World’s biggest super yachts and their owners

Superyachts.com’s recently updated ‘Top 100 super yachts’ list has caught the attention of a number of news services – understandably so as it makes for interesting reading. Not only for the fact that the yachts themselves are mind blowing in scale and extravagance, but also because it reveals some of the high profile names who own them.

The list looks at the largest (longest) privately owned super yachts currently sailing about the place and coming in on top of the list is a reasonably recent entry that still has the nautical world abuzz – Eclipse.

Owned by Russian oil magnate and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, Eclipse is 164 meters long (a Boeing 747 is 70m long) has 9 decks, 2 helipads, a swimming pool that converts to a dance floor (??), a missile defense system, 6 tenders (they’re the boats you use to get your guests on board) and a submarine escape pod.  It cost anywhere between $600 million and $1.2 billion to build depending on whose figures you believe. Abramovich, his accountant and maybe constructors Blohm & Voss are the only ones who would have any real idea.

There’s also rumours of a special anti-paparazzi system that continually scans the surrounding area and disables uninvited cameras with lazer beams. Actually there are plenty of rumours about this boat…as indeed there are about most on the list because typically their cost, features and ownership are shrouded in mystery.

The one thing never kept a secret is the all important length and 164m is significant because the previous number one, Sheik Mohammed Rashid al-Maktoum’s Dubai is 162m long.

Roman didn’t actually need a big boat.  Truth is he had another four that were already on the top 100 list…Pelorus (115m 18^th), Luna (115m 18^th), Le Grand Bleu (112.8m 20^th) and Ecstasea (86m 49^th).  What he wanted was the biggest boat.

This is the world’s ultimate ‘my penis is bigger than yours’ comp and it’s contested pretty fiercely. When Larry Ellison (Oracle) had Rising Sun (138.4m 8^th) commissioned, word is he specifically wanted a yacht that was bigger than Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s  Octopus (126.2m 11^th).

It’s no surprise to find Saudi Arabian Princes and Sheikhs very well represented as owners. The King Abdullah owned Prince Abdulaziz (147m 4^th) has been near the top of the list for almost 30 years now.   Yas (141m 6^th) jumped straight into the top ten when it launched in November 2011. It was commissioned by an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family.

Then there’s Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz with Al Salamah (139m 7^th), Prince Khaled bin Sultan with Golden Odyssey (80.15m 66^th), former oil minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani with Al Diriyah  (78.65m 72^nd), Prince Salaman with Tueq (78.47m 76^th) and Prince Mohammed bin Fahd with Montkaj (78.03m 82^nd). Adnan Khashoggi also gets a mention as the original owner of Kingdom 5KR (86m 49^th) which starred in the Bond film ‘Never Say Never Again’ as villain Maximillian Largo’s yacht the Flying Saucer.

Members of royal families of Qatar and Oman also seem to have plenty of big yachts.  In fact, 7 of the 10 largest super yachts (see below) and 30% of the top 100 (according to Charter World) belong to Middle Eastern owners. Must be good money in oil?

The top 10:

1. Eclipse, 164m, Roman Abramovich
2. Dubai, 162m, Sheik Mohammed Rashid al-Maktoum
3. Al Said, 155m, Sultan Qaboos of Oman
4. Prince Abdulaziz, 147m , King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
5. El Horriya, 145.72m, Egyption Presidential
6. Yas , 141m, Unknown member of Saudi royal family
7. Al Salamah, 139m,  Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.
8. Rising Sun, 138.40m David Geffen & Larry Ellison
9. Serene, 133.9, Yuri Scheffler
10. Al Mirqab, 133, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al-Thani (Emir of Qatar)

Greece is also extremely well represented (for a smallish country that’s going broke that is), with the Latsis family’s Alexander (122m 13^th), Stavros Niarchos’ Atlantis II (115.82m 16^th) which is available for charter if you’re interested, Andreas Liveras’ Moonlight II (85.3m 55^th) and Theodoros Aggelopoulos’ Alfa Nero (82m 60^th).

Mr Abramovich isn’t the only Russian on the list with a few fellow oligarchs keeping him company.

Andrey Melnichenko owns the amazing looking A (119m 14^th),  Eugene Shvidler now has Le Grand Bleu (112.8m 20^th) after Abromivich gave it to him in 2006, Alisher Usmanov owns Dilmar  (110m 21^st), precious metals magnate Mikhail Prokhorov owns the aptly named and arguably sexiest looking Palladium (96m 40^th), Suleiman Kerimov comes in at number 38 with Ice (90.1m 38^th) and oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky has Lauren L (90m 40^th).

One last interesting fact to finish on.  17 of the world’s top 25 super yachts were built in Germany.

And you thought they only did cars.