks and full-height windows to maximize the view from the center of the boat. Her distinctive wing station provides unrivaled views for up to 18 guests. But don’t get your hopes up—Crescent is strictly for private use only and isn’t available for charter. 

22. Savarona | 446 feet – 136m

Savarona is the second-largest yacht built by Blohm & Voss and spends most of her time in the Mediterranean. This luxury superyacht is one of the oldest in the market — a perfect fusion of traditional charm and modern facilities. 

Previously named Gunes Dil, Savarona was designed by Cox & Stevens, with interior design carefully handled by Donald Starkey. She’s available to charter on a weekly basis and has been refurbished over the years. Back in the day, her cost price was $4 million, and in 1989, she was chartered by Kahraman Sadikoglu, owner of the Turkish Sadikoglu Group, who spent an estimated $50 million on refurbishing her from top to bottom.

21. Flying Fox | 446 feet – 136m

Flying Fox is known as the most expensive charter yacht in the world , and a week aboard will set you back around $3 million. Chartered by the one and only power couple Beyonce and Jay-Z in 2021, it’s filled to the brim with all of the luxury facilities you could ever possibly want. 

The Flying Fox is rumored to be owned by Jeff Bezos, although that’s a claim that’s never been totally certified. She spends most of her time in the Mediterranean, specifically Cannes, Capri, and Sardinia, although she’s recently visited Norway, too. She can accommodate the largest helicopters on the market, and it reportedly took more than 50 meetings with her owner for interior design to be completed.

20. Rising Sun | 454 feet – 138m

The Rising Sun’s original owner, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation, sold her in 2010 as he considered her too large. Famously used by David Geffen for self-isolation, Rising Sun has also been a popular hang-out spot for celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Beatrice, the Princess of York. 

She’s a Superyacht with impressive attention to detail like interiors kitted out in teak and onyx and endless features like a full gym , a large wine cellar, a sauna, and a spa. She’s got a full-size basketball court that doubles up as a helicopter landing pad and a private cinema for those long evenings spent at sea.

19. Al Salamah | 457 feet – 139m

Al Salamah is part of the Omani Royal fleet and started her very secretive life in Genoa. Known as the world’s biggest superyacht right up until 2016, she’s a sleek masterpiece of a ship, with a distinctive cream color and beach club design. 

Al Salamah does everything in multiples, from the five galleys onboard (the main galley, a bakery, a crew galley, an owner’s diet galley, and an Arab galley), three hospitals (one for the owner, one for guests, and one for the crew) and 2,000 sqm of floor space. She was put on sale briefly for $280 million USD, before being delisted and instead given as a gift to the Crown Prince of Bahrain. 

18. Solaris | 458 feet – 139m

Everything about Solaris was supposed to be kept a secret when she was being built—a secret that didn’t last long when her huge size was spotted undergoing sea trials in the North Sea. One of this Superyacht’s main attractions is her beach club on the top floor: the perfect spot for relaxation during those long days out at sea. 

That beach club comes complemented with endless other stylish amenities, like a large helipad, sun deck, and a crane to launch tenders, toys, and subs. Interior design is largely unknown, but, if it’s anything as sleek and white as its exteriors, it’s sure to be impressive.

17. Scheherazade | 459 feet – 140m

Two helicopter landing pads, two outdoor Jacuzzis, and two outdoor fire pits: Scheherazade doesn’t hold back with not only the essentials but also the luxuries. Previously named Lightning, “Scheherazade” is mostly associated with a female character in the Middle Eastern folk tales in the series One Thousand and One Nights. 

Not much is known about this superyacht, and even her birth and building process were referred to under a codename: Project Lightning. No one involved in her creation, even Lurssen, has revealed anything about her interiors or her owner. All that’s really known is that she sailed from Germany to Norway initially after completion. 

16. Ocean Victory | 460 feet – 140m

Ocean Victory has traveled all over the world, from Europe to Southeast Asia and back again. Owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Rashnikov, she’s the upgraded vessel to follow his purchase of the 76-meter Ebony Shine. 

She’s one designed with pure luxury in mind, from the six individual swimming pools onboard to the 300-square meter spa area. She’s beautiful both inside and out, with a unique concept designed by Espen Oeino and interior designer Alberto Pinto. The largest superyacht ever built in Italy, Ocean Victory shows some of the finest in the world when it comes to premium quality adventures at sea.

15. Yas | 463 feet – 141m

Yas is known best for its seamless and rather unusual design — one that’s a little different from most superyachts out there. The owner of Yas wanted a yacht that lived up to his own heritage; one with a backbone reminiscent of the navy and with abstract lines throughout. 

He chose an existing boat in Abu Dhabi, which was deconstructed within the region before being shipped off and renovated into the wonder that it is today. The Yas yacht was originally a Dutch navy frigate, which you’d never guess from strolling around onboard today.

14. Nord | 465 feet – 142m

Nord’s distinctive bow design has never been seen before on a yacht. That’s one of the first things you’ll notice about her. The next thing you’ll notice is her unusual design, which verges on battle-esque and has been called “ a warship wearing a tuxedo ” by Dan Lenard of the Italian design studio Nuvolari-Lenard. 

She’s one of the best superyachts out there for fun, with a sports and diving center on the lower deck, a swimming pool higher up, overlooking the ocean, and a fleet of tenders. She was designed for global exploration: a yacht that will calmly cruise her way all across the world.

13. Sailing Yacht A | 469 feet—142.8m

Challenging the status quo and pushing design boundaries, Sailing Yacht A is an enigma. The sail-assisted superyacht was built in Germany and delivered to Russian tycoon Andrey Melnichenko in 2017. However, she was seized by the Italian police force, Guardia di Finanza, in 2022 after sanctions were placed on Russian businessmen following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Distinguished by soaring rotating carbon fiber masts, Nobiskrug’s hybrid approach to superyachts makes Sailing Yacht A more eco-conscious than other luxury yachts of her size. The u nderwater viewing pod molded into the keel speaks to her unrivaled innovation. And many balconies are enclosed by some of the largest pieces of curved glass ever made. 

12. El Mahrousa | 478 feet – 146m

El Mahrousa had a few different names in her time, ranging from the translated “The Protected” to El Horreya, which in Arabic translates to “Freedom.” It’s not surprising that she’s had more than one name when you take into account her age. As the oldest superyacht in the world, she’s undergone a lot of restoration over time, including multiple lengthenings and faster engines. 

She was renamed back to El Mahrousa in 2000 and gained even more recognition for being the first ship to cross the new Suez Canal extension in 2015. Back in her original days, she was built on the River Thames and took her first trip in 1867.

11. OK | 479 feet—146m

Delivered in Japan in 1982, OK is one of the largest and most unique superyachts in the world. Sprawling over 479 feet, the water giant is engineered to submerge almost seventy percent. This is accredited to the work done by Karmarine Shipyard. While the majority of the vessel was built by Oshima Shipping, it was privately converted to a semi-submersible yacht in Turkey. 

The superlative finishing on OK superyacht was designed by Timur Bozca, winner of the Younger Designer of the Year award in 2015. The blueprint being as many games as possible. The extraordinary vessel has the uncanny ability to hold over seventy toys, including a sailing yacht, a sea plane, tenders, buggies and even a tennis court.

10. Opera | 480 feet—146.4m 

Like many of the most majestic water titans, Opera was delivered by Lurssen in Germany and built for Abu Dhabi royalty. This time, the owner is Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, son of the founder of the United Arab Emirates. And while it may not be quite as astronomical as Lurssen’s previous builds—Azzam, Blue and Dilbar—the streamlined vessel is equally impressive onboard. 

The three-story superyacht proves large enough for a pair of helipads and two swimming pools, amongst many other toys, while simultaneously making room for up to 48 guests and 80 crew members. When it comes to the interior, details are sparse, but we do know that it was designed by Terence Disdale, a London firm renowned for creating bespoke luxury spaces. 

9. Prince Abdulaziz | 482 feet – 147m

The Prince Abdulaziz’s yacht was ordered by King Fahd, who named her after his son Prince Abdul Aziz. Now, she’s owned by his brother, Abdullah. Just one of the yachts owned by the Saudi royal family, she’s spotted frequently throughout Europe, especially in Cannes, where the royal family owns a property. 

She’s been redecorated once — in 2007 — in a project that took 15 months to complete, without even taking into account the rest of the ship’s upkeep. The Prince Abdulaziz is known for its combination of bold colors and fusion of traditional and modern design, thanks to its influence from the late David Hicks.

8. A+ | 483 feet – 147m

What do you do when the name “A” is already taken for your superyacht? Choose the next closest thing: A+. Previously named Topaz, this superyacht was the world’s fourth-largest luxury yacht when she was built, before being stripped of that particular title only a few years later. 

Nevertheless, she’s a seriously impressive superyacht, with endless facilities like a large jacuzzi, double helicopter landing pads, a swimming pool with a swimming platform and underwater lights, as well as a fitness hall, cinema, and a large conference room. She’s also well equipped with water toys, like jet skis, inflatable boats, a catamaran, and even a mini-submarine.

7. Al Said | 508 feet – 155m

Another Superyacht built, shrouded in secrecy, Al-Said was referred to as “Project Sunflower” the entire time she was being created, right up until she was delivered to her owner in 2008. Not much is known about Al Said, from her movements through to her amenities — although she is known to have a huge concert room with space for a full 50-person orchestra. 

Currently, she’s flying the flag of Oman and has spent a lot of time in its surrounding waters. Her interior was styled by British designer design house RWD, with exterior design being credited to Espen Oeino. When she was delivered to the Sultan of Oman, she replaced a previous ship of a smaller size. 

6. Dilbar | 511 feet – 156m

Dilbar, or Project Omar, as it was originally known as, is another superyacht designed with the help of exterior expert Espen Oeino, but with interiors strikingly designed by Andrew Winch. Dilbar is famously known as the world’s largest yacht by gross tonnage (interior volume) but as the fifth-longest superyacht in the world. 

She’s home to a spa pool and beach club, as well as a large private cinema, spacious cabins set high on the main deck, a spacious dining room, and a salon with its own piano. She’s just as classy and beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.

5. Blue | 527 feet—160.6m

Sunday blues simply cease to exist on one of the world’s most extravagant superyachts. The elegant behemoth was built for member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi and billionaire, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2022. Valued at over $600 million, Blue is one of the most expensive superyachts in the world. And with a strong emphasis on the environment, this superyacht is also one of the most sustainable. 

Blue strives to be as environmentally friendly as possible. She is equipped with a highly efficient Diesel-Electric Hybrid Propulsion Concept developed by Lürssen’s own engineering specialists. And the wastewater treatment plant allows water to be disposed of in drinking water quality.

4. Dubai | 531 feet – 162m

Dubai had multiple names in the planning stages—including Panhandle, Platinum, and Golden Star. Owned by the ruler of Dubai, it was aptly named after its home country and comes with all of the luxurious amenities you’d expect from such a name. 

The Dubai comes complete with a huge swimming pool and two jacuzzis. Further down, you’ll find a large dining room with striking blue and burgundy decor and space for up to 90 guests. Dubai usually spends her time moored at Sheikh Mohammed’s private island in front of his summer palace in Dubai. She’s basically the definition of a floating palace.

3. Eclipse | 533 feet – 162.5m

It took around five years for Eclipse to be built from start to finish. While she was always designed to be a huge, luxurious Superyacht, the focus was more on decking it out appropriately rather than breaking any records. An award-winning superyacht, she’s incredibly spacious, with endless rooms to explore and a sleek, neutral color palette running through. 

The Eclipse’s owner, Roman Abramovich, was more focused on facilities: he wanted more than one helicopter pad and a large swimming pool, too. Other than that, designer Terry Disdale had free reign for the rest of the superyacht. It’s just as much a clean piece of architectural styling as it is a stunning experience on deck.

2. Fulk Al Salamah | 538 feet – 164m

Fulk Al Salamah translates to “Ship of Peace” and that’s something that sounds like a given when you’ve taken a look at this superyacht’s incredible layout. Developed under the codename Project Saffron, Fulk Al Salamah is more of a support vessel than she is a typical superyacht. 

While she might still come complete with all of the necessities for a particularly relaxing voyage, she’s more so known for being a transport ship for the Royal Navy of Oman. She’s also used as a sort of friendship boat — pun intended — and is often sailed across the world with the intention of strengthening ties with the Sultanate. In some ports, influential people are welcomed onboard.

1. Azzam | 590 feet – 181m

Most superyachts in the top 10 category have a few mere inches between sizes, but the Azzam shoots far ahead with a large amount of extra length. The largest superyacht in the world, she was never designed to win the title — rather just to be a sleek and elegant vessel. Azzam was crafted backward, with the plans for her interior confirmed long before her exterior was fully signed off. 

Her length only came to be as such to incorporate everything required for the interiors, which added an extra 35 meters to her overall size. She’s also designed to look smaller than she actually is, with a blend of indoor and outdoor living. It took more than 4,000 people to build Azzam , clocking up six million man-hours over a period of four years.

The largest yachts in the world: Conclusion

The largest yachts in the world are:

• Azzam—590 feet
• Fulk Al Salamah—538 feet
• Eclipse—533 feet
• Dubai—531 feet
• Blue—527 feet
• Dilbar—511 feet
• Al Said —508 feet
• A+—483 feet
• Prince Abdulaziz—482 feet
• Opera—480 feet
• OK—479 feet
• El Mahrousa—478 feet
• Sailing Yacht A—469 feet
• Nord—465 feet
• Yas—463 feet
• Ocean Victory—460 feet
• Scheherazade —459 feet
• Solaris—458 feet
• Al Salamah—457 feet
• Rising Sun—454 feet
• Flying Fox—446 feet
• Savarona—446 feet
• Crescent—445 feet
• Serene —439 feet
• Al Mirqab—436 feet
• Y721 (aka Koru)—417 feet

The most expensive yacht in the world

The fact that the History Supreme, the world’s most expensive superyacht, comes coated in gold, is only part of the reason for its high cost. A superyacht with a real-life Midas touch, it was sold to an anonymous Malaysian businessman for $4.8 billion. 

Robert Kuok, the richest Malaysian businessman, is the rumored owner of History Supreme, but no one has confirmed for sure. The History Supreme also comes with plenty of other impressive touches: a master bedroom decked out in platinum, a wall feature made from meteoric stone, and a genuine T-Rex dinosaur bone, to add to the list. 

She took three years to build from scratch and comes with 10,000 kilograms of solid gold and platinum. Other seriously luxe features are her 68 kilograms 24-carat gold Aquavista Panoramic Wall Aquarium and a liquor bottle adorned with a rare 18.5-carat diamond . The base of the vessel comes wrapped in gold, too.

Frequently asked questions about the world’s largest yachts

The largest yachts in the world are owned by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, Roman Abramovich, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Alisher Usmanov. Our guide tells you more about all the biggest yachts in the world .

At 417 feet (127 m), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ sailing yacht, Koru (formerly Project Y721), is one of the world’s largest yachts.

The 181-m (590 ft) Azzam is the world’s longest yacht in length, but the 156-m Dilbar has a much larger internal volume (measured in Gross Tons) at 15,917 GT (Gross Tons) versus 13,136 GT for Azzam. As such, Dilbar is the world’s largest yacht in volume. Read our full guide to discover the largest yachts in the world .

The biggest yacht in the world is the Azzam , which has an estimated cost of $600 million. She’s owned by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and is not currently for sale.

In terms of the number of megayachts, the largest superyacht-owning country is the United States. Nationality-wise, beyond American, an increasing percentage of superyacht owners are Turkish, Greek, Emirati, German, Australian and Dutch.

About the author

Emma Treagus

Women’s fashion & travel editor.

A former fashion assistant and budding entrepreneur who calls the world her home, Emma writes many of Luxe Digital’s women’s style and travel stories, drawing on her passion and experience for slow fashion alongside an appreciation for current trends. When she’s not getting her way with words, you’ll find her exploring a new city (at quite a walking pace)—locating the nearest sushi restaurant or devouring a book on the beach.

Learn more about Emma Treagus

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Sybaris: How Perini Navi brought a yachting dream to life

Art-loving, sailing-obsessed yacht owner Bill Duker has poured his life’s passions into Sybaris . Marilyn Mower tours this ground-breaking and life-changing 70 metre ketch

“When my son, West, was about seven years old, I bought a Palmer Johnson sailing yacht named Shanakee . We would go sailing and imagine what our perfect yacht would be like. With friends who helped us refine the dream over 20 years, the boat became our daily conversation. So more than the creating of a high performance yacht, more than the creation of a work of art, it’s been the thing that’s bonded me and my son.”

These words are from Bill Duker’s address to the guests assembled in Viareggio to celebrate the completion of Sybaris , Duker’s Perini Navi ketch, which, at 70 metres, is the largest sailing yacht launched in Italy to date. It is not a coincidence that the yacht’s name is the same as that ancient Italian city-state known for wealth and a lifestyle of extreme luxury and pleasure seeking. “I have three passions — art, poetry and sailing. This boat combines all three,” he says.

Take a closer look at the 70 metre sailing superyacht Sybaris . Photos: Giuliano Sargentini

Duker is a softly spoken, amiable man who likes projects and enticing people to be creative and thorough. Witness his push for R&D at Perini Navi. As Burak Akgül, managing director of sales, marketing and design, says: “We began talking to the client in 2010 at about the time we had committed to move from the 56 metre to the 60 metre model. We developed this fully custom all aluminium hull interpretation of the 60 especially for him. It has serious performance capability, compared with other recent launches. On a scale of Seahawk to P2 , it’s more like P2 .”

So determined was he to wring every bit of performance out of Perini, Duker brought naval architect Philippe Briand into the mix to evaluate and fine tune the builder’s design work. “The design of the yacht existed, the GA existed and the initial naval architectural plans had been drawn,” says Briand. “The specifications, the main dimensions, the displacement, the centres of gravity and the height of the masts, as well as draught, [had been] defined and approved by the owner. For the final stages, we worked on the hull lines, the appendages and the sailplan. It is a bigger intellectual challenge to [re]design the existing [hull] for tomorrow as opposed to start from scratch.”

In 2012, Briand’s office conducted CFD tests of the hull lines and made 37 changes, including modifying the waterline length and wetted surface and redrawing the bow and stern shapes. The swing keel and single rudder were optimised, as was the vessel’s stability versus overall weight.

Calling the owner a forward-thinking man with very modern tastes, Perini design chief Franco Romani said the brief for Sybaris challenged his team “to create a new interpretation of their design language. The near vertical bow combined with the low profile superstructure has resulted in a new look for Perini.”

Perhaps the biggest change was moving the mizzen mast back 3.3 metres to improve airflow over the mizzen sail for more driving force and to create space for a mizzen staysail. This sail, flown in apparent winds of 50 to 100 degrees, adds 0.6 knots of speed. “It wasn’t our intention to design a racing yacht,” says Briand, “but we can guarantee Sybaris is a cruising yacht with the potential of sailing excitement.”

In its turn, Perini upped the performance of its electric furling drums and captive sheeting winches, delivering speeds beyond those of its previous benchmark, Seahawk . The powerful sailplan on Sybaris uses North Sails’ 3Di technology and relies on two carbon fibre masts stretching 71.59 metres and 60.96 metres above the water, supplied by Rondal, with Carbolink composite stays and Kevlar running rigging. Controlled by Perini’s latest generation electric winches and software, the system allows the yacht to be sailed entirely from the cockpit consoles.

Sybaris is also breaking new ground for the builder in terms of power management. Two variable speed generators supply electrical power via a DC bus to the vessel’s main electrical grid with the potential to store excess power in a 137kWh lithium polymer battery pack that provides two to three hours of silent operation capability, according to Akgül.

Repositioning the mizzen mast also improves the flow of the main and flybridge deck layouts as it shifts the bottom of the mizzen spar away from the aft glass doors of the main saloon, allowing a large, round dining table to take pride of place under the flybridge overhang. The table is milled from titanium, its base looking like a geared drum and its top scribing a rose petal pattern matched in the overhead — a nod to Duker’s estate, Rosehill, near Albany, New York.

In fact, nearly all the exposed metal on Sybaris is bead-blasted titanium or a smoky bronze. “We chose titanium for the way it looks against the natural American ash millwork, and because the owner wanted something fresh and different,” says Peter Hawrylewicz of PH Design . Although this Miami-based architect and designer is new to yacht design, Sybaris is his 12th project for Duker. Yet she didn’t start out as his project.

“We knew he was interviewing designers and, because it was a yacht, we didn’t consider that he would consider us. One night he took my partner and me to dinner and asked what we thought about taking on the Sybaris project. It was a big surprise. The interior company, Genesis Yachtline , had already been given the contract for the joinery and built-ins,” Hawrylewicz recalls. “Knowing how long Bill had been thinking of this boat was daunting.”

The brief was fairly simple: a neutral path. “Even though we didn’t know all the works of art yet, we knew the interior of Sybaris would be lavished with art from the owner’s contemporary collection and this set the theme,” said the architect. “That also ramped up the pressure on developing the lighting plan. We began developing that plan from the first sketches,” Hawrylewicz says, “selecting the amount and type of lighting we wanted first.”

Aside from major statement fixtures such as chandeliers and sconces, which were designed by Lindsey Adelman, Hawrylewicz developed the fixtures such as the wall washers and down lights that fit in architectural recesses next to each door. By directing light away from the intersection of surfaces butting against walls or ceilings, for example, and by leaving tiny gaps instead, he’s created a sensation of even more space, as if there is something behind the gap that you can’t see.

“The team at Perini was an amazing mentor to us,” says Ken Lieber of PH Design. Interestingly, it was Genesis Yachtline’s first Perini project as well. All furniture and surfaces were built offsite and finished before being taken to the yacht for assembly.

Sybaris updates strong features of the Perini Navi design DNA both inside and out. On deck, for example, the recessed cockpit aft of the saloon is still an engaging outdoor living/dining space, but the sweep of terraced steps to it flows beautifully and emphasises the luxury of space that the extra 10 metres delivers. All the furniture, including the bronze end tables with slab marble tops, are from the team at PH Design.

The saloon is open plan, with no structural supports blocking the views. This is no mean feat since there is the load of an 18 metre superyacht sundeck above and the torque of the mainsheet to defuse. The forward bulkhead divides the guest areas from the superyacht wheelhouse , butler’s pantry and the crew stairs to the galley and their quarters.

There are no built-in cabinets in the saloon on Sybaris . Instead four groupings of bureaus, looking like steampunk versions of Louis Vuitton steamer trunks covered in alligator hide, are attached to the walls by titanium straps. The drawers hold glassware and crockery. For handrails around the room, teak batons within titanium turnbuckles add a vintage nautical theme. A dining table is anchored by an ambitious Adelman chandelier and a Ron English Guernica-esque painting commissioned by Duker. Wool and silk carpets by SHIIR of Chicago appear as mirror images in their soft grey and bronze pattern.

The overheads throughout Sybaris are soft matt titanium. Because the cambered overheads on the main deck are 2.1 metres high at window level, the darker material does not cramp the room. It softly reflects and diffuses light and adds a certain liveliness.

“Titanium was entirely Bill’s idea,” says Hawrylewicz. “He said ‘I want to do metal ceilings’ and I thought he meant a thin sheet of painted material, but no, he meant real titanium sheets.” These are rendered in large squares with nearly seamless joints. Titanium, for all its fireproofness and anti-corrosion capability, proved to be a tough material for the yard.

Welded joints tend to leave keloid scars and in the end there was only one subcontractor who could finish the work, from deck rails to the tiny piercings of the overheads for speakers, to both the builder’s and owner’s satisfaction. “If you can dream it, Perini will find a way to build it,” says Duker. “To me, that challenge is why you build a boat.”

Perini Navi aficionados will recall that a superyacht staircase amidships on centreline is the typical access from the saloon to the accommodation for owner and guests. There have been versions with landings, versions with multiple access points and even a spiral. Sybaris delivers a straight fore and aft run of steps but, like the IM Pei pyramid at the Louvre, the staircase is also the way that light — and in this case an epic amount of it — is ushered below to the accommodation lobby, from where all the cabins are entered through very hip titanium-clad submarine doors, with the logo of the bull of Sybaris in the centre of the opening mechanism.

Enormous sheets of laminated tempered glass form the “walls” of the stair column. Hawrylewicz had originally drawn them as a single piece, but no sources yet exist for tempering such large panels of glass. Each of the staircase walls weighs 600 kilograms and they are elastically anchored to the decks above and below. Massive floating oak steps, suspended from the glass with titanium pins, usher guests below.

There are six cabins on the lower deck of Sybaris , including a master suite that takes advantage of the yacht’s full 13 metre beam to create a space to spoil the owner in surroundings of American ash. A superyacht office is situated to starboard with the king-sized bed offset to port. Lindsey Adelman bronze and porcelain sconces above the bed flank an art feature of layers of wood relief that looks a bit topographical. The element was a deliberate contrast to the machined look of many of the pieces in the room and the titanium overhead.

Four pieces of contemporary art dominate the owner’s cabin, which Duker refers to as the poetic centre of Sybaris . Colourful pieces by Roberto Matta, Bäast and Rafa Macarrón contrast with the simple décor while Invisible Domain by Mars-1 opposite his desk seems particularly appropriate.

The bed surround showcases another of the design features in the boat, the mortise and tenon style joinery details that are left exposed. It continues in the full-beam his and hers bathrooms, with their simple palette of ash, stone and titanium. “The simpler the palette, the larger the space,” shares Hawrylewicz. “My goal at the end of the day was to create a yacht that is comfortable, beautiful and perhaps even memorable.”

Or, as the owner wrote in a poem he dashed off on his iPhone thanking his designer:

The ability to conceive the idea To place it in the spot exactly where To light it as if it were in a dream And make it all so simple seem

First published in the June 2017 edition of Boat International

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Best of the Best: Q & A With PH Design Founder Peter Hawrylewicz

The designer discusses the work he did on the perini navi sybaris., michael verdon, michael verdon's most recent stories.

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The founder of PH Design talks with Robb Report contributor Michael Verdon about the interior of ‘Sybaris,’ his first yacht project.

How did Bill Duker, the owner of ‘Sybaris,’ find you? Bill has been a client for 25 years. He first hired me to design his home on Miami Beach when I was working on Gianni Versace’s home. We have developed a great relationship since then.

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This was your first yacht project? Yes, and I did not want to blow it, partly because of my friendship with Bill. Also, there are only so many yacht commissions in the world, so it is a scarce pearl to squander. Bill told me that if I can think it, they will build it. In other words, he was granting me the artistic freedom to exceed my expectations and to meet his.

What was the initial concept? He wanted a state-of-the-art yacht with an interior to show his modern-art collection to its greatest advantage. I wanted the interior to be modern, warm, and personal, depleted of clutter and embellishments, yet rich in detail. Bill inspires people naturally. I wanted his boat to do the same.

How did you choose titanium as a base material? We used it throughout the boat, in the ceilings, furniture, hardware, and railings. I like the titanium ceilings. They provide a muted reflective surface for the interior volumes that I find compelling. Almost all of the furniture on board was designed by me for ‘Sybaris.’ Many pieces have components cast in bronze or titanium. There are challenges with titanium. The material is strong and resilient but can be difficult to work with.

Were you happy with the results? Whether the titanium was welded, cut, cast, or folded, Genesis Yachtline and Perini Navi supervised the work excellently. They were successful at every turn.

Your favorite feature? The large cockpit table on the aft deck. It is made of concentric titanium rings and is mimicked in a tempered reflection in the titanium ceiling above. The design is based on an unfurling rose, a meaningful emblem for the Duker family.

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By SuperyachtNews 18 May 2016

The Pursuit of Pleasure

As perini navi’s largest sailing yacht since the maltese falcon, the presentation of 70m sybaris was a significant event for the italian boat builder.….

As Perini Navi’s largest sailing yacht since The Maltese Falcon , the presentation earlier this month of 70m Sybaris at the Picchiotti yard in La Spezia was a significant event for the Italian boat builder. A collaboration between Perini Navi's in-house team and the French naval architect Philippe Briand, Sybaris represents an innovative evolution in the company’s drive for design and engineering excellence at a difficult time for the super sailing yacht market.

From the left, Milena Perini, Bill Duker, Fabio Perini, Burak Akgul, Fabio Boschi  

The presentation coincided with the appointment of Luca Boldrini (formerly with the Ferretti Group) as sales director of Picchiotti. In January, a meeting of the Group’s shareholders under the chairmanship of Fabio Boschi announced a share capital increase of 15 million euros, and in February naval architect Stèphane Leveel (formerly with Tripp Design) was welcomed to the Perini Navi design team.

Sybaris features a Sealium alloy hull with a variable-draught centreboard keel for enhanced sailing performance and access into shallow bays or marinas. The exterior profile is noticeably sleeker than previous models with a less pronounced sheerline and a more vertical bow. The restyled superstructure is topped with an expansive flying bridge of 18m in length — reportedly the largest of any sailing yacht afloat.

  Sybaris

The powerful sail plan of more than 5,800sqm relies on two carbon fibre masts supplied by Rondal with composite stays and Kevlar running rigging. Equipped with the latest sail handling technology controlled by Perini’s new electric captive winches and software, the system means the yacht can be sailed entirely from the cockpit consoles. 

Arguably the most decisive technical step forward is the power management system. Comprising two variable-speed generators supplying electrical power via a DC bus to the vessel’s main electrical grid with the potential to store excess power in lithium polymer batteries, the set-up improves efficiency, reduces emissions and provides a silent anchor mode at night or in protected areas with the generators switched off.

“ Sybaris raised numerous technical and aesthetic challenges,” says Burak Akgul, managing director of sales, marketing and design at Perini Navi. “But where there’s a will there’s a way, and the result is a uniquely beautiful sailing yacht that pushes the boundaries of design in every conceivable way.”

At 850gt and named after the ancient Greek settlement in southern Italy whose population was renowned for its pursuit of life’s pleasures, Sybaris provided Miami-based PH Design with an ample template for the interior styling. Working on his first yacht project, studio founder Peter Hawrylewicz has created the serenely sophisticated interior the owner desired. Exquisite materials and details abound. Instead of built-in credenzas, for example, the 151-sqm main salon features sculpted pillars milled from solid titanium to support ‘floating’ Louis Vuitton-style travel trunks clad with alligator skin.

Peter Hawrylewicz (image by Justin Ratcliffe)  

“The effect is modern with a remote reminiscence of Old World travel,” says the designer. “The allure lies in the confluence of these two temperaments.”  

Following her presentation, Sybaris will go through intensive sea trails prior to delivery, scheduled for this summer and keenly anticipated by her owner. 

  Bill Duker (image by Justin Ratcliffe)

“This is obviously an exciting time for us,” said American owner Bill Duker in La Spezia. “ Sybaris is a project that started a very long time ago when my son and I would sit in the aft cockpit of the boat we then had, Shanakee , and talk about the boat of our dreams. Over the past 20 years that dream has matured a great deal, and what it became was a dream about collaboration and synergy to create a masterpiece of beauty and performance.”  

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Step aboard 230-foot sailing superyacht Sybaris, owned by William Duker

The same owner as the newly listed $65M Apogee penthouse

The reason William Duker just listed his Apogee penthouse (for $65 million) in Miami Beach is to travel around the world on his marvelous sailing superyacht.

Meet the 230-foot Sybaris, which is currently docked near the Miami Beach Marina off Terminal Isle. Launched in May, it is one of the largest sailing yachts on earth, and came to life after Duker beat cancer, per Boat International .

He set out to build a statement vessel.

“The boat kept growing in order to bring the lines down and make it look as sleek as it does. We thought it’d be a 56 metre, but then I started thinking that it had to be special, it had to be different. And there are already 10 or 11 or so 56 metres; I didn’t want hull number 12. I wanted something people could see from half a mile away and say, ‘Hey, there’s Sybaris ’,” Duker says.

Check out Duker’s favorite features.

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A Year in Focus: Sybaris Takes the World by Storm

By Ben Roberts

In May, Perini Navi launched the 70-metre sailing yacht Sybaris . We continue our look in to 2016 by capturing the rise of Sybaris, one man’s search for the perfect sailing experience that took the year by storm and marked a new era for the Italian master-craftsmen.

After being invited to step on board shortly after her launch in May, Superyachts.com witnessed an early glance into a project which represented a 20-year dream in the making for owner Bill Duker.

From the days of sitting with his son on the aft of their first boat and drawing their dream vessel to the celebrations surrounding its launch, Sybaris is much more than just Italy’s largest sailing yacht.

The most advanced large-scale Perini Navi project since the creation of The Maltese Falcon – which was launched at the builder’s Turkish facilities – and with well-documented performance ability, Sybaris is a marriage of art and technology.

“We wanted to build a boat that combined great art in the interior, put it in a setting that the interior of the boat itself was a piece of art, and then set that interior within a superyacht that was also a masterpiece. Not only a masterpiece of beauty, but a masterpiece of performance.”  Explains Sybaris Owner Bill Duker during the launch ceremony in May.

Superyachts.com caught up with Perini Navi and Sybaris at the Monaco Yacht Show to get a closer look at the stunning interiors by PH Design on camera (above).

Taking numerous awards over 2016 - including ‘Best Interior’ at the Monaco Yacht Show Gala - this is a yacht with an acclaim worthy of the 20-year journey it took from paper to port.

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A glimpse of the S/Y Sybaris – the 70m sailing yacht with the Best Interior this year

Inside S/Y Sybaris – the 70m sailing yacht with the Best Interior this year.

Perini Navi 70m S/Y Sybaris won “Best Interior Award” at 2016 Monaco Yacht Show. From 28 September to 1 October 2016, the 26th Monaco Yacht Show celebrated the best that Superyachts have on offer with 34,000 participants from around the world.

Delivered to her owner, American Bill Duker, earlier this month Sybaris sailing yacht is the latest addition to Perini Navi’s fleet of 61 superyachts . Designed and built by Perini Navi, with input from Philippe Briand on the hull lines and sail plan, the 70m ketch is the largest sailing yacht ever built in Italy (877 GT) and second in the Perini Navi fleet to the iconic Maltese Falcon (88m).

Combining Perini Navi’s continuous research into new technical solutions, the original design was thoroughly revisited and has resulted in an extraordinary yacht, one which captures the advanced engineering and styling that define a Perini Navi. The 70m S/Y Sybaris was presented with the ‘Best Interior’ award for her stunning interiors masterminded by PH Design of Miami.

The brand new sailing yacht built by the Italian shipyard was awarded for the design and bespoke work made on her interior areas made by the yacht designers Peter Hawrylewicz and Ken Lieber. The award was given on stage to her owner Bill Duker.

“A Perini is not only a yacht, it is a style of life and Sybaris proves this,” commented Fabio Boschi, President of Perini Navi on the occasion of the press presentation onboard Sybaris.

Perini Navi also showcased the 38m S/Y Dahlak. Both Sybaris and Dahlak feature Perini Navi’s latest generation sail handling and stored power systems.

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The Haves and the Have-Yachts

By Evan Osnos

In the Victorian era, it was said that the length of a man’s boat, in feet, should match his age, in years. The Victorians would have had some questions at the fortieth annual Palm Beach International Boat Show, which convened this March on Florida’s Gold Coast. A typical offering: a two-hundred-and-three-foot superyacht named Sea Owl, selling secondhand for ninety million dollars. The owner, Robert Mercer, the hedge-fund tycoon and Republican donor, was throwing in furniture and accessories, including several auxiliary boats, a Steinway piano, a variety of frescoes, and a security system that requires fingerprint recognition. Nevertheless, Mercer’s package was a modest one; the largest superyachts are more than five hundred feet, on a scale with naval destroyers, and cost six or seven times what he was asking.

For the small, tight-lipped community around the world’s biggest yachts, the Palm Beach show has the promising air of spring training. On the cusp of the summer season, it affords brokers and builders and owners (or attendants from their family offices) a chance to huddle over the latest merchandise and to gather intelligence: Who’s getting in? Who’s getting out? And, most pressingly, who’s ogling a bigger boat?

On the docks, brokers parse the crowd according to a taxonomy of potential. Guests asking for tours face a gantlet of greeters, trained to distinguish “superrich clients” from “ineligible visitors,” in the words of Emma Spence, a former greeter at the Palm Beach show. Spence looked for promising clues (the right shoes, jewelry, pets) as well as for red flags (cameras, ornate business cards, clothes with pop-culture references). For greeters from elsewhere, Palm Beach is a challenging assignment. Unlike in Europe, where money can still produce some visible tells—Hunter Wellies, a Barbour jacket—the habits of wealth in Florida offer little that’s reliable. One colleague resorted to binoculars, to spot a passerby with a hundred-thousand-dollar watch. According to Spence, people judged to have insufficient buying power are quietly marked for “dissuasion.”

For the uninitiated, a pleasure boat the length of a football field can be bewildering. Andy Cohen, the talk-show host, recalled his first visit to a superyacht owned by the media mogul Barry Diller: “I was like the Beverly Hillbillies.” The boats have grown so vast that some owners place unique works of art outside the elevator on each deck, so that lost guests don’t barge into the wrong stateroom.

At the Palm Beach show, I lingered in front of a gracious vessel called Namasté, until I was dissuaded by a wooden placard: “Private yacht, no boarding, no paparazzi.” In a nearby berth was a two-hundred-and-eighty-foot superyacht called Bold, which was styled like a warship, with its own helicopter hangar, three Sea-Doos, two sailboats, and a color scheme of gunmetal gray. The rugged look is a trend; “explorer” vessels, equipped to handle remote journeys, are the sport-utility vehicles of yachting.

If you hail from the realm of ineligible visitors, you may not be aware that we are living through the “greatest boom in the yacht business that’s ever existed,” as Bob Denison—whose firm, Denison Yachting, is one of the world’s largest brokers—told me. “Every broker, every builder, up and down the docks, is having some of the best years they’ve ever experienced.” In 2021, the industry sold a record eight hundred and eighty-seven superyachts worldwide, nearly twice the previous year’s total. With more than a thousand new superyachts on order, shipyards are so backed up that clients unaccustomed to being told no have been shunted to waiting lists.

One reason for the increased demand for yachts is the pandemic. Some buyers invoke social distancing; others, an existential awakening. John Staluppi, of Palm Beach Gardens, who made a fortune from car dealerships, is looking to upgrade from his current, sixty-million-dollar yacht. “When you’re forty or fifty years old, you say, ‘I’ve got plenty of time,’ ” he told me. But, at seventy-five, he is ready to throw in an extra fifteen million if it will spare him three years of waiting. “Is your life worth five million dollars a year? I think so,” he said. A deeper reason for the demand is the widening imbalance of wealth. Since 1990, the United States’ supply of billionaires has increased from sixty-six to more than seven hundred, even as the median hourly wage has risen only twenty per cent. In that time, the number of truly giant yachts—those longer than two hundred and fifty feet—has climbed from less than ten to more than a hundred and seventy. Raphael Sauleau, the C.E.O. of Fraser Yachts, told me bluntly, “ COVID and wealth—a perfect storm for us.”

And yet the marina in Palm Beach was thrumming with anxiety. Ever since the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, launched his assault on Ukraine, the superyacht world has come under scrutiny. At a port in Spain, a Ukrainian engineer named Taras Ostapchuk, working aboard a ship that he said was owned by a Russian arms dealer, threw open the sea valves and tried to sink it to the bottom of the harbor. Under arrest, he told a judge, “I would do it again.” Then he returned to Ukraine and joined the military. Western allies, in the hope of pressuring Putin to withdraw, have sought to cut off Russian oligarchs from businesses and luxuries abroad. “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” President Joe Biden declared, in his State of the Union address.

Nobody can say precisely how many of Putin’s associates own superyachts—known to professionals as “white boats”—because the white-boat world is notoriously opaque. Owners tend to hide behind shell companies, registered in obscure tax havens, attended by private bankers and lawyers. But, with unusual alacrity, authorities have used subpoenas and police powers to freeze boats suspected of having links to the Russian élite. In Spain, the government detained a hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar yacht associated with Sergei Chemezov, the head of the conglomerate Rostec, whose bond with Putin reaches back to their time as K.G.B. officers in East Germany. (As in many cases, the boat is not registered to Chemezov; the official owner is a shell company connected to his stepdaughter, a teacher whose salary is likely about twenty-two hundred dollars a month.) In Germany, authorities impounded the world’s most voluminous yacht, Dilbar, for its ties to the mining-and-telecom tycoon Alisher Usmanov. And in Italy police have grabbed a veritable armada, including a boat owned by one of Russia’s richest men, Alexei Mordashov, and a colossus suspected of belonging to Putin himself, the four-hundred-and-fifty-nine-foot Scheherazade.

In Palm Beach, the yachting community worried that the same scrutiny might be applied to them. “Say your superyacht is in Asia, and there’s some big conflict where China invades Taiwan,” Denison told me. “China could spin it as ‘Look at these American oligarchs!’ ” He wondered if the seizures of superyachts marked a growing political animus toward the very rich. “Whenever things are economically or politically disruptive,” he said, “it’s hard to justify taking an insane amount of money and just putting it into something that costs a lot to maintain, depreciates, and is only used for having a good time.”

Nobody pretends that a superyacht is a productive place to stash your wealth. In a column this spring headlined “ A SUPERYACHT IS A TERRIBLE ASSET ,” the Financial Times observed, “Owning a superyacht is like owning a stack of 10 Van Goghs, only you are holding them over your head as you tread water, trying to keep them dry.”

Not so long ago, status transactions among the élite were denominated in Old Masters and in the sculptures of the Italian Renaissance. Joseph Duveen, the dominant art dealer of the early twentieth century, kept the oligarchs of his day—Andrew Mellon, Jules Bache, J. P. Morgan—jockeying over Donatellos and Van Dycks. “When you pay high for the priceless,” he liked to say, “you’re getting it cheap.”

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In the nineteen-fifties, the height of aspirational style was fine French furniture—F.F.F., as it became known in certain precincts of Fifth Avenue and Palm Beach. Before long, more and more money was going airborne. Hugh Hefner, a pioneer in the private-jet era, decked out a plane he called Big Bunny, where he entertained Elvis Presley, Raquel Welch, and James Caan. The oil baron Armand Hammer circled the globe on his Boeing 727, paying bribes and recording evidence on microphones hidden in his cufflinks. But, once it seemed that every plutocrat had a plane, the thrill was gone.

In any case, an airplane is just transportation. A big ship is a floating manse, with a hierarchy written right into the nomenclature. If it has a crew working aboard, it’s a yacht. If it’s more than ninety-eight feet, it’s a superyacht. After that, definitions are debated, but people generally agree that anything more than two hundred and thirty feet is a megayacht, and more than two hundred and ninety-five is a gigayacht. The world contains about fifty-four hundred superyachts, and about a hundred gigayachts.

For the moment, a gigayacht is the most expensive item that our species has figured out how to own. In 2019, the hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin bought a quadruplex on Central Park South for two hundred and forty million dollars, the highest price ever paid for a home in America. In May, an unknown buyer spent about a hundred and ninety-five million on an Andy Warhol silk-screen portrait of Marilyn Monroe. In luxury-yacht terms, those are ordinary numbers. “There are a lot of boats in build well over two hundred and fifty million dollars,” Jamie Edmiston, a broker in Monaco and London, told me. His buyers are getting younger and more inclined to spend long stretches at sea. “High-speed Internet, telephony, modern communications have made working easier,” he said. “Plus, people made a lot more money earlier in life.”

A Silicon Valley C.E.O. told me that one appeal of boats is that they can “absorb the most excess capital.” He explained, “Rationally, it would seem to make sense for people to spend half a billion dollars on their house and then fifty million on the boat that they’re on for two weeks a year, right? But it’s gone the other way. People don’t want to live in a hundred-thousand-square-foot house. Optically, it’s weird. But a half-billion-dollar boat, actually, is quite nice.” Staluppi, of Palm Beach Gardens, is content to spend three or four times as much on his yachts as on his homes. Part of the appeal is flexibility. “If you’re on your boat and you don’t like your neighbor, you tell the captain, ‘Let’s go to a different place,’ ” he said. On land, escaping a bad neighbor requires more work: “You got to try and buy him out or make it uncomfortable or something.” The preference for sea-based investment has altered the proportions of taste. Until recently, the Silicon Valley C.E.O. said, “a fifty-metre boat was considered a good-sized boat. Now that would be a little bit embarrassing.” In the past twenty years, the length of the average luxury yacht has grown by a third, to a hundred and sixty feet.

Thorstein Veblen, the economist who published “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” in 1899, argued that the power of “conspicuous consumption” sprang not from artful finery but from sheer needlessness. “In order to be reputable,” he wrote, “it must be wasteful.” In the yachting world, stories circulate about exotic deliveries by helicopter or seaplane: Dom Pérignon, bagels from Zabar’s, sex workers, a rare melon from the island of Hokkaido. The industry excels at selling you things that you didn’t know you needed. When you flip through the yachting press, it’s easy to wonder how you’ve gone this long without a personal submarine, or a cryosauna that “blasts you with cold” down to minus one hundred and ten degrees Celsius, or the full menagerie of “exclusive leathers,” such as eel and stingray.

But these shrines to excess capital exist in a conditional state of visibility: they are meant to be unmistakable to a slender stratum of society—and all but unseen by everyone else. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the yachting community was straining to manage its reputation as a gusher of carbon emissions (one well-stocked diesel yacht is estimated to produce as much greenhouse gas as fifteen hundred passenger cars), not to mention the fact that the world of white boats is overwhelmingly white. In a candid aside to a French documentarian, the American yachtsman Bill Duker said, “If the rest of the world learns what it’s like to live on a yacht like this, they’re gonna bring back the guillotine.” The Dutch press recently reported that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, was building a sailing yacht so tall that the city of Rotterdam might temporarily dismantle a bridge that had survived the Nazis in order to let the boat pass to the open sea. Rotterdammers were not pleased. On Facebook, a local man urged people to “take a box of rotten eggs with you and let’s throw them en masse at Jeff’s superyacht when it sails through.” At least thirteen thousand people expressed interest. Amid the uproar, a deputy mayor announced that the dismantling plan had been abandoned “for the time being.” (Bezos modelled his yacht partly on one owned by his friend Barry Diller, who has hosted him many times. The appreciation eventually extended to personnel, and Bezos hired one of Diller’s captains.)

As social media has heightened the scrutiny of extraordinary wealth, some of the very people who created those platforms have sought less observable places to spend it. But they occasionally indulge in some coded provocation. In 2006, when the venture capitalist Tom Perkins unveiled his boat in Istanbul, most passersby saw it adorned in colorful flags, but people who could read semaphore were able to make out a message: “Rarely does one have the privilege to witness vulgar ostentation displayed on such a scale.” As a longtime owner told me, “If you don’t have some guilt about it, you’re a rat.”

Alex Finley, a former C.I.A. officer who has seen yachts proliferate near her home in Barcelona, has weighed the superyacht era and its discontents in writings and on Twitter, using the hashtag #YachtWatch. “To me, the yachts are not just yachts,” she told me. “In Russia’s case, these are the embodiment of oligarchs helping a dictator destabilize our democracy while utilizing our democracy to their benefit.” But, Finley added, it’s a mistake to think the toxic symbolism applies only to Russia. “The yachts tell a whole story about a Faustian capitalism—this idea that we’re ready to sell democracy for short-term profit,” she said. “They’re registered offshore. They use every loophole that we’ve put in place for illicit money and tax havens. So they play a role in this battle, writ large, between autocracy and democracy.”

After a morning on the docks at the Palm Beach show, I headed to a more secluded marina nearby, which had been set aside for what an attendant called “the really big hardware.” It felt less like a trade show than like a boutique resort, with a swimming pool and a terrace restaurant. Kevin Merrigan, a relaxed Californian with horn-rimmed glasses and a high forehead pinked by the sun, was waiting for me at the stern of Unbridled, a superyacht with a brilliant blue hull that gave it the feel of a personal cruise ship. He invited me to the bridge deck, where a giant screen showed silent video of dolphins at play.

Merrigan is the chairman of the brokerage Northrop & Johnson, which has ridden the tide of growing boats and wealth since 1949. Lounging on a sofa mounded with throw pillows, he projected a nearly postcoital level of contentment. He had recently sold the boat we were on, accepted an offer for a behemoth beside us, and begun negotiating the sale of yet another. “This client owns three big yachts,” he said. “It’s a hobby for him. We’re at a hundred and ninety-one feet now, and last night he said, ‘You know, what do you think about getting a two hundred and fifty?’ ” Merrigan laughed. “And I was, like, ‘Can’t you just have dinner?’ ”

Among yacht owners, there are some unwritten rules of stratification: a Dutch-built boat will hold its value better than an Italian; a custom design will likely get more respect than a “series yacht”; and, if you want to disparage another man’s boat, say that it looks like a wedding cake. But, in the end, nothing says as much about a yacht, or its owner, as the delicate matter of L.O.A.—length over all.

The imperative is not usually length for length’s sake (though the longtime owner told me that at times there is an aspect of “phallic sizing”). “L.O.A.” is a byword for grandeur. In most cases, pleasure yachts are permitted to carry no more than twelve passengers, a rule set by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which was conceived after the sinking of the Titanic. But those limits do not apply to crew. “So, you might have anything between twelve and fifty crew looking after those twelve guests,” Edmiston, the broker, said. “It’s a level of service you cannot really contemplate until you’ve been fortunate enough to experience it.”

As yachts have grown more capacious, and the limits on passengers have not, more and more space on board has been devoted to staff and to novelties. The latest fashions include IMAX theatres, hospital equipment that tests for dozens of pathogens, and ski rooms where guests can suit up for a helicopter trip to a mountaintop. The longtime owner, who had returned the previous day from his yacht, told me, “No one today—except for assholes and ridiculous people—lives on land in what you would call a deep and broad luxe life. Yes, people have nice houses and all of that, but it’s unlikely that the ratio of staff to them is what it is on a boat.” After a moment, he added, “Boats are the last place that I think you can get away with it.”

Even among the truly rich, there is a gap between the haves and the have-yachts. One boating guest told me about a conversation with a famous friend who keeps one of the world’s largest yachts. “He said, ‘The boat is the last vestige of what real wealth can do.’ What he meant is, You have a chef, and I have a chef. You have a driver, and I have a driver. You can fly privately, and I fly privately. So, the one place where I can make clear to the world that I am in a different fucking category than you is the boat.”

After Merrigan and I took a tour of Unbridled, he led me out to a waiting tender, staffed by a crew member with an earpiece on a coil. The tender, Merrigan said, would ferry me back to the busy main dock of the Palm Beach show. We bounced across the waves under a pristine sky, and pulled into the marina, where my fellow-gawkers were still trying to talk their way past the greeters. As I walked back into the scrum, Namasté was still there, but it looked smaller than I remembered.

For owners and their guests, a white boat provides a discreet marketplace for the exchange of trust, patronage, and validation. To diagram the precise workings of that trade—the customs and anxieties, strategies and slights—I talked to Brendan O’Shannassy, a veteran captain who is a curator of white-boat lore. Raised in Western Australia, O’Shannassy joined the Navy as a young man, and eventually found his way to skippering some of the world’s biggest yachts. He has worked for Paul Allen, the late co-founder of Microsoft, along with a few other billionaires he declines to name. Now in his early fifties, with patient green eyes and tufts of curly brown hair, O’Shannassy has had a vantage from which to monitor the social traffic. “It’s all gracious, and everyone’s kiss-kiss,” he said. “But there’s a lot going on in the background.”

O’Shannassy once worked for an owner who limited the number of newspapers on board, so that he could watch his guests wait and squirm. “It was a mind game amongst the billionaires. There were six couples, and three newspapers,” he said, adding, “They were ranking themselves constantly.” On some boats, O’Shannassy has found himself playing host in the awkward minutes after guests arrive. “A lot of them are savants, but some are very un-socially aware,” he said. “They need someone to be social and charming for them.” Once everyone settles in, O’Shannassy has learned, there is often a subtle shift, when a mogul or a politician or a pop star starts to loosen up in ways that are rarely possible on land. “Your security is relaxed—they’re not on your hip,” he said. “You’re not worried about paparazzi. So you’ve got all this extra space, both mental and physical.”

O’Shannassy has come to see big boats as a space where powerful “solar systems” converge and combine. “It is implicit in every interaction that their sharing of information will benefit both parties; it is an obsession with billionaires to do favours for each other. A referral, an introduction, an insight—it all matters,” he wrote in “Superyacht Captain,” a new memoir. A guest told O’Shannassy that, after a lavish display of hospitality, he finally understood the business case for buying a boat. “One deal secured on board will pay it all back many times over,” the guest said, “and it is pretty hard to say no after your kids have been hosted so well for a week.”

Take the case of David Geffen, the former music and film executive. He is long retired, but he hosts friends (and potential friends) on the four-hundred-and-fifty-four-foot Rising Sun, which has a double-height cinema, a spa and salon, and a staff of fifty-seven. In 2017, shortly after Barack and Michelle Obama departed the White House, they were photographed on Geffen’s boat in French Polynesia, accompanied by Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, and Rita Wilson. For Geffen, the boat keeps him connected to the upper echelons of power. There are wealthier Americans, but not many of them have a boat so delectable that it can induce both a Democratic President and the workingman’s crooner to risk the aroma of hypocrisy.

The binding effect pays dividends for guests, too. Once people reach a certain level of fame, they tend to conclude that its greatest advantage is access. Spend a week at sea together, lingering over meals, observing one another floundering on a paddleboard, and you have something of value for years to come. Call to ask for an investment, an introduction, an internship for a wayward nephew, and you’ll at least get the call returned. It’s a mutually reinforcing circle of validation: she’s here, I’m here, we’re here.

But, if you want to get invited back, you are wise to remember your part of the bargain. If you work with movie stars, bring fresh gossip. If you’re on Wall Street, bring an insight or two. Don’t make the transaction obvious, but don’t forget why you’re there. “When I see the guest list,” O’Shannassy wrote, “I am aware, even if not all names are familiar, that all have been chosen for a purpose.”

For O’Shannassy, there is something comforting about the status anxieties of people who have everything. He recalled a visit to the Italian island of Sardinia, where his employer asked him for a tour of the boats nearby. Riding together on a tender, they passed one colossus after another, some twice the size of the owner’s superyacht. Eventually, the man cut the excursion short. “Take me back to my yacht, please,” he said. They motored in silence for a while. “There was a time when my yacht was the most beautiful in the bay,” he said at last. “How do I keep up with this new money?”

The summer season in the Mediterranean cranks up in May, when the really big hardware heads east from Florida and the Caribbean to escape the coming hurricanes, and reconvenes along the coasts of France, Italy, and Spain. At the center is the Principality of Monaco, the sun-washed tax haven that calls itself the “world’s capital of advanced yachting.” In Monaco, which is among the richest countries on earth, superyachts bob in the marina like bath toys.

The nearest hotel room at a price that would not get me fired was an Airbnb over the border with France. But an acquaintance put me on the phone with the Yacht Club de Monaco, a members-only establishment created by the late monarch His Serene Highness Prince Rainier III, whom the Web site describes as “a true visionary in every respect.” The club occasionally rents rooms—“cabins,” as they’re called—to visitors in town on yacht-related matters. Claudia Batthyany, the elegant director of special projects, showed me to my cabin and later explained that the club does not aspire to be a hotel. “We are an association ,” she said. “Otherwise, it becomes”—she gave a gentle wince—“not that exclusive.”

Inside my cabin, I quickly came to understand that I would never be fully satisfied anywhere else again. The space was silent and aromatically upscale, bathed in soft sunlight that swept through a wall of glass overlooking the water. If I was getting a sudden rush of the onboard experience, that was no accident. The clubhouse was designed by the British architect Lord Norman Foster to evoke the opulent indulgence of ocean liners of the interwar years, like the Queen Mary. I found a handwritten welcome note, on embossed club stationery, set alongside an orchid and an assemblage of chocolate truffles: “The whole team remains at your entire disposal to make your stay a wonderful experience. Yours sincerely, Service Members.” I saluted the nameless Service Members, toiling for the comfort of their guests. Looking out at the water, I thought, intrusively, of a line from Santiago, Hemingway’s old man of the sea. “Do not think about sin,” he told himself. “It is much too late for that and there are people who are paid to do it.”

I had been assured that the Service Members would cheerfully bring dinner, as they might on board, but I was eager to see more of my surroundings. I consulted the club’s summer dress code. It called for white trousers and a blue blazer, and it discouraged improvisation: “No pocket handkerchief is to be worn above the top breast-pocket bearing the Club’s coat of arms.” The handkerchief rule seemed navigable, but I did not possess white trousers, so I skirted the lobby and took refuge in the bar. At a table behind me, a man with flushed cheeks and a British accent had a head start. “You’re a shitty negotiator,” he told another man, with a laugh. “Maybe sales is not your game.” A few seats away, an American woman was explaining to a foreign friend how to talk with conservatives: “If they say, ‘The earth is flat,’ you say, ‘Well, I’ve sailed around it, so I’m not so sure about that.’ ”

In the morning, I had an appointment for coffee with Gaëlle Tallarida, the managing director of the Monaco Yacht Show, which the Daily Mail has called the “most shamelessly ostentatious display of yachts in the world.” Tallarida was not born to that milieu; she grew up on the French side of the border, swimming at public beaches with a view of boats sailing from the marina. But she had a knack for highly organized spectacle. While getting a business degree, she worked on a student theatre festival and found it thrilling. Afterward, she got a job in corporate events, and in 1998 she was hired at the yacht show as a trainee.

With this year’s show five months off, Tallarida was already getting calls about what she described as “the most complex part of my work”: deciding which owners get the most desirable spots in the marina. “As you can imagine, they’ve got very big egos,” she said. “On top of that, I’m a woman. They are sometimes arriving and saying”—she pointed into the distance, pantomiming a decree—“ ‘O.K., I want that!  ’ ”

Just about everyone wants his superyacht to be viewed from the side, so that its full splendor is visible. Most harbors, however, have a limited number of berths with a side view; in Monaco, there are only twelve, with prime spots arrayed along a concrete dike across from the club. “We reserve the dike for the biggest yachts,” Tallarida said. But try telling that to a man who blew his fortune on a small superyacht.

Whenever possible, Tallarida presents her verdicts as a matter of safety: the layout must insure that “in case of an emergency, any boat can go out.” If owners insist on preferential placement, she encourages a yachting version of the Golden Rule: “What if, next year, I do that to you? Against you?”

Does that work? I asked. She shrugged. “They say, ‘Eh.’ ” Some would gladly risk being a victim next year in order to be a victor now. In the most awful moment of her career, she said, a man who was unhappy with his berth berated her face to face. “I was in the office, feeling like a little girl, with my daddy shouting at me. I said, ‘O.K., O.K., I’m going to give you the spot.’ ”

Securing just the right place, it must be said, carries value. Back at the yacht club, I was on my terrace, enjoying the latest delivery by the Service Members—an airy French omelette and a glass of preternaturally fresh orange juice. I thought guiltily of my wife, at home with our kids, who had sent a text overnight alerting me to a maintenance issue that she described as “a toilet debacle.”

Then I was distracted by the sight of a man on a yacht in the marina below. He was staring up at me. I went back to my brunch, but, when I looked again, there he was—a middle-aged man, on a mid-tier yacht, juiceless, on a greige banquette, staring up at my perfect terrace. A surprising sensation started in my chest and moved outward like a warm glow: the unmistakable pang of superiority.

That afternoon, I made my way to the bar, to meet the yacht club’s general secretary, Bernard d’Alessandri, for a history lesson. The general secretary was up to code: white trousers, blue blazer, club crest over the heart. He has silver hair, black eyebrows, and a tan that evokes high-end leather. “I was a sailing teacher before this,” he said, and gestured toward the marina. “It was not like this. It was a village.”

Before there were yacht clubs, there were jachten , from the Dutch word for “hunt.” In the seventeenth century, wealthy residents of Amsterdam created fast-moving boats to meet incoming cargo ships before they hit port, in order to check out the merchandise. Soon, the Dutch owners were racing one another, and yachting spread across Europe. After a visit to Holland in 1697, Peter the Great returned to Russia with a zeal for pleasure craft, and he later opened Nevsky Flot, one of the world’s first yacht clubs, in St. Petersburg.

For a while, many of the biggest yachts were symbols of state power. In 1863, the viceroy of Egypt, Isma’il Pasha, ordered up a steel leviathan called El Mahrousa, which was the world’s longest yacht for a remarkable hundred and nineteen years, until the title was claimed by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. In the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt received guests aboard the U.S.S. Potomac, which had a false smokestack containing a hidden elevator, so that the President could move by wheelchair between decks.

But yachts were finding new patrons outside politics. In 1954, the Greek shipping baron Aristotle Onassis bought a Canadian Navy frigate and spent four million dollars turning it into Christina O, which served as his home for months on end—and, at various times, as a home to his companions Maria Callas, Greta Garbo, and Jacqueline Kennedy. Christina O had its flourishes—a Renoir in the master suite, a swimming pool with a mosaic bottom that rose to become a dance floor—but none were more distinctive than the appointments in the bar, which included whales’ teeth carved into pornographic scenes from the Odyssey and stools upholstered in whale foreskins.

For Onassis, the extraordinary investments in Christina O were part of an epic tit for tat with his archrival, Stavros Niarchos, a fellow shipping tycoon, which was so entrenched that it continued even after Onassis’s death, in 1975. Six years later, Niarchos launched a yacht fifty-five feet longer than Christina O: Atlantis II, which featured a swimming pool on a gyroscope so that the water would not slosh in heavy seas. Atlantis II, now moored in Monaco, sat before the general secretary and me as we talked.

Over the years, d’Alessandri had watched waves of new buyers arrive from one industry after another. “First, it was the oil. After, it was the telecommunications. Now, they are making money with crypto,” he said. “And, each time, it’s another size of the boat, another design.” What began as symbols of state power had come to represent more diffuse aristocracies—the fortunes built on carbon, capital, and data that migrated across borders. As early as 1908, the English writer G. K. Chesterton wondered what the big boats foretold of a nation’s fabric. “The poor man really has a stake in the country,” he wrote. “The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht.”

Each iteration of fortune left its imprint on the industry. Sheikhs, who tend to cruise in the world’s hottest places, wanted baroque indoor spaces and were uninterested in sundecks. Silicon Valley favored acres of beige, more Sonoma than Saudi. And buyers from Eastern Europe became so abundant that shipyards perfected the onboard banya , a traditional Russian sauna stocked with birch and eucalyptus. The collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991, had minted a generation of new billionaires, whose approach to money inspired a popular Russian joke: One oligarch brags to another, “Look at this new tie. It cost me two hundred bucks!” To which the other replies, “You moron. You could’ve bought the same one for a thousand!”

In 1998, around the time that the Russian economy imploded, the young tycoon Roman Abramovich reportedly bought a secondhand yacht called Sussurro—Italian for “whisper”—which had been so carefully engineered for speed that each individual screw was weighed before installation. Soon, Russians were competing to own the costliest ships. “If the most expensive yacht in the world was small, they would still want it,” Maria Pevchikh, a Russian investigator who helps lead the Anti-Corruption Foundation, told me.

In 2008, a thirty-six-year-old industrialist named Andrey Melnichenko spent some three hundred million dollars on Motor Yacht A, a radical experiment conceived by the French designer Philippe Starck, with a dagger-shaped hull and a bulbous tower topped by a master bedroom set on a turntable that pivots to capture the best view. The shape was ridiculed as “a giant finger pointing at you” and “one of the most hideous vessels ever to sail,” but it marked a new prominence for Russian money at sea. Today, post-Soviet élites are thought to own a fifth of the world’s gigayachts.

Even Putin has signalled his appreciation, being photographed on yachts in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. In an explosive report in 2012, Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister, accused Putin of amassing a storehouse of outrageous luxuries, including four yachts, twenty homes, and dozens of private aircraft. Less than three years later, Nemtsov was fatally shot while crossing a bridge near the Kremlin. The Russian government, which officially reports that Putin collects a salary of about a hundred and forty thousand dollars and possesses a modest apartment in Moscow, denied any involvement.

Many of the largest, most flamboyant gigayachts are designed in Monaco, at a sleek waterfront studio occupied by the naval architect Espen Øino. At sixty, Øino has a boyish mop and the mild countenance of a country parson. He grew up in a small town in Norway, the heir to a humble maritime tradition. “My forefathers built wooden rowing boats for four generations,” he told me. In the late eighties, he was designing sailboats when his firm won a commission to design a megayacht for Emilio Azcárraga, the autocratic Mexican who built Televisa into the world’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster. Azcárraga was nicknamed El Tigre, for his streak of white hair and his comfort with confrontation; he kept a chair in his office that was unusually high off the ground, so that visitors’ feet dangled like children’s.

In early meetings, Øino recalled, Azcárraga grew frustrated that the ideas were not dazzling enough. “You must understand,” he said. “I don’t go to port very often with my boats, but, when I do, I want my presence to be felt.”

The final design was suitably arresting; after the boat was completed, Øino had no shortage of commissions. In 1998, he was approached by Paul Allen, of Microsoft, to build a yacht that opened the way for the Goliaths that followed. The result, called Octopus, was so large that it contained a submarine marina in its belly, as well as a helicopter hangar that could be converted into an outdoor performance space. Mick Jagger and Bono played on occasion. I asked Øino why owners obsessed with secrecy seem determined to build the world’s most conspicuous machines. He compared it to a luxury car with tinted windows. “People can’t see you, but you’re still in that expensive, impressive thing,” he said. “We all need to feel that we’re important in one way or another.”

In recent months, Øino has seen some of his creations detained by governments in the sanctions campaign. When we spoke, he condemned the news coverage. “Yacht equals Russian equals evil equals money,” he said disdainfully. “It’s a bit tragic, because the yachts have become synonymous with the bad guys in a James Bond movie.”

What about Scheherazade, the giant yacht that U.S. officials have alleged is held by a Russian businessman for Putin’s use? Øino, who designed the ship, rejected the idea. “We have designed two yachts for heads of state, and I can tell you that they’re completely different, in terms of the layout and everything, from Scheherazade.” He meant that the details said plutocrat, not autocrat.

For the time being, Scheherazade and other Øino creations under detention across Europe have entered a strange legal purgatory. As lawyers for the owners battle to keep the ships from being permanently confiscated, local governments are duty-bound to maintain them until a resolution is reached. In a comment recorded by a hot mike in June, Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national-security adviser, marvelled that “people are basically being paid to maintain Russian superyachts on behalf of the United States government.” (It usually costs about ten per cent of a yacht’s construction price to keep it afloat each year. In May, officials in Fiji complained that a detained yacht was costing them more than a hundred and seventy-one thousand dollars a day.)

Stranger still are the Russian yachts on the lam. Among them is Melnichenko’s much maligned Motor Yacht A. On March 9th, Melnichenko was sanctioned by the European Union, and although he denied having close ties to Russia’s leadership, Italy seized one of his yachts—a six-hundred-million-dollar sailboat. But Motor Yacht A slipped away before anyone could grab it. Then the boat turned off the transponder required by international maritime rules, so that its location could no longer be tracked. The last ping was somewhere near the Maldives, before it went dark on the high seas.

The very largest yachts come from Dutch and German shipyards, which have experience in naval vessels, known as “gray boats.” But the majority of superyachts are built in Italy, partly because owners prefer to visit the Mediterranean during construction. (A British designer advises those who are weighing their choices to take the geography seriously, “unless you like schnitzel.”)

In the past twenty-two years, nobody has built more superyachts than the Vitellis, an Italian family whose patriarch, Paolo Vitelli, got his start in the seventies, manufacturing smaller boats near a lake in the mountains. By 1985, their company, Azimut, had grown large enough to buy the Benetti shipyards, which had been building enormous yachts since the nineteenth century. Today, the combined company builds its largest boats near the sea, but the family still works in the hill town of Avigliana, where a medieval monastery towers above a valley. When I visited in April, Giovanna Vitelli, the vice-president and the founder’s daughter, led me through the experience of customizing a yacht.

“We’re using more and more virtual reality,” she said, and a staffer fitted me with a headset. When the screen blinked on, I was inside a 3-D mockup of a yacht that is not yet on the market. I wandered around my suite for a while, checking out swivel chairs, a modish sideboard, blond wood panelling on the walls. It was convincing enough that I collided with a real-life desk.

After we finished with the headset, it was time to pick the décor. The industry encourages an introspective evaluation: What do you want your yacht to say about you? I was handed a vibrant selection of wood, marble, leather, and carpet. The choices felt suddenly grave. Was I cut out for the chiselled look of Cream Vesuvio, or should I accept that I’m a gray Cardoso Stone? For carpets, I liked the idea of Chablis Corn White—Paris and the prairie, together at last. But, for extra seating, was it worth splurging for the V.I.P. Vanity Pouf?

Some designs revolve around a single piece of art. The most expensive painting ever sold, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” reportedly was hung on the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s four-hundred-and-thirty-nine-foot yacht Serene, after the Louvre rejected a Saudi demand that it hang next to the “Mona Lisa.” Art conservators blanched at the risks that excess humidity and fluctuating temperatures could pose to a five-hundred-year-old painting. Often, collectors who want to display masterpieces at sea commission replicas.

If you’ve just put half a billion dollars into a boat, you may have qualms about the truism that material things bring less happiness than experiences do. But this, too, can be finessed. Andrew Grant Super, a co-founder of the “experiential yachting” firm Berkeley Rand, told me that he served a uniquely overstimulated clientele: “We call them the bored billionaires.” He outlined a few of his experience products. “We can plot half of the Pacific Ocean with coördinates, to map out the Battle of Midway,” he said. “We re-create the full-blown battles of the giant ships from America and Japan. The kids have haptic guns and haptic vests. We put the smell of cordite and cannon fire on board, pumping around them.” For those who aren’t soothed by the scent of cordite, Super offered an alternative. “We fly 3-D-printed, architectural freestanding restaurants into the middle of the Maldives, on a sand shelf that can only last another eight hours before it disappears.”

For some, the thrill lies in the engineering. Staluppi, born in Brooklyn, was an auto mechanic who had no experience with the sea until his boss asked him to soup up a boat. “I took the six-cylinder engines out and put V-8 engines in,” he recalled. Once he started commissioning boats of his own, he built scale models to conduct tests in water tanks. “I knew I could never have the biggest boat in the world, so I says, ‘You know what? I want to build the fastest yacht in the world.’ The Aga Khan had the fastest yacht, and we just blew right by him.”

In Italy, after decking out my notional yacht, I headed south along the coast, to Tuscan shipyards that have evolved with each turn in the country’s history. Close to the Carrara quarries, which yielded the marble that Michelangelo turned into David, ships were constructed in the nineteenth century, to transport giant blocks of stone. Down the coast, the yards in Livorno made warships under the Fascists, until they were bombed by the Allies. Later, they began making and refitting luxury yachts. Inside the front gate of a Benetti shipyard in Livorno, a set of models depicted the firm’s famous modern creations. Most notable was the megayacht Nabila, built in 1980 for the high-living arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, with a hundred rooms and a disco that was the site of legendary decadence. (Khashoggi’s budget for prostitution was so extravagant that a French prosecutor later estimated he paid at least half a million dollars to a single madam in a single year.)

In 1987, shortly before Khashoggi was indicted for mail fraud and obstruction of justice (he was eventually acquitted), the yacht was sold to the real-estate developer Donald Trump, who renamed it Trump Princess. Trump was never comfortable on a boat—“Couldn’t get off fast enough,” he once said—but he liked to impress people with his yacht’s splendor. In 1991, while three billion dollars in debt, Trump ceded the vessel to creditors. Later in life, though, he discovered enthusiastic support among what he called “our beautiful boaters,” and he came to see quality watercraft as a mark of virtue—a way of beating the so-called élite. “We got better houses, apartments, we got nicer boats, we’re smarter than they are,” he told a crowd in Fargo, North Dakota. “Let’s call ourselves, from now on, the super-élite.”

In the age of oversharing, yachts are a final sanctum of secrecy, even for some of the world’s most inveterate talkers. Oprah, after returning from her sojourn with the Obamas, rebuffed questions from reporters. “What happens on the boat stays on the boat,” she said. “We talked, and everybody else did a lot of paddleboarding.”

I interviewed six American superyacht owners at length, and almost all insisted on anonymity or held forth with stupefying blandness. “Great family time,” one said. Another confessed, “It’s really hard to talk about it without being ridiculed.” None needed to be reminded of David Geffen’s misadventure during the early weeks of the pandemic, when he Instagrammed a photo of his yacht in the Grenadines and posted that he was “avoiding the virus” and “hoping everybody is staying safe.” It drew thousands of responses, many marked #EatTheRich, others summoning a range of nautical menaces: “At least the pirates have his location now.”

The yachts extend a tradition of seclusion as the ultimate luxury. The Medici, in sixteenth-century Florence, built elevated passageways, or corridoi , high over the city to escape what a scholar called the “clash of classes, the randomness, the smells and confusions” of pedestrian life below. More recently, owners of prized town houses in London have headed in the other direction, building three-story basements so vast that their construction can require mining engineers—a trend that researchers in the United Kingdom named “luxified troglodytism.”

Water conveys a particular autonomy, whether it’s ringing the foot of a castle or separating a private island from the mainland. Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist, gave startup funding to the Seasteading Institute, a nonprofit group co-founded by Milton Friedman’s grandson, which seeks to create floating mini-states—an endeavor that Thiel considered part of his libertarian project to “escape from politics in all its forms.” Until that fantasy is realized, a white boat can provide a start. A recent feature in Boat International , a glossy trade magazine, noted that the new hundred-and-twenty-five-million-dollar megayacht Victorious has four generators and “six months’ autonomy” at sea. The builder, Vural Ak, explained, “In case of emergency, god forbid, you can live in open water without going to shore and keep your food stored, make your water from the sea.”

Much of the time, superyachts dwell beyond the reach of ordinary law enforcement. They cruise in international waters, and, when they dock, local cops tend to give them a wide berth; the boats often have private security, and their owners may well be friends with the Prime Minister. According to leaked documents known as the Paradise Papers, handlers proposed that the Saudi crown prince take delivery of a four-hundred-and-twenty-million-dollar yacht in “international waters in the western Mediterranean,” where the sale could avoid taxes.

Builders and designers rarely advertise beyond the trade press, and they scrupulously avoid leaks. At Lürssen, a German shipbuilding firm, projects are described internally strictly by reference number and code name. “We are not in the business for the glory,” Peter Lürssen, the C.E.O., told a reporter. The closest thing to an encyclopedia of yacht ownership is a site called SuperYachtFan, run by a longtime researcher who identifies himself only as Peter, with a disclaimer that he relies partly on “rumors” but makes efforts to confirm them. In an e-mail, he told me that he studies shell companies, navigation routes, paparazzi photos, and local media in various languages to maintain a database with more than thirteen hundred supposed owners. Some ask him to remove their names, but he thinks that members of that economic echelon should regard the attention as a “fact of life.”

To work in the industry, staff must adhere to the culture of secrecy, often enforced by N.D.A.s. On one yacht, O’Shannassy, the captain, learned to communicate in code with the helicopter pilot who regularly flew the owner from Switzerland to the Mediterranean. Before takeoff, the pilot would call with a cryptic report on whether the party included the presence of a Pomeranian. If any guest happened to overhear, their cover story was that a customs declaration required details about pets. In fact, the lapdog was a constant companion of the owner’s wife; if the Pomeranian was in the helicopter, so was she. “If no dog was in the helicopter,” O’Shannassy recalled, the owner was bringing “somebody else.” It was the captain’s duty to rebroadcast the news across the yacht’s internal radio: “Helicopter launched, no dog, I repeat no dog today”—the signal for the crew to ready the main cabin for the mistress, instead of the wife. They swapped out dresses, family photos, bathroom supplies, favored drinks in the fridge. On one occasion, the code got garbled, and the helicopter landed with an unanticipated Pomeranian. Afterward, the owner summoned O’Shannassy and said, “Brendan, I hope you never have such a situation, but if you do I recommend making sure the correct dresses are hanging when your wife comes into your room.”

In the hierarchy on board a yacht, the most delicate duties tend to trickle down to the least powerful. Yacht crew—yachties, as they’re known—trade manual labor and obedience for cash and adventure. On a well-staffed boat, the “interior team” operates at a forensic level of detail: they’ll use Q-tips to polish the rim of your toilet, tweezers to lift your fried-chicken crumbs from the teak, a toothbrush to clean the treads of your staircase.

Many are English-speaking twentysomethings, who find work by doing the “dock walk,” passing out résumés at marinas. The deals can be alluring: thirty-five hundred dollars a month for deckhands; fifty thousand dollars in tips for a decent summer in the Med. For captains, the size of the boat matters—they tend to earn about a thousand dollars per foot per year.

Yachties are an attractive lot, a community of the toned and chipper, which does not happen by chance; their résumés circulate with head shots. Before Andy Cohen was a talk-show host, he was the head of production and development at Bravo, where he green-lighted a reality show about a yacht crew: “It’s a total pressure cooker, and they’re actually living together while they’re working. Oh, and by the way, half of them are having sex with each other. What’s not going to be a hit about that?” The result, the gleefully seamy “Below Deck,” has been among the network’s top-rated shows for nearly a decade.

To stay in the business, captains and crew must absorb varying degrees of petty tyranny. An owner once gave O’Shannassy “a verbal beating” for failing to negotiate a lower price on champagne flutes etched with the yacht’s logo. In such moments, the captain responds with a deferential mantra: “There is no excuse. Your instruction was clear. I can only endeavor to make it better for next time.”

The job comes with perilously little protection. A big yacht is effectively a corporation with a rigid hierarchy and no H.R. department. In recent years, the industry has fielded increasingly outspoken complaints about sexual abuse, toxic impunity, and a disregard for mental health. A 2018 survey by the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network found that more than half of the women who work as yacht crew had experienced harassment, discrimination, or bullying on board. More than four-fifths of the men and women surveyed reported low morale.

Karine Rayson worked on yachts for four years, rising to the position of “chief stew,” or stewardess. Eventually, she found herself “thinking of business ideas while vacuuming,” and tiring of the culture of entitlement. She recalled an episode in the Maldives when “a guest took a Jet Ski and smashed into a marine reserve. That damaged the coral, and broke his Jet Ski, so he had to clamber over the rocks and find his way to the shore. It was a private hotel, and the security got him and said, ‘Look, there’s a large fine, you have to pay.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, the boat will pay for it.’ ” Rayson went back to school and became a psychotherapist. After a period of counselling inmates in maximum-security prisons, she now works with yacht crew, who meet with her online from around the world.

Rayson’s clients report a range of scenarios beyond the boundaries of ordinary employment: guests who did so much cocaine that they had no appetite for a chef’s meals; armed men who raided a boat offshore and threatened to take crew members to another country; owners who vowed that if a young stew told anyone about abuse she suffered on board they’d call in the Mafia and “skin me alive.” Bound by N.D.A.s, crew at sea have little recourse.“We were paranoid that our e-mails were being reviewed, or we were getting bugged,” Rayson said.

She runs an “exit strategy” course to help crew find jobs when they’re back on land. The adjustment isn’t easy, she said: “You’re getting paid good money to clean a toilet. So, when you take your C.V. to land-based employers, they might question your skill set.” Despite the stresses of yachting work, Rayson said, “a lot of them struggle with integration into land-based life, because they have all their bills paid for them, so they don’t pay for food. They don’t pay for rent. It’s a huge shock.”

It doesn’t take long at sea to learn that nothing is too rich to rust. The ocean air tarnishes metal ten times as fast as on land; saltwater infiltrates from below. Left untouched, a single corroding ulcer will puncture tanks, seize a motor, even collapse a hull. There are tricks, of course—shield sensitive parts with resin, have your staff buff away blemishes—but you can insulate a machine from its surroundings for only so long.

Hang around the superyacht world for a while and you see the metaphor everywhere. Four months after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the war had eaten a hole in his myths of competence. The Western campaign to isolate him and his oligarchs was proving more durable than most had predicted. Even if the seizures of yachts were mired in legal disputes, Finley, the former C.I.A. officer, saw them as a vital “pressure point.” She said, “The oligarchs supported Putin because he provided stable authoritarianism, and he can no longer guarantee that stability. And that’s when you start to have cracks.”

For all its profits from Russian clients, the yachting industry was unsentimental. Brokers stripped photos of Russian yachts from their Web sites; Lürssen, the German builder, sent questionnaires to clients asking who, exactly, they were. Business was roaring, and, if some Russians were cast out of the have-yachts, other buyers would replace them.

On a cloudless morning in Viareggio, a Tuscan town that builds almost a fifth of the world’s superyachts, a family of first-time owners from Tel Aviv made the final, fraught preparations. Down by the docks, their new boat was suspended above the water on slings, ready to be lowered for its official launch. The scene was set for a ceremony: white flags in the wind, a plexiglass lectern. It felt like the obverse of the dockside scrum at the Palm Beach show; by this point in the buying process, nobody was getting vetted through binoculars. Waitresses handed out glasses of wine. The yacht venders were in suits, but the new owners were in upscale Euro casual: untucked linen, tight jeans, twelve-hundred-dollar Prada sneakers. The family declined to speak to me (and the company declined to identify them). They had come asking for a smaller boat, but the sales staff had talked them up to a hundred and eleven feet. The Victorians would have been impressed.

The C.E.O. of Azimut Benetti, Marco Valle, was in a buoyant mood. “Sun. Breeze. Perfect day to launch a boat, right?” he told the owners. He applauded them for taking the “first step up the big staircase.” The selling of the next vessel had already begun.

Hanging aloft, their yacht looked like an artifact in the making; it was easy to imagine a future civilization sifting the sediment and discovering that an earlier society had engaged in a building spree of sumptuous arks, with accommodations for dozens of servants but only a few lucky passengers, plus the occasional Pomeranian.

We approached the hull, where a bottle of spumante hung from a ribbon in Italian colors. Two members of the family pulled back the bottle and slung it against the yacht. It bounced off and failed to shatter. “Oh, that’s bad luck,” a woman murmured beside me. Tales of that unhappy omen abound. In one memorable case, the bottle failed to break on Zaca, a schooner that belonged to Errol Flynn. In the years that followed, the crew mutinied and the boat sank; after being re-floated, it became the setting for Flynn’s descent into cocaine, alcohol, orgies, and drug smuggling. When Flynn died, new owners brought in an archdeacon for an onboard exorcism.

In the present case, the bottle broke on the second hit, and confetti rained down. As the family crowded around their yacht for photos, I asked Valle, the C.E.O., about the shortage of new boats. “Twenty-six years I’ve been in the nautical business—never been like this,” he said. He couldn’t hire enough welders and carpenters. “I don’t know for how long it will last, but we’ll try to get the profits right now.”

Whatever comes, the white-boat world is preparing to insure future profits, too. In recent years, big builders and brokers have sponsored a rebranding campaign dedicated to “improving the perception of superyachting.” (Among its recommendations: fewer ads with girls in bikinis and high heels.) The goal is partly to defuse #EatTheRich, but mostly it is to soothe skittish buyers. Even the dramatic increase in yacht ownership has not kept up with forecasts of the global growth in billionaires—a disparity that represents the “one dark cloud we can see on the horizon,” as Øino, the naval architect, said during an industry talk in Norway. He warned his colleagues that they needed to reach those “potential yacht owners who, for some reason, have decided not to step up to the plate.”

But, to a certain kind of yacht buyer, even aggressive scrutiny can feel like an advertisement—a reminder that, with enough access and cash, you can ride out almost any storm. In April, weeks after the fugitive Motor Yacht A went silent, it was rediscovered in physical form, buffed to a shine and moored along a creek in the United Arab Emirates. The owner, Melnichenko, had been sanctioned by the E.U., Switzerland, Australia, and the U.K. Yet the Emirates had rejected requests to join those sanctions and had become a favored wartime haven for Russian money. Motor Yacht A was once again arrayed in almost plain sight, like semaphore flags in the wind. ♦

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Real time world map for tracking yachts and all other vessels like speed boats, cargo or tankers! Tracking yachts and other vessels was never so easy!

Bill Duker Luxury Yacht – Sybaris

Luxury Sailing Yacht Sybaris is a 70 m / 229′8″ sailing vessel. She was built by Perini Navi in 2016.

With a beam of 13.24 m and a draft of 4.54 m, she has an aluminium hull and aluminium superstructure. She is powered by MTU engines of 1930 hp each. The sailing yacht can accommodate guests in cabins and an exterior design by Philippe Briand.

Commissioned for serial yacht owner Bill Duker, Sybaris is one of the largest yachts built by Italian yard Perini Navi to date, second only to the 88 metre Maltese Falcon.

Luxury Sailing Yacht Sybaris Awards

Monaco Yacht Show 2016 – Best Interior

Show Boats Design Awards Best Interior Layout & Design

Show Boats Design Awards Best Lighting Design

Show Boats Design Awards Newcomer of the Year PH Design

Her carbon-fiber rig includes two masts, which measure 72 and 62 metre’s respectively. Naval architecture, exterior design and sail plan optimization are all by Philippe Briand, while her interiors were styled by PH Design. Accommodation is for 12 guests, split across six cabins, and her total interior volume of 870 gross tonne’s also allows for a crew of up to 11.

Luxury Sailing Yacht Sybaris Interior

The subtle nature of Sybaris, even with her imposing 72 and 61 metre main and mizzen masts, is astounding. The performance under sail has the makings of a cutting-edge classic, and the resounding core of her creation is to house art, while becoming a masterpiece herself.

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Interiors notebook: Peter Hawrylewicz on designing Sybaris

As first yacht interior design commissions go, 70 metre sailing yacht Sybaris is quite the debut performance. Peter Hawrylewicz, co-founder of PH Design , takes us inside the creation of Bill Duker's beautiful yacht and expands on his design ethos.

I was shocked when Bill Duker asked us to design his Perini Sybaris . He’d been a client for years but we’d never done a yacht and there were others far more qualified. He tasked us with creating a floating gallery: the result is warm, modern, subtle interiors which let the art stand out.

I’ve always taken a “bones first, bonnets later” approach to land-based interiors and Sybaris was no different. We did have the advantage of starting with a blank piece of paper, though, which we rarely do on land.

One of the most beautiful sights in the world is a boat glowing alone on a dark sea. The direction of natural light on a boat is unpredictable so good lighting design is imperative on yachts. It’s a great way of creating intimacy or making spaces feel bigger.

I appreciate the enthusiasm designers bring to their superyacht projects but I don’t always like the outcome. Yachts that take a more-is-more approach can leave one wanting. Restraint adds clarity.

Yachts are all about economy of space. Guest cabins should be like Japanese mystery boxes where surfaces slide, swing and part to reveal compartments beneath. The trick is making it look effortless.

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The largest yachts owned by tech billionaires, from Mark Zuckerberg to Jeff Bezos

• Megayachts have become a status symbol for the richest of the rich.
• In recent years, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have splurged on enormous boats.
• These are the biggest yachts owned by tech billionaires.

The average Joe celebrating a personal renaissance after, say, the end of a long-term relationship or when approaching a fresh decade might commemorate it with an ankle tattoo or a sports car. But if you're a billionaire, you may instead spend hundreds of millions on a yacht .

A few years after he and his wife divorced, Jeff Bezos shelled out on a megayacht. Last year, Bezos debuted the 127-meter vessel "Koru," a Māori symbol that signifies a fresh start — perhaps referring to that with his fiancée Lauren Sanchez.

Earlier this year, just before his 40th birthday, Mark Zuckerberg became the rumored owner of a yacht originally built for a Russian oligarch.

Superyachts have increasingly become ultrawealthy status symbols , providing highly secluded leisure and networking sites. They are — even more so than real estate — the single most expensive asset you can own.

"It's a bit of a celebration of your success in life, of wealth," Giovanna Vitelli, the chair of the Azimut Benetti Group, the world's biggest producer of superyachts, told Business Insider.

While many tech billionaires have bought yachts, the richest of the rich, like Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, have gone bigger. Their boats are virtual palaces at sea, decked with amenities like gyms, spas, pools, nightclubs, and movie theaters.

A look at these megayachts — broadly defined as over 70 meters long, mostly custom-built, and often costing nine figures — offers a glimpse into how the .00001% lives. It's something few others will ever get to experience. Even chartering a yacht of this size for a week typically costs upwards of $1 million.

One major thing that hundreds of millions of dollars can buy is privacy. There are likely yachts that have not been publicly recorded or registered — for example, Evan Spiegel is rumored to own the 94-meter megayacht Bliss. In an industry ruled by discretion , deciphering who owns what is typically an exercise in stringing together many clues.

Here are the largest yachts owned by tech billionaires, listed in order of length.

Jeff Bezos: Koru and Abeona

Amazon founder Bezos' $500 million megayacht, the 127-meter Koru, made a splash last year as she crisscrossed the Mediterranean in her first summer at sea, with her 75-meter support vessel Abeona in tow.

The sailing yacht, which is hard to miss thanks to her massive size and unique design, was host to Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez's famous friends . The couple held an engagement party on board, which reportedly drew guests including Bill Gates, Ari Emanuel, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Just a week later, they were seen on the streets of Dubrovnik, Croatia, with Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry, and Usher.

Even before her completion, Koru made headlines. She drew the ire of some Dutch people, who vowed to hurl eggs after she was announced a historic bridge in Rotterdam might be taken apart to allow the Oceanco boat through. Luckily, the shipyard made alternative plans, and an egg crisis was averted.

Among yacht world insiders , Koru is widely praised for her craftsmanship.

"I heard back in 2018 or something that somebody had ordered a classic sailing yacht," one superyacht expert told BI. "You order 125 meters, that's not really going to be classic. But it is. I think it's pretty cool."

Mark Zuckerberg: Launchpad

Earlier this year, the yacht world was rife with rumors that Zuckerberg purchased Launchpad, a 118-meter superyacht originally designed for a sanctioned Russian businessman.

The ship made her maiden voyage in March, going from Gibraltar to St. Maarten and mooring in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Little is known about her interior, but photos show a large swimming pool and helipad. Her price, too, has been kept under wraps but is said to be nine figures.

Eric Schmidt: Whisper

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt made waves last year when he agreed to buy the Alfa Nero , the yacht of a sanctioned Russian oligarch, for $67 million in an auction conducted by Antigua and Barbuda. But he backed out of the deal following legal issues over her true owner. He quietly purchased Kismet instead. The 95-meter-long Lürssen-built boat was formerly owned by the Jacksonville Jaguar's billionaire owner Shahid Khan . Schmidt renamed her Whisper.

The ship can fit 12 guests and a crew of 28, according to Moran Yacht & Ship, which oversaw her construction. She features a master deck with a private jacuzzi, full-service spa, lap pool, movie theater, and outdoor fireplace.

While her final sale price was not public, she was listed for 149 million euros (about $161 million at current exchange rates), and at a charity auction in January, one week aboard the ship went for $2.4 million, according to industry outlet Yacht Charter Fleet.

Barry Diller: Eos

Barry Diller , the chairman of digital media company IAC, co-owns the megayacht Eos with his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg , who is immortalized by a figurehead sculpture by Anh Duong.

One of the largest private sailing yachts in the world, the three-masted Lürssen schooner measures 93 meters long. She took three years to be built before being delivered to Diller in 2009, and since then, little has come to light about her interior and features.

The power couple has hosted many celebrities on the Eos, which spends her summers crisscrossing the Mediterranean and New Year ' s Eve in St. Barts . Over the years, guests have included Oprah Winfrey, Emma Thompson, Anderson Cooper, and Bezos, leading some to believe she provided inspiration for his Koru.

Jim Clark: Athena

Netscape founder Jim Clark purchased the 90-meter sailing yacht Athena in 2004.

"I could easily have built a 50- or 60-meter motor yacht that would have had the same space as Athena, but I was never really interested in building a motor yacht," he told Boat International in 2016. "To my eye, she's one of the most gorgeous large sailing yachts, maybe the most gorgeous large sailing yacht in the world."

Athena has room for 10 guests and 21 crewmembers, and the only change Clark says he'd make in her design is adding more space for his kids.

"If I was forced to change something, I would convert the office on the lower deck into a children's room," he said.

The former Stanford professor tried to sell her at various points — listing her for $95 million in 2012 , $69 million in 2016, and $59 million in 2017 — but she has yet to change hands.

Larry Ellison: Musashi

Oracle founder Larry Ellison has owned several superyachts over the years, including the Katana, the Ronin, and the Rising Sun — which he sold to fellow billionaire David Geffen .

He purchased his current boat, Musashi, in 2011 for a reported $160 million from custom-yacht giant Feadship.

Named after a famous samurai warrior, the 88-meter-long yacht has both Japanese and Art Deco-inspired design elements. She also boasts amenities including an elevator, swimming pool, beauty salon, gym, and basketball court.

Ellison is known for his extravagant spending — private islands, jets, a tennis tournament — and yachting is among his favorite and most expensive hobbies. He took up racing them in the 1990s and financed the America's Cup-winning BMW Oracle Racing team .

Laurene Powell Jobs: Venus

Steve Jobs' wife, investor and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, inherited a nearly finished 78-meter yacht named Venus when the Apple cofounder died in 2011.

After spending years vacationing on Ellison's yachts, Jobs wanted one for himself. He designed Venus with French starchitect and decorator Philippe Starck , and she was worth $130 million at completion.

"Venus comes from the philosophy of minimum," Starck said of her design. "The elegance of the minimum, approaching dematerialization."

Jobs and Starck began working together in 2007, the designer told Vanity Fair , and held monthly meetings over four years. Venus was delivered in 2012 to Jobs' specification: six identical cabins, a design to ensure spaces of absolute silence, and the most up-to-date technology.

"There will never again be a boat of that quality again. Because never again will two madmen come together to accomplish such a task," Starck told the magazine. "It was not a yacht that Steve and I were constructing, we were embarked on a philosophical action, implemented according to a quasi-religious process. We formed a single brain with four lobes."

Charles Simonyi: Norn

Early Microsoft employee Charles Simonyi has purchased two megayachts from the German shipyard Lürssen: the 90-meter Norn and 71-meter Skat.

Delivered in 2023, Norn is full of luxe features, including an outdoor cinema and a pool floor that lifts to become a light-up dancefloor. She shares a militaristic style with Skat , which Simonyi sold in 2021.

Skats's name is derived from the Danish word for treasure, and she had a listing price of 56.5 million euros and was launched in 2002.

"The yacht is to be home away from my home in Seattle, and its style should match the style of the house, adapted for the practicalities of the sea," Simonyi once said .

Sergey Brin: Dragonfly

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has built a flotilla of yachts, boats, and toys known as the "Fly Fleet."

Named after a once-secret Google product , the largest of Brin's armada is the sleek Dragonfly , which boasts a movie theater and a helipad. The 73-meter-long vessel was built by the Australian shipyard Silver Yachts and can fit up to 18 guests and 16 crew members, according to SuperYacht Times.

Also in his fleet is the superyacht Butterfly, a mere 38 meters long. Often moored in the Bay Area, her crewmembers spend their downtime kitesurfing and giving swimming lessons to local kids.

The rest of his marine lineup includes a smaller boat called Firefly, as well as Jet Skis, foilboards, dinghies, and kiteboards. She takes a team of 50 full-time employees to manage, steer, and maintain the entire operation.

Sindhu Sundar contributed to an earlier version of this story.

Correction: May 6, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated Giovanna Vitelli's title. She is the chair of the Azimut Benetti Group, not a vice president.

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Killer whales attack and sink 50-foot yacht in Strait of Gibraltar: Spanish officials

A pod of killer whales attacked and sunk a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco, officials confirmed to ABC News.

Two people were on board the vessel when the incident occurred Sunday at 9 a.m. local time, according to Spain's maritime authority.

The nearly 50-foot yacht, named The Alboran Cognac, was 15 miles from Cabo Espartel in Morocco when an unknown number of orcas began ramming it.

The couple alerted Spanish authorities and a rescue team arrived to extricate them from the vessel an hour after the attack, though officials were unable to salvage the sinking boat.

There have been approximately 700 orca attacks since 2020, according to GT Orca Atlantica, a conservation group, and officials believe there are more than 37 orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, separating Europe from Africa.

"During the summer and autumn of 2020, interaction events began to occur between several specimens of this species and vessels, mainly sailboats, both in the Strait of Gibraltar and in the waters of the Galician coast," according to Spanish government officials. "These interactions have ranged from persistent approaches to ships, to ramming the hull and rudder, causing various types of damage, which continue today."

It's unclear whyorcasattack boats, though experts hypothesize the marine mammals could be targeting vessels for sport or they feel threatened.

According to a study in Biological Conservation , a peer-reviewed journal, "sophisticated learning abilities" have been found to exist in orcas.

In June 2023, racing yachts in the Strait of Gibraltar had a close encounter with a pod oforcas, race officials said at the time.

Crew members aboard a rival pair of 65-foot yachts were on the final leg of The Ocean Race, a global sailing competition, when they reported being intercepted by killer whales as their boats approached the Strait of Gibraltar.

No fatalities were reported in the incident, according to officials.

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Up, Up and Not OK: Letting Go of Balloons Could Soon Be Illegal in Florida

In an effort to curb microplastics and marine pollution, state lawmakers voted to ban intentional releases.

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By Cara Buckley

Balloons released in the sky don’t go to heaven. They often end up in oceans and waterways, where they’re 32 times more likely to kill seabirds than other types of plastic debris. Despite this, humans like to release them en masse, be it to celebrate a loved one’s life or a wedding, or to reveal the gender of a baby.

The practice is on the verge of becoming illegal in Florida, where the legislature has joined a growing number of states to ban the intentional release of balloons outdoors. The Florida ban is expected to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and would take effect July 1.

Florida is at the forefront of a dizzying and contentious array of statewide bans, outlawing lab grown meat , certain books from school libraries and classrooms, and most abortions after six weeks . But the balloon ban is rare for garnering widespread bipartisan support. It was championed by environmentalists and sponsored by two Republican lawmakers from the Tampa Bay area, Linda Chaney, a state representative and Nick DiCeglie, a state senator.

“Balloons contribute to the increase in microplastic pollution which is harmful to every living thing including humans, polluting our air and drinking water,” Ms. Chaney wrote in an email.

“My hope is that this bill changes the culture, making people more aware of litter in general, including balloons,” she said.

Ms. Chaney said she first heard about the perils of balloon debris in 2020. Aquatic animals often mistake balloons for jellyfish and feel full after eating them, essentially starving from the inside out. Ribbons affixed to balloons entangle turtles and manatees. Balloons also pose a threat to land animals. In her research, Ms. Chaney learned about a pregnant cow that died after ingesting a balloon while grazing. The unborn calf died too.

The bill closes a loophole in an existing Florida law that allowed for the outdoor release of up to nine balloons per person in any 24-hour period, a provision that critics say didn’t achieve the goal of reducing marine trash.

The new legislation makes it clear that balloons can pose an environmental hazard, supporters say. It equates intentionally releasing a balloon filled with a gas lighter than air with littering, a noncriminal offense that carries a fine of $150. The ban also applies to outdoor releases of any balloons described by manufacturers as biodegradable.

The ban does not restrict the sale of balloons by party suppliers or manufacturers; they could still be used indoors or as decorations outdoors if properly secured.

Balloons released by a government agency or for government sanctioned scientific purposes would be exempt from the new law. Hot air balloons recovered after launch or balloons released by children aged 6 and younger would also be exempt.

The bill counts among its supporters the Florida Retail Association as well as the Coalition for Responsible Celebration, a trade association for balloon distributors and party stores, which in a statement said it recognized “the importance of promoting responsible balloon usage and ensuring safe access to these joy-inspiring products.”

The legislation marks a win for environmentalists hamstrung by Florida legislation known as the “ban on bans,” which prohibits counties and local municipalities from regulating single use plastics and plastic bags.

Jon Paul “J. P.” Brooker, director of Florida conservation for the nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy, said that increased concern about the health of beaches, a major driver of tourism, helped conservationists and lawmakers find common ground.

“Florida is its beaches,” Mr. Brooker said, “People are not going to flock by millions to them if they’re trashed and there’s dead animals and plastic and trash all over.”

Mr. Brooker said while it remains to be seen how vigorously police will enforce the ban, the fact that they will be able to issue tickets was a good thing. “More than anything,” he added,” it gives us in the environmental community an opportunity to educate the public as to why it’s bad.”

Public sentiment in Florida against balloon releases has been growing. Earlier this year, the city of Miami Beach adopted an ordinance banning party balloons from public marinas, marine facilities, parks and public beaches. This followed the arrest of two people in 2022 who were filmed popping balloons aboard a chartered yacht and letting the remnants fall into Biscayne Bay.

The balloon release ban follows another environmental win in the state. For more than 30 years, Mr. Brooker said cigarettes were the number one form of trash found on the state’s beaches. Then in 2022, the state passed a law allowing local governments to restrict cigarette smoking and vaping on public beaches and parks. More than 50 counties and municipalities, accounting for more than 500 miles of the state’s 1,350 miles of coastline, have since outlawed smoking and vaping on beaches, Mr. Brooker said.

“This isn’t just the bailiwick of progressives, and it’s certainly not something that draws the enmity of conservatives,” Mr. Brooker said. “It’s all Floridians banding together to protect Florida’s beaches that are the backbone of our economy and the underpinning of our cultural identity.”

According to Emma Haydocy, Florida policy manager for the Surfrider Foundation, seven other states have cracked down on outdoor balloon releases. And just last week, lawmakers in North Carolina filed their version of the Florida legislation.

In lieu of releasing balloons, conservationists are urging people to instead plant a tree or toss flower petals into the water.

“There are so many other ways of celebrating that are not detrimental,” Ms. Haydocy said.

Cara Buckley is a reporter on the climate team at The Times who focuses on people working toward climate solutions. More about Cara Buckley

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To celebrate _Sybaris _being named Sailing Yacht of the Year at the World Superyacht Awards 2017, we bring you this interview from our archive, in which Duker gave us the inside story on the build of the Perini Navi yacht. Superyacht owner Bill Duker was always the man with a plan - until, as he tells Stewart Campbell and Sacha Bonsor, a health scare forced his life philosophy to change.

Bill Duker, owner of the newly launched 70m sailing yacht Sybaris, discusses his original vision for the project as well as his favourite features on board.F...

To celebrate _Sybaris _being named Sailing Yacht of the Year at the World Superyacht Awards 2017, we bring you this interview from our archive, in which Duker gave us the inside story on the build of the Perini Navi yacht. Superyacht owner Bill Duker was always the man with a plan - until, as he tells Stewart Campbell and Sacha Bonsor, a health scare forced his life philosophy to change....

This is Sybaris, one man's dream turned Italy's largest sailing yacht. Shortly after her technical launch and mast stepping operations, we arrived at the Perini Navi Group 's Picchiotti shipyard in La Spezia to step on board the 70 metre ketch during her official launch ceremony. This is Perini Navi's most advanced project since the ...

Bill Duker chats to The Superyacht Owner about his long-awaited 70m Perini Navi build. How is S/Y Sybaris progressing? I expect that the boat will be delivered sometime in early to mid August. In the meantime, engineering and interior work are coming to completion and sea trials should begin in April. I am pleased with the high quality of the ...

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Bill Duker (image by Justin Ratcliffe) "This is obviously an exciting time for us," said American owner Bill Duker in La Spezia. "Sybaris is a project that started a very long time ago when my son and I would sit in the aft cockpit of the boat we then had, Shanakee, and talk about the boat of our dreams. Over the past 20 years that dream ...

The same owner as the newly listed $65M Apogee penthouse. By Josh Baumgard Dec 2, 2016, 10:50am EST. Sybaris is the reason William Duker is selling his $65M penthouse. via Boat International. The ...

The yacht was built for Bill Duker. Who is Bill Duker? He is a former New York lawyer, who later founded Amici LLC. He was born in 1954. He is married to Sharon. They have a son named West. Duker was the owner of the sailing yacht Sybaris and the Feadship motor yacht Rasselas. He sold Sybaris in 2018. Amici

In May, Perini Navi launched the 70-metre sailing yacht

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In a candid aside to a French documentarian, the American yachtsman Bill Duker said, "If the rest of the world learns what it's like to live on a yacht like this, they're gonna bring back ...

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View Bill Duker's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. ... CEO at IYC - The International Yacht Company, driving global growth. ... New York, NY. Connect william ...

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Hargrave 116 Reviewed

• By Diane M. Byrne
• May 17, 2024

Tami Frain was so sure about the look and feel she and her husband, Rick, wanted for Romeo Foxtrot that she could taste it. She’s as big a fan of cooking as she is of boathandling and cruising. She has whipped up memorable meals aboard all of the couple’s previous yachts, including the 98-foot Hargrave Tigers Eye , which they had for 12 years before taking delivery of the 116-foot Hargrave.

With Romeo Foxtrot , Frain envisioned turning out dishes that would please everyone, down to the youngest grandchild. And yet, everyone else was convinced that the reality of owning a yacht run by professional crew would win out. Shelley DiCondina of Yacht Interiors by Shelley says she vividly remembers one of her first conversations with Frain about the design for Romeo Foxtrot ’s galley. As Frain and Rachel Wike, a designer at the company, discussed color palettes and the overall ambience with Frain, DiCondina gently told Frain, “You’re not going to cook.” Frain replied, “Yes, I am,” without missing a beat.

Today, although Frain has spent a good amount of time in the galley since the yacht’s delivery, she’s primarily discussing menus with her chef and crew at the four-person settee and corner table. And no one has a problem with the way things turned out.

It’s not often that experienced yacht owners are proved wrong. Then again, it’s not often that being proved wrong ends up being proved right about something else. When the Frains commissioned Romeo Foxtrot , they wanted a bigger yacht where their extended family could all sit together, put their feet up and relax. Being booted from the galley means Frain can spend more time with everyone (and squeeze in work when needed).

Similarly, the Frains wanted big groups of charter guests to enjoy quality time with one another. Between smart space utilization and equally smart decor choices, they’ve succeeded.

Romeo Foxtrot ’s beach club is one of the best examples of how the Frains’ vision came to fruition. Tigers Eye , delivered in 2007, had no beach club. Romeo Foxtrot ’s extra length allows for a fold-down transom, perfect for the grandkids to board water toys while the grown-ups keep a watchful eye from the teak swim platform or the air-conditioned, shaded lounge. There’s also a steam room and a day head. In fact, the Frains insisted on having a day head on every deck, including the sun deck—quite uncommon for a 116-footer.

Also uncommon for a yacht this length, Romeo Foxtrot has two king-berth guest staterooms and two nearly king staterooms belowdecks. The latter beds are, according to DiCondina, just 6 inches shy of true kings, which tend to be the exclusive domain of VIP and master staterooms. Most yacht owners also tend to put at least one twin-berth stateroom belowdecks for charter, with the berths capable of pushing together. The Frains felt that four nearly identical staterooms (with different accent colors) would be attractive for charter.

The Frains also created a restful stateroom for themselves on the main deck. Big windows bring light into a cozy seating area that Tami Frain especially enjoys for sipping coffee or reading a book. Rick Frain, meanwhile, likes the 85-inch TV opposite the master’s king bed. As with the rest of Romeo Foxtrot , the decor in this stateroom includes rich walnut, creamy accents, and a pop of jade in the fabrics. There’s also a trellis made of high-gloss ebony that starts at the nightstands, then flows up overhead (headroom exceeds 7 feet) and onto a wall. A trellis is also overhead in the main foyer, visually distinguishing the dining area from the salon in the open-plan layout.

From areas that guests won’t see, such as the captain’s cabin abaft the wheelhouse, to relaxation areas guests can enjoy, such as the waterfall spa pool on the sun deck, Hargrave Custom Yachts fulfilled the Frains’ desire for a much bigger boat than their previous one, with the features of even larger yachts. You could say that this combined team is cooking with gas.

Stunning Staircase

Romeo Foxtrot ’s internal staircase has floating treads that spiral around a metal pole, essentially forming a sculpture in the midst of the open-plan main deck. This staircase is lighted beautifully at night. Rachel Wike of Yacht Interiors by Shelley came up with the concept.

Not Done Yet

Although the Frains just took delivery of Romeo Foxtrot in 2022, the yacht is for sale. The Frains have another custom yacht under construction. It will be their third Hargrave and slightly longer, at 118 feet, and is scheduled for delivery in time for summer Mediterranean cruising. 

This Table Is Tops

Rick Frain loves wood. Shelley DiCondina of Yacht Interiors by Shelley designed the main-deck dining table from one board of Mediterranean oak, center-cut horizontally. The live edges are on the inside of the table, with gray epoxy in the center. The smooth sides face guests, while the organic edges are art.

Take the next step: hargravecustomyachts.com

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Meet ‘King Benji,’ a 154-Foot Explorer Yacht With a Kaleidoscopic Crow’s Nest

There's a also 40-foot tender that hits 80 mph, a sit-around teppanyaki grill, and ornate staterooms., julia zaltzman, julia zaltzman's most recent stories.

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Entrepreneur Josh Golder may have owned 13 production boats in his lifetime, but the 154-foot King Benji is his first full custom new build. Determined to get it right, he spent five years planning and $45 million building his Dunya explorer. He engaged Gregory C. Marshall for the exterior and British studio Design Unlimited for the interior. His brief was simple—to build a yacht that facilitates the same five-star experience off the boat that guests are guaranteed on board.

His first boat was an 84-foot Azimut that he bought in 2009. “In the first year, I was probably on board 270 days or more. I just love being on the water,” Golder tells Robb Report . In the following years, he experimented with RIBs, speedboats, and flat-hulled party boats. “I just became obsessed with every style.”

With King Benji , Golder has created an explorer platform kitted out with a 20,000-pound capacity crane, four 300 hp Jet Skis, and a 40-foot Nor-Tech tender, his favorite brand of speedboat (and the seventh that he’s owned.) He made the decision to put King Benji on the charter market partway through the build, which led him to swap out the planned gym and steam room for two additional guest cabins, bringing the total to five.

A hatred for televisions and white fiberglass dictated other design decisions, from the split plunge pool on the owner’s deck that had to be tiled to the hidden television screens in every room. Massive opening panoramic glass doors—with no sills—was another non-negotiable. “That four-inch lip you get on production boats used to really annoy me,” he says, which also shows how fastidious he was with the design.

King Benji was delivered in March and headed straight to the MYBA charter show in Genoa. In the coming weeks, Golder will cruise Croatia, Montenegro and Albania. He also has Alaska in his sights.

Here are 10 cool features about the newest explorer on the charter market.

Canine Credits

Golder loves his dog so much that he named the boat after him. Just under the KBG on the stern is an illustration of a dog. No special provisions have been made for the King, however, since he only joins the yacht for short trips. Golder’s 4-month-old son is also named after Benji. “I thought, if my son grows up with a few dollars to his name, then there is nothing more humbling than being named after a dog,” he says.

Hot and Cold Running Water

When stepping out onto the private owner’s foredeck, all eyes are on the custom tub by Headhunter, which is both a cold 39-degree Fahrenheit plunge pool and a roasting 140-degree Jacuzzi. The central divider means guests can enjoy hot and cold or remove the divider to enjoy just a more tepid soak. This feat of engineering is included in another onboard pool system, which empties, fills, and heats independently.

Best Seat on Board

The crow’s nest—or observation pod—is one of owner Golder’s favorite features. “It was an area that I feel is often overlooked, and therefore had to be done.” The enclosed space lets guests sink into sofas and admire the 360-degree views. Bright prints from Osborn & Little add color, while a fridge provides cold drinks.

Visual Intelligence

When Golder asked Design Unlimited for “photo-quality concept renderings” to help with his visual decision making, the brand responded with 15 unique schemes based on landmark interiors. They ranged from a Medellín apartment with a polished concrete floor to a Costa Rican treehouse. Golder eventually settled on a combination of 1 Hotel South Beach in Miami and a restaurant in North Miami called Chica. “I don’t like the headache of expensive art, so instead of artworks on the wall, the walls became the artwork,” he says.

Open Communications

One of the more unusual features is the sizable open galley. It’s split in two, with a service area and pantry on one side and a dining area with a breakfast bar and large picture window on the other. An open hatch to the galley puts the chef on full display with freshly prepared food laid out on the divider. In addition to the yacht’s formal dining arrangement, the bridge is also “yacht quality” in case guests want to eat in the wheelhouse.

Tapping into Teppanyaki

Oversized sun lounges on the bridge deck aft double as clever storage for the inflatable slide and climbing wall. The biggest crowd pleaser on this level, though, is the six-seat teppanyaki bar for an immersive outdoor cooking experience. Clad in bamboo and topped with Turkish marble, it also includes a TV screen that is hidden behind a gnarled wood panel.

Master Mariner

The dedicated owner’s deck enjoys a private lounge with a William Garvey games table, black-crocodile-print leather floor tiles and a bamboo ceiling. The California king bed with an extra-deep mattress was a special owner’s request. It’s paired with a live-edge timber headboard and mirrored kickback boards to give the illusion that the bed is floating. Jungle-themed Tecnografica wallpaper brings the outdoors in, as does the supersized, color-changing rainshower that doubles as a steam room.

Picture Perfect

The four guest cabins each cost around $370,000 to outfit. They’re differentiated by color and underwater themes reflected in their names and bespoke wallpaper—Adam Ellis gold-leaf prints in the triggerfish cabin and coral wallpaper by Pierre Frey in the twins. They also have the largest panoramic guest cabin windows on any boat under 500 gross tons.

Fast Tender

A large tender that facilitates fun away from the yacht was a must for Golder. “I love my Nor-Tech as it’s an extremely fast boat with a stable hull,” he says. The 400 Supersport center console reaches speeds of up to 80 mph and can cover around 150 miles a day. It has a fully enclosed bathroom and spacious seating. “I didn’t want the yacht’s only tender to be a glorified lifeboat,” he adds.

Step by Step

The central stairwell runs across the yacht’s three decks, doubling as a feature wall. Glass balustrades, open treads, and brass strips that reflect light are set against a backdrop of reclaimed eucalyptus wood tiles.

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TEEN BALLERINA MOWED DOWN BY MYSTERY BOAT JUST DISCOVERED Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

Ella Adler joins a group of twelve for wakeboarding on Biscayne Bay over Mother’s Day weekend.  The girls take turns on two wakeboards towed behind the boat.  Ella ends up in the water. Still wearing a life vest, she makes it back over to the board and clings to it as she’s towed back to the yacht. While Ella’s still in the water, another boat gets dangerously close and shows no sign of stopping. Moments later, the boat strikes Ella, forcing her underneath. When Ella floats back up to the surface, she’s limp and there’s blood in the water. Ella dies before anyone can get her to shore.   The boat that hit Ella never slowed down, despite a legal requirement to stop, call law enforcement, and give aid. Maritime lawyers have contested claims the boat operator may not have realized they hit someone, saying anyone aboard would have felt the hit. A witness saw a fishing boat pass the gray yacht, and heard screams and distress calls over the yacht’s radio. They describe the boat as a light blue center console with dark blue bottom paint and three to four outboard engines.   JOINING NANCY TODAY Daniel Grammes - Maritime Lawyer / Attorney at Lipcon Margulies & Winkleman;  Insta: @dgram01 Phil Odom – Boating Accident Reconstructionist, Owner of H2O Investigations, and Former Law Enforcement; Facebook: H20 Investigations Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth) and Lecturer: University of Texas Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School Dr. Michelle DuPre – Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, Author: “Homicide Investigation Field Guide” & “Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;” Forensic Consultant Sydney Sumner - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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THE SUPERYACHTS 36

The new 2023 edition of The Superyachts showcases 21 of the finest new private luxury yachts, profiled in exquisite photos, deck plans and detailed specifications.

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The Superyachts 36 continues the unbroken sequence of the most spectacular book on the most spectacular yachts…

• Tour 21 stunning yachts, all with remarkable diversity, quality and beauty
• The spectacular yachts are all the fulfilment of owners dreams, showcasing the fastest, sleekest and most beautiful to grace the waves
• Don’t miss stunning yachts such as ALPHA, OCTOPUS, POLARIS, VICTORIOUS and many more
• Discover the yachts that won the 2022 Boat International Design & Innovation Awards, alongside winners of the World Superyacht Awards
• Browse the latest register of the world’s top 200 largest yachts
• Alphabetical listing of all yachts profiled in all volumes

YOUR 21 BREATHTAKING YACHTS:

AL WAAB, ALFA, AHPO, ARKADIA, AUDREY THE FIRST, BLEU DE NIMES (REFIT), BOARDWALK, C, CLUB M, GRACE III, KOJU, MOON SAND, MOONSTONE, OCTOPUS, PATH, PERSERVERANCE, POLARIS, RESILIENCE, SANLORENZO 44 (ANNABELLA), TOP FIVE II, AND VICTORIOUS.

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This New Coffee Table Book Showcases the Greatest Yachts of the Last 170 Years

"yachts: the impossible collection" is a visual history showing the evolution of the ultimate status symbol., michael verdon, michael verdon's most recent stories.

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Yachts, from the ancient 140-foot pharaoh’s “solar barque” to modern, wild-looking superyachts like Adastra , have always been considered society’s ultimate status symbols. A new book, released this weekend, provides a fresh take on superyacht history in a beautiful pictorial display.

Miriam Cain’s Yachts: The Impossible Collection ( Assouline ; $895) is an assemblage of the most historically significant luxury vessels that represent different periods: From America , the victorious sailing vessel from 1851 that founded the America’s Cup, to iconic 1980s megayachts that established the modern era, all the way to the most recently launched gigayachts.

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With more than 3,000 superyachts in the global fleet, as well as thousands of others that are long gone, Cain was able to distill the crème de la crème into a manageable collection. The 236-page volume is more than a coffee-table book. Rather, it’s an ensemble of superyachts shown in a timeline illustrated by charts, visuals and photos by many leading yachting photographers. Robb Report spoke with Cain about yachting’s past and where she thinks modern superyachts are heading in the next decade.

The 317-foot superyacht Faith has a glass pool suspended above the lounge bar.  Courtesy Assouline Publishing

Why did you write this book?

Publications have done a good job of showcasing the best cars, houses, and other luxury items, but it felt like there was a real gap for a book that displayed the most luxurious of luxury products. For most people, yachts are the pinnacle of status symbols—not just today but throughout history.

The concept behind the book is to show a range of different yachts over the years that say something unique, whether it’s their size, features, technical complexity, luxury, or historical significance.

The schooner Sea Cloud , built in 1931 and still sailing around the world. Its master suite has an ornate, post-Victorian look, complete with travel chests.  Courtesy Sea Cloud Cruises

Why the historical approach?

If you wanted to merely show the largest yachts it would be a very different publication. Almost all of the largest yachts have been built in the last two decades, so that would have made for a very uniform collection.

Instead, our aim was to pick out the best yachts from multiple eras. They all have a story, not just about themselves, but about the period when they were created.

Adastra ‘s striking silver exterior and spaceship looks are iconic, but it was also designed for efficiency. The boat can crisscross the Atlantic without refueling.  Courtesy Jochen Manz

Did one period impress you the most?

For me, the 1980’s was the decade when yachting went from a pastime only enjoyed by a very few, often with a nautical leaning, to being a more mainstream status symbol, desired by everyone from Arab princes to Texas oil barons.

That period also heralded a totally different approach to design, with designers like Jon Bannenberg breaking completely new ground, sometimes building yachts that looked more like spaceships than a traditional sailing yacht.

With all the historical figures who have been on board, the 325.3-ft. Christina O is a piece of living history.  Courtesy Stef Bravin, Morley Yachts

What do you like best about the most recent superyachts?

The most impressive thing now is that almost nothing is considered impossible or unachievable, especially when it comes to the items that can be incorporated into a yacht.

From real fireplaces to snow rooms, submarines, helipads and even a full-size paddle tennis court, the possibilities seem endless. The ability to incorporate just about any whim shows how talented designers and engineers are these days.

Launched last year, the 353-ft. Luminosity is a showcase for the latest propulsion technology, with the largest hybrid battery drive on any superyacht.  Courtesy Benetti/Burgess

Do you have a favorite yacht in the book? 

  In terms of looks, my favorite yacht is the most recent Excellence . I just love the bow on that yacht. It is so eye-catching and bold.

But if I had to select the yacht closest to my heart it would probably be Christina O . She may not be a pedigree yacht, but I just love her story and all of the great and good people who have been on board over the years—from JFK to Winston Churchill, and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, she is a yacht that really brings history alive when you are on board. That is hard to beat.

At 247 feet, Cloudbreak was built for extreme global exploration. Launched in 2016, it set the standard for expedition yachts.  Courtesy Guillaume Plisson

With all this historical context, where do you see the superyacht sector going? Hybrid propulsion? Ever larger sizes? 

I’m not sure that size is going to increase much more. Once you get to 150 meters [492 feet], a yacht ceases to be a yacht and becomes more like a cruise ship. I don’t think many owners want to own yachts that size, unless they have a purpose, such as a research yacht like Rev Ocean . In fact, we are starting to see owners downsizing from the gargantuan-sized yachts to more manageable sizes with fewer crew. Technology, of course, is always a driver of change.

Coming from an environmental background, I am excited to see how the superyacht industry can incorporate the latest technologies being developed for cars and jets onto yachts. Lürssen’s recent progress with fuel-cell technology is some of the most exciting news I’ve heard in a while.

The 249.5-ft. Amadea features a unique superstructure that resembles overlapping shells, culminating with a sculpture of an albatross, wings outspread, on the prow.  Courtesy Guillaume Plisson

It is incumbent on those who have the most, to do the most when it comes to the environment, so it would be great to see superyachts leading the way.

What about designers? Have you seen that segment change much? 

It really is a small industry in which no more than a dozen firms really dominate, but there is always room for new, young designers making their way. Talent will always come through in the end.

The retractable stern ladder aboard the sailing superyacht Nero .  Courtesy Burgess

Any other thoughts about the book you’d like to share? 

Having worked in the superyacht industry for more than 20 years, it was nice to have the time to be able to look back at some of the yachts I’ve always known about, but only superficially, and be able to research other yachts that I didn’t know so well. Finding the interesting back stories that many vessels have was one of the delights of researching this project.

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  THE SUPER YACHT INDUSTRY BOOK

The Super Yacht Industry Book

• The first textbook ever written about the Superyacht industry. The book focuses mainly on motor yachts of over 50 meters long.
• In collaboration with 95 experts who design, build, buy, sell, equip, support, operate and manage the world’s largest yachts. They are sharing their experience and true gold nuggets of information that will give you years of competitive advantage to understanding the superyacht industry.
• The state of the art reference for the yachting industry.

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Testimonials.

"In this book Marcela has been able to bring together the knowledge and expertise of some of the leading names in the yacht business, and the outcome is a deeper insight into what I call “the business of yachting”. From the earliest elements of design and engineering through to new construction, sales and charter, yacht management and the legal elements of yachting. In this book, you will have an opportunity to learn about the superyacht industry, from the people who make the superyacht industry. The designers, builders, brokers and lawyers. Informative and insightful information that will be helpful to everyone from an aspiring yacht captain and manage through to an owner and prospective owner."

-  Jamie Edmiston, Edmiston 

"This book has finally given us a chance to throw open the doors of our highly exclusive and sometimes elusive industry, inviting the reader to learn about the intricate workings of the yachting business. With such highly respected names sharing their expertise, this book is sure to be a must-read for anyone interested in joining the world of yachting, not to mention a valuable tool for expanding the comprehension of those who are already part of the industry."

- Paris Baloumis – Marketing Director Oceanco  

This book is a celebration of knowledge offered by some of the most influential people in yachting.

Jonathan Beckett, CEO Burgess

I strongly believe that a book like this is generally missing for our industry so it will become the de-facto reference guide for owners, new professionals, for supporting training courses, and for refreshing the ecosystem knowledge of professional already performing in industry.

Matteo Magherini, Lateral

The Quintessential yachting reference encyclopedia that should be on every company and serious broker bookshelf.

Peter Thompson, Managing Partner (YPI)

Finally someone has produced such book which was missing in the industry!

Fadi Pataq, Nobiskrug

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The world’s first book on superyachts published in Monaco

In collaboration with over 95 superyacht experts, Onboard Monaco has published the first book on the yacht industry.

The Superyacht Industry Book , released on 1st December 2020, calls itself “a state of the art reference for the yachting industry.” As the very first guide on the topic, this book promises readers an in-depth insight into the world of yachting.

The publication is the result of author Marcela de Kern Royer’s collaboration with experts who design, build, buy, sell, equip, support, operate and manage the world’s largest yachts.

>> MORE ON THE TOPIC : How yachting escaped the Covid crisis by offering a ticket out of the pandemic

“A book like this was missing from our industry”

The book has already received widespread acclaim from the industry. “This book is a celebration of knowledge offered by some of the most influential people in yachting,” said Jonathan Beckett, CEO of Burgess, a yacht brokerage company.

Matteo Magherini, naval architect at Lateral, predicted that the book would “become the de-facto reference guide” to the industry. “A book like this was missing from our industry.”

How many yachts are there? How to choose a broker? Marcela de Kern Royer’s work focuses on mainly yachts of over 50 meters long and talks about everything from superyacht market to maritime law.

>> MORE ON THE TOPIC: Riviera’s authorities crack down on superyachts to protect environment

An insight on yachting written by a Monaco resident

Marcela de Kern Royer is a Monaco resident and a member of the Yacht Club of Monaco. She combines a passion for yachting with a strong international academic background. She holds an MBA from Hult Business School in Boston and a bachelor in Business Administration from the International University of Monaco. Marcela is also the founder and first president of Young Professionals in Yachting (YPY) Monaco chapter.

Yachting is at the heart of the Principality. In fact, there are so many yachts in Monaco that the Principality, running out of space, has now bought the dealership of the Port of Ventimiglia in neighbouring Italy.

>> MORE ON THE TOPIC: Monaco opens a third port… in Italy!

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Travel | travel: alaska is ready for another record-breaking cruise season.

Alaska is home to more than 30,000 grizzlies, but the state’s cruise industry is experiencing anything but a bear market as momentum of last year’s record-breaking season is expected to continue in 2024.

Looking at the most-visited Alaskan port as a proxy for the ship-shape southeastern side of the state, Juneau set a new mark a year ago with 1.65 million passengers descending on the capital city during cruise season, which generally runs from early April to late October. That figure from the Juneau Chamber of Commerce is a Danali-sized jump of 30% compared to the previous mark set in pre-pandemic 2019.

Coinciding with Alaska’s 65th anniversary of statehood, the upcoming cruise season appears to be just as robust with 19 cruise lines sending 43 ships to the Last Frontier. Kicking things off for the second straight year is the 4,008-passenger Norwegian Bliss, which is scheduled to dock in rustic Skagway on April 8. With four mainstream-category ships homeported in either Seattle or Vancouver, Norwegian Cruise Line ( ncl.com ) has nearly 100 more after that. Impressive, but two competing companies have staked out larger claims in this modern-day, maritime Alaskan gold rush; Holland America Line ( hollandamerica.com ) is sending seven premium-class ships for 141 total cruises, and at the top of the totem pole is Princess Cruises ( princess.com ), which is celebrating its 55th year in these waters with seven premium ships sharing 158 departures.

Not counting grand voyages with itineraries so rich that they make a visit to Alaska seem more like a pitstop, this cruise season will see more than 800 trips of mostly seven to 10 days starting or ending on this side of the Pacific. Where they’re all going is a destination rich in unparallel wilderness, wildlife and native culture. In other words, bucket list stuff.

“Alaska is one of those places that draws you in and sets the hook right away,” said Kristi Switzer, destination marketing manager for Travel Juneau ( traveljuneau.com ). “Visitors come for the otherworldly experience of being in the presence of glaciers and fjords, seeing whales and bears, and finding the balance of Alaska Native cultural heritage with the rustic sophistication found in the capital city and other places within this magnificent state.”

Although Switzer recommends visits lasting several days instead of several hours, the city’s destination evangelist hopes that a partial day in Juneau and each major Alaskan cruise port has over 1.5 million passengers wanting more.

“This magical corner of the world has so much to offer beyond being a checkmark on people’s bucket lists,” she said. “Make time to enjoy the fascinating culture, spectacular outdoor recreation, unique shopping, amazing restaurants and artist galleries that Juneau and all of Southeast Alaska have to offer.”

Alaska is a checkmark for about three-quarters of all passengers headed there, according to the Alaska Tourism Industry Association, and the same can be said for two ships this season.

Starting with a six-day sail out of Vancouver on May 11, the namesake of Celebrity Cruises’ ( celebritycruises.com ) popular Edge class will make her Alaskan debut with weeklong roundtrips from Seattle through Sept. 13. The 2,918-passenger vessel features a unique “outside-in” architecture that provides more floor-to-ceiling glass on the exterior and expanded outdoor spaces to soak up the Alaskan coastlines.

Edge will be joined by a pair of fleet mates for the season, albeit Summit’s seven-day roundtrips are turnarounds out of Anchorage or Vancouver and Solstice’s weeklong jaunts are solely based in the British Columbian seaport. Celebrity, a premier-category cruise line, meaning it’s between the economical mainstream class and pricy luxury level, has 57 departures to Alaska scheduled this year.

The other new recruit is Silver Nova, the youngest Silversea Cruises ( silversea.com ) ship in the luxury fleet to ever service Alaska. Capped at 728 guests, Silver Nova was launched last year and has the goods to do justice to a dreamlike place that captures the imagination of wilderness lovers and history buffs.

“Silver Nova is the ideal ship for Alaska cruising,” said company spokesman Brad Ball. “Her innovative design, which prizes openness over symmetry and incorporates an unprecedented use of approximately 4,000 square meters of glass, immerses guests into the incredible scenery of Alaska from virtually all venues and suites, with far-reaching views at every turn.”

The ship’s reimagined pool deck, which overlooks the water on her starboard side, and all-new outdoor venues — the Dusk Bar and the Marquee — allows unique openness to view spectacular Alaskan glaciers and wildlife. Those who want to experience an older and smaller Evolution-class Silversea vessel can book the Silver Muse, which also will sail mostly seven- to 14-day trips between Anchorage and Vancouver.

Because nearly every Alaskan cruise includes the staples — Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Inside Passage, and Denali with a land add-on — some cruise lines like to shake things up with unique itineraries.

Holland America has a roundtrip that makes it easy to visit the 49th and 50th states without a long flight. A new “Glaciers & Volcanos: Alaska to Hawaii” cruise, part of the premium line’s Legendary Voyages collection of journeys from 25 to 59 days, departs on Aug. 31 from Seattle or Sept. 1 from Vancouver aboard the 1,916-passenger Westerdam. The near-four-week-long itinerary includes seldomly visited Kodiak and Dutch Harbor before heading down to the tropics to make four calls to three Hawaiian islands.

Seabourn ( seabourn.com ) strives to offer a more tasteful Alaskan cruise and not only because it’s an ultra-luxury cruise line. “Caviar on the Ice” is a savory and swanky soiree on every Alaskan voyage, and when the 450-passenger Odyssey is in Sitka, a town originally built by Russian traders in the early 1800s, Seabourn guests can enjoy a culinary adventure that includes a scenic drive to a taproom for a sampling of local brews and a few eateries to try Siberian-rooted pelmeni dumplings and a hot dog made with caribou that the locals call “reindeer dawgs.” Sorry, vegetarians and friends of Santa, but Blitzen on a bun is da bomb.

Carnival Cruise Line ( carnival.com ) is staying with a three-ship deployment in Alaska this season. Sharing the workload of 55 roundtrips generally lasting seven to 11 days are Carnival Spirit (2,610 passengers) and Carnival Luminosa (2,260) out of Seattle, and Carnival Miracle (2,667) from San Francisco. Another mainstream cruise line, Royal Caribbean ( royalcaribbean.com ), has four ships making 85 runs to Alaska from Seattle, Vancouver and Anchorage: Ovation of the Seas, (4,905) and older sister Quantum of the Seas, Brilliance of the Seas (2,543) and Radiance of the Seas (2,466).

Disney Cruise Line ( disneycruise.com ) is sending its 2,700-passenger Disney Wonder out of Vancouver for 15 week-long roundtrips, one five-day spin leaving on July 24 and an extended nine-day voyage on July 15.

Other cruise lines showing passengers a whale of a time in Alaska include Crystal, Cunard, Hurtigruten, Lindblad/National Geographic, Oceania, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas and Viking.

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Putin taunts the West with 'first ever' visit to remote ice-covered 'frontier region' just 55 miles from the US - as Zelensky tries to drum up war support in Lithuania

• Chukotka is Russia's easternmost region, sharing a maritime border with Alaska

President Vladimir Putin  has arrived for his first-ever presidential visit to Chukotka in Russia 's Far East - just 55 miles from the US state of Alaska . 

Putin arrived in Anadyr, the local capital of the Chukotka region this morning after flying from Moscow some nine time zones away. 

Chukotka is the easternmost region of Russia, with a maritime border on the Bering Strait with Alaska.

The Russian president was met in Anadyr by a motorcade and was whisked away in a limousine amid frigid temperatures of -28C. 

It's the closest he has come to US soil since he met with President  Barack Obama in New York City in 2015.

Chukotka is so close to Alaska that Roman Abramovich - the ex-Chelsea FC owner - was reported to fly to Anchorage in Alaska for lunch when he was the governor of the region from 2001 - 2008.

Putin's visit comes at a time when US-Russian relations are at their lowest ebb in decades amid the war in Ukraine and a growing East-West divide. 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today landed in Lithuania as part of an unannounced trip to the Baltic states to drum up more support for the conflict. 

Global war for control of the ARCTIC: Climate change is unlocking untapped natural resources, new trade routes... and a new international conflict that RUSSIA is already winning  

The three Baltic states - all former Soviet republics which are now EU and NATO members - are among Ukraine's staunchest allies.

'Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are our reliable friends and principled partners. Today, I arrived in Vilnius before going to Tallinn and Riga,' Zelensky said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

'Security, EU and NATO integration, cooperation on electronic warfare and drones, and further coordination of European support are all on the agenda,' he said.

The Baltic tour marks Zelensky's first official trip abroad this year.

In Lithuania, a key donor to Ukraine, Zelensky said he will hold talks with the president, prime minister and the speaker of parliament, and meet with the Ukrainian community.

The visit comes as other Kyiv allies waver on fresh aid, nearly two years into Russia's invasion.

Ukraine has come under intense Russian shelling in recent weeks, retaliating with strikes on Russia's border city of Belgorod.

Zelensky has urged allies to keep military support flowing and held in-person talks with officials from the United States, Germany and Norway last month.

But an EU aid package worth 50 billion euros ($55 billion) has been stuck in Brussels following a veto by Hungary, while the US Congress remains divided on sending additional aid to Ukraine.

Following his trip to Chukotka, Putin is expected to visit several regions in the Russian Far East to boost his re-election campaign amid the war with Ukraine, which has seen more than 300,000 Russians killed or maimed.

He is due to stand in March, seeking another six years in the Kremlin.

The only Kremlin leader ever to travel to Chukotka previously was Dmitry Medvedev in 2008.

Putin's trip sees him escape a wave of ugly protests in western Russia over hundreds of thousands of people scraping by in freezing conditions due to breakdowns in communal heating supplies.

In Elektrostal, Moscow region, desperate residents say they have had no communal heating - which Russians routinely expect the state to supply usually through piped hot water - for the entire winter so far.

'We have been without heating since [9 October],' one resident said in a video circulating on Telegram.

'It is impossible to be in our homes… We are freezing! We are freezing! We are freezing!' they said. 

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Superyacht Captain: Life and leadership in the world's most incredible industry Paperback – June 14, 2022

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In Superyacht Captain, a professional at the zenith of the world's most lavish and exclusive industry gives a rare insight into a career that is entertaining, instructive and at times daunting in its scale. The tale of an ordinary boy whose career takes him on a most extraordinary journey, this book begins with Brendan messing about in boats in a sleepy coastal Australian town, and ends with him becoming one of the most successful and respected superyacht captains in the World – the consummate 'Billionaire's Captain'. Spanning two decades and circling the globe, his story intimately draws readers into the real world of superyachts, their crew and their owners. It is Brendan's love letter to an industry he respects and holds so dear to his heart. It's the story of stepping out and embracing uncertainty - failing, learning and repeating - weaving in in the lessons he's learned as he's progressed from deck hand to captain, Brendan's insights are valuable for anyone leading teams with demanding objectives. Surprisingly humble and self aware, in a world of glitter and extravagance you can see why he's trusted. All of this is told against a backdrop of seemingly impossible glamour at the most extravagant edge of the global wealth spectrum, with plenty of entertaining stories of the superyacht lifestyle. A brilliant read for all, for the superyacht fans, as well as anyone interested in leadership and management techniques from someone at the top of their game, working for those who define the rules of the game.

• Print length 272 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Adlard Coles
• Publication date June 14, 2022
• Dimensions 6.05 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• ISBN-10 1472992660
• ISBN-13 978-1472992666
• See all details

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About the author.

Brendan O'Shannassay grew up in Fremantle, Australia, and gained his degree and officer education with the Royal Australian Navy. In 2001 he joined his first superyacht as a deck hand, and worked his way up through the ranks to gain his first captaincy in 2006. His yacht racing career has also seen him participate in multiple Sydney Hobarts and the Fastnet Race, amongst others, Brendan is a Board Member of the International Superyacht Society, Chairman of the Captain's Committee, and has helped to establish superyachtcrewhelp.org – a charity working to support the mental health of yacht crews. Superyacht Captain is his first book.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Adlard Coles (June 14, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1472992660
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1472992666
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.05 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• #739 in Boating (Books)
• #3,177 in Rich & Famous Biographies
• #11,162 in Leadership & Motivation

About the author

Brendan o’shannassy.

I was a shy, bookish boy in a small Western Australian coastal town. By age 11 I was a little overweight, and the last to be picked for any team sports. Fortunately, a growth spurt during my 12th year helped me climb the sports social ranking, but I always carried the shadow of those days when I was a little on the outside and not quite expecting to be chosen.

I would never have thought that I would one day as the Captain of some of the World's Greatest Yachts I would be at ease with the wealthiest people on the planet and I would feel more at home in Monaco, Geneva, St Barths, Moscow and London than I did returning to my home town.

This is a captain’s story, my story, where I look back on the physical, emotional and professional challenges that I have faced working in support of the most exclusive client group in the world and their relentless demands. It also charts a journey into the ‘heart of brightness’ that is the superyacht environment. It took me 15 years to earn the title of Captain and I walk through the narrow lanes, the dead ends and the bumpy distractions to that place.

The world of superyachts is far removed from most of the planet’s ‘normal’. It is a world where boundaries blur and the everyday rules of life seem to disappear. A world where lessons and insights are not read about and studied, but lived in an environment of constant pressure, where the consequences of actions result in immediate success or failure. This high stakes, no-safety-net workplace provided me with rolling insights that transfer directly for anyone looking for that edge to be their best version of themselves. My lessons are not hypothetical, gathered from postgraduate studies and delivered in a TED talk; I lived through the glory (but mostly the pain) of the constant scrutiny and expectations of billionaire superyacht owners.

A superyacht is also a study in globalisation. Yacht captains do not speak of diversity as a slogan or a company goal: we live it. The crews are multinational and multilingual and disperse around the globe when not on board. The same is true of the owners. It is common for a conversation to cross multiple languages and for all parties to be speaking in their second or third languages. Many businesses operate globally – this is nothing unique – but not many businesses move their office every few weeks to a new country, a different language, a new climate, a different legal system, and are expected to be experts on arrival.

This is the expectation placed on a yacht and its captain. Whether it be Monaco, Miami, Palau or Papeete, there is an assumption that the captain will have the intimacy of a local by the time their feet are on the dock. They may have ducked an Atlantic hurricane (or two) during the office relocation, but this is not even considered.

The business must be open on arrival. Yes, there are leadership lessons for all from this environment.

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Electrostal History and Art Museum

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Electrostal History and Art Museum - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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The biggest yachts to look out for at the 2024 St Barths Bucket

St Barths is the epicentre of superyacht racing during the Caribbean season, often with an impressive array of superyacht spectators in tow . In the final days leading up to the 2024 St Barths Bucket (21-24 March), BOAT rounds up the largest yachts seen pulling into Gustavia for the famed regatta, beginning with Lürssen's 138-metre Rising Sun ...

Builder: Lürssen Length: 138.01m

If not for her sheer size, Rising Sun will be easy to spot from the shores of Gustavia thanks to her distinct glass panels running across the two upper decks. The yacht was the last ever design of Jon Bannenberg and boasts 8,000 square metres of living space that includes a wine cellar, double-height cinema and a basketball court. Rising Sun was originally commissioned by American business magnate Larry Ellison , who later sold the yacht to media mogul David Geffen. 

Builder: Kleven Length: 116.15m

One of the largest explorer yachts in the world , Multiverse (ex Ulysses ) was commissioned by New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart. She is equipped with a heli-hangar on the top deck for a Bell 429 helicopter, as well as a large swimming pool, cinema and spa for the ultimate guest experience. Inside, the yacht's massive 18-metre beam provides accommodation for an owner's party of up to 66. 

Maltese Falcon

Builder: Perini Navi Length: 88m

Fresh out of a full-scale refit, Maltese Falcon is undoubtedly one of the most unique and technologically innovative sailing superyachts in the world – kitted out with radical unstayed masts made of "weapons-grade" carbon fibre, a FalconRig and computerised sail and mast control system. Be sure to look out for the yacht's eponymous emblem on its middle sail, which also appears in the form of a bronze sculpture next to the indoor cinema. 

Builder: Admiral – The Italian Sea Group Length: 74.85m

Instantly recognisable, Kenshō' 's flowing lines and metallic green-blue hull took six years to create with design from Dutch firm Azure Yacht Design and Naval Architecture and Berlin-based archineers.berlin . The Admiral flagship was awarded the coveted Motor Yacht of the Year title at the 2023 BOAT International World Superyacht Awards and picked up another Neptune at the 2023 BOAT International Design & Innovation Awards for Best Interior Design. Onboard highlights include a glass-fronted spa pool on the sundeck, a sunbed shaped in the image of a manta ray and a diesel-electric system based on five variable-speed generators that earned the yacht its Eco classification. 

Builder: Heesen Yachts Length: 65m

The multiple award-winning Illusion (ex Galactica Star ) was delivered by Heesen in 2013, featuring the Fast Displacement Hull Form (FDHF) developed by Dutch naval architects Van Oossanen & Associates . Her streamlined appearance and generous guest amenities have made her a favourite on the charter scene, with Beyoncé and Jay Z among her list of returning clients . Illusion was also singled out by Dickie Bannenberg – who designed the yacht's interior – as one of his most memorable projects owing to its considerable onboard art collection. 

Builder: Benetti Length: 60m

Another popular charter vessel, St David will once again appear on the hit reality TV show Below Deck , but this time with a new captain at the helm. The yacht is characterised by a classic Baroque theme with intricate marquetry made from satin woods, and a mosaic floor on the skylounge that draws inspiration from a "Tuscan palazzo". While St David is known to frequent high-profile events such as the Cannes Film Festival, she has also ventured to off-the-beaten-path locations including the Seychelles, Red Sea and Abu Dhabi. 

Builder: Trinity Yachts Length: 58.83m

Launched in 2016, Imagine... is one of the largest yachts to be built in the United States . The tri-deck vessel was penned by long-time collaborator Geoff Van Aller , with both the hull and superstructure built from aluminium to AB classification. The yacht's primary social area is found on the sundeck, where guests can relax in the Jacuzzi, on multiple sun loungers or at the bar. Inside, Imagine... also has a bonus cabin that doubles as a massage room. 

Builder: Feadship Length: 55.5m

This Feadship superyacht has sailed under a litany of names since her 2005 delivery, including Twizzile , Drizzle , Issana , Madsummer , Cynthia and most recently, Mary A . In 2018, her owner joined forces with American interior designer Claudette Bonville Associates to give Mary A an exhaustive makeover that included a top-to-bottom paint job, technical tweaks and a brand-new interior – all while carefully preserving the yacht's pedigree. 

Builder: Benetti Length: 52m

Lady B (ex Latitude ) appears to be making the most of the winter cruising season, with back-and-forth trips between the British Virgin Islands and St Barths since early December 2023 according to BOATPro 's Global Fleet Tracker. Before that, the yacht spent the off-season touring fan-favourite destinations in the South Pacific, such as Fiji, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. She is consistently ranked among the most popular charter vessels with amenities such as an outdoor cinema, a Jacuzzi and a recently updated dive centre. 

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The Superyachts is intended to be a keepsake book filled with stunning photographic details, deck layouts, full specifications and special insights into many ongoing discussion points such as the influence of technology. A spotlight is also given to how design has changed over the 35 years since The Superyachts: Volume 1.

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The design of The Superyachts continued to evolve this year under the direction of Christopher Whale and Mark Gillman, with layouts featuring more and larger photos, plus a fresh colour palette. Along with the new fleet of featured yachts, the book carries an updated list with photos of the world's Top 200 yachts by length.

After a few days aboard 'Symphony' or '11.11,' you'd be hard pressed not to find complete inner peace! In The Superyachts Book, Tony Harris, one of the most knowledgeable observers of the scene, provides stunning photos and informative descriptions of the flagships of 20 top shipyards. This book is a luxury everyone can afford.

Published on August 16, 2021. By Michael Verdon. Courtesy Guillaume Plisson. Yachts, from the ancient 140-foot pharaoh's "solar barque" to modern, wild-looking superyachts like Adastra, have ...

The book focuses mainly on motor yachts of over 50 meters long. In collaboration with 95 experts who design, build, buy, sell, equip, support, operate and manage the world's largest yachts. They are sharing their experience and true gold nuggets of information that will give you years of competitive advantage to understanding the superyacht ...

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In Superyacht Captain, a professional at the zenith of one of the world's most lavish and exclusive industries gives a rare insight into a career that makes for eyebrow-raising reading, as entertaining as it is instructive. The tale of an ordinary boy whose career takes him on a most extraordinary journey, this book begins with Brendan messing about in boats in a sleepy coastal Australian town ...

The Superyacht Industry Book, released on 1st December 2020, calls itself "a state of the art reference for the yachting industry."As the very first guide on the topic, this book promises readers an in-depth insight into the world of yachting. The publication is the result of author Marcela de Kern Royer's collaboration with experts who design, build, buy, sell, equip, support, operate ...

The Superyacht Industry book starts with yachting basics such as yachting vocabulary, terms and definitions and then moves into subjects such as yacht design, building a yacht, sales, charter, management, ownership, crew, maritime law, and the future of yachting. Each chapter has numerous subheadings and sub text making it easy to follow.

In The Superyacht Book, edited by Tony Harris, one of the most knowledgeable observers of the scene, the flagships of 21 top shipyards are showcased in stunning exclusive photos and informative descriptions. En passant, you will learn about the most important new trends in superyacht design. This book is a luxury everyone can afford!

The Superyacht Directory is the world's largest database of private luxury yachts, with over 12,000 megayachts listed. It's the most authoritative place to find everything you need to know about superyachts - including new builds, historic vessels and the most famous boats of all time. You can filter your Superyacht Directory search ...

One-third of the yachts in the book are among the world's 100 largest yachts. Specifically, those stand-out yachts are Aquijo, Aquila, Aviva, Christina O,Kismet, Maltese Falcon, and Quattroelle. In addition, two of the latter—namely Aviva and Christina O —are among the 50 largest privately owned yachts. Regardless of yacht size, 140 pages ...

The BOOK ENDS Yacht is a product of the esteemed Heesen Yachts, designed by Omega Architects. Powered by robust MTU engines, she boasts a top speed of 23 knots and a cruising speed of 12 knots. The yacht comfortably accommodates 12 guests and a crew of 9. Robert H Book, the owner of Jet Support Services Inc., owns the BOOK ENDS Yacht.

Those who want to experience an older and smaller Evolution-class Silversea vessel can book the Silver Muse, which also will sail mostly seven- to 14-day trips between Anchorage and Vancouver.

Daily Mail. Putin taunts the West with 'first ever' visit to remote ice-covered 'frontier region' just 55 miles from the US - as Zelensky tries to drum up war support in Lithuania

The Singer's top-to-bottom renovation includes its guest rooms, suites, balconies, lobby, pool deck, outdoor pavilion, common areas, meeting rooms and more than 10,000 square feet of function ...

In Superyacht Captain, a professional at the zenith of the world's most lavish and exclusive industry gives a rare insight into a career that is entertaining, instructive and at times daunting in its scale. The tale of an ordinary boy whose career takes him on a most extraordinary journey, this book begins with Brendan messing about in boats in a sleepy coastal Australian town, and ends with ...

Despite some initial wobbles in 2020 when Covid-19 first struck, the superyacht industry has largely shrugged off the pandemic to record a third year of consistent order book growth. The 2022 Global Order Book records an impressive 1,024 projects in build or on order, a rise of 24.7 per cent on last year's 821. To continue reading this article...

Elektrostal, city, Moscow oblast (province), western Russia.It lies 36 miles (58 km) east of Moscow city. The name, meaning "electric steel," derives from the high-quality-steel industry established there soon after the October Revolution in 1917. During World War II, parts of the heavy-machine-building industry were relocated there from Ukraine, and Elektrostal is now a centre for the ...

The Books had found themselves in a rather unusual place - without a superyacht. Their previous Book Ends , a 40 metre Westport, had sold surprisingly swiftly, and they were in the middle of a two-year shopping trip to find the perfect yacht, one that would have the range and space they desired to go further afield than their usual cruising ...

Tortuga Island Anhinga Trail Le Bois de Boulogne TRM - Thika Road Mall Hungarian State Opera House (Magyar Allami Operahaz) Museu de la Xocolata Trenitalia Frecciarossa Alligator Alley Old Arcade Small-group Milan Highlights e-Bike Tour SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown Walking Tour in New York Sri Lanka Tour, Kandy to Ella by Tuk-tuk and Train Nordnes Walking Tour: Bergen's History & Charming ...

Builder: Perini Navi Length: 88m Fresh out of a full-scale refit, Maltese Falcon is undoubtedly one of the most unique and technologically innovative sailing superyachts in the world - kitted out with radical unstayed masts made of "weapons-grade" carbon fibre, a FalconRig and computerised sail and mast control system. Be sure to look out for the yacht's eponymous emblem on its middle sail ...