London - His sinister-looking motor yacht was dubbed “the most loved and loathed ship on the sea”, the sort of vessel – sniped one critic – you’d expect to see if Star Wars’s evil Darth Vader had a navy.
Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko’s spanking new sailing vessel – called simply A – which slipped out of Kiel Dockyard this week into the grey waters of the Baltic is more of the same, but on an even grander scale.
The world’s largest sailing boat, with a 9.2m main mast, is twice as long as the 104-gun HMS Victory, best known for her role in the Battle of Trafalgar. But it is arguably a victory only for monstrous bad taste and the obscene vanity of the world’s super-rich.
At 142.6m, it isn’t the biggest superyacht in the world, but under full sail it will no doubt look far more impressive and serious than the motor-driven gin palaces of Melnichenko’s fellow ocean-going billionaires.
And creating a stir, to most of the men who buy these leviathans, is the point. Which is why Melnichenko spent £260-million (almost R6-billion) having it built to an extraordinary specification by the avant garde French designer Phillippe Starck.
Battered but far from sunk by the recent global financial storm, superyachts are again in demand.
Sales of the vessels – technically boats that are more than 24m in length and boast a full-time crew – have bounced back.
And they’re bigger and even more luxurious than ever, as the world’s wealthiest regain their sea legs.
Yacht brokers say the boom has been caused by a healthier global economy, more realistic prices and a climate in which the super-rich are no longer wary about conspicuous consumption.
Superyacht sales have more than doubled in five years, up from 194 in 2010 to 412 at the end of last year.
The trend mirrors a doubling of the number of billionaires, with more than 1 700 in the world looking around for what to spend their riches on.
The buyers are changing, however, brokers tell me. Melnichenko excepted, the Russians are dwindling – anxious, industry insiders believe, to be less conspicuous now that their country has become a pariah state.
Meanwhile, the Americans – particularly the West Coast techies from Silicon Valley – are back in a big way, and to a lesser extent so are Europeans.
The Chinese are dipping their toes in the water, while brokers report they are even starting to do good business in Mexico and Indonesia.
The British are represented, with superyacht owners including retailer Sir Philip Green, the Barclay Brothers, James Dyson and property tycoon Christian Candy. U2 guitarist The Edge is also in the gang.
undefinedThe yachts are also changing. Luxury has never been so refined: infinity pools, multi-million spas, cooling-off areas known as “snow rooms” and staterooms bigger than many people’s homes are common.
And if a decade ago you couldn’t tell one apart from a glorified car ferry, now it will look more like a destroyer. Each year, the Monaco Yacht Show – the premier get-together for the multi-billion superyacht industry – unveils ever-more radical designs.
At the same time, the vessels are getting larger – the biggest, Abu Dhabi ruler Sheikh Khalifa’s £360m Azzam, is a titanic R179.8m long. But at least Azzam looks reasonably like a traditional boat.
You can hardly say that of Melnichenko’s £200m, 120m motor yacht which looks more like a nuclear submarine.
Built for Melnichenko and his wife, Aleksandra, a Serbian ex-model and pop singer, its interior was designed by Starck and British superyacht architect Martin Francis. It reportedly costs more than £12m a year to maintain.
Starck described it as a “stealth yacht”, with such an incredibly hydrodynamic shape that it leaves almost no wake even when it is moving at a speedy 25 knots.
Its “purity”, he said, reflects the fact that 43-year-old Melnichenko is a “young and brilliant mathematician”.
A mathematician protected on board by bomb-proof glass windows and an array of CCTV cameras, motion sensors and fingerprint entry systems (there is even rumoured to be a Bond villain-style escape pod).
The interior space includes six guest suites, three swimming pools (one glass-bottomed and providing the ceiling of a disco) and a secret “nookie room” hidden behind mirrored panels.
Mrs Melnichenko toned down some of the more bachelorish aspects of the decor after his marriage, but it still features furniture made with Baccarat fine crystal and crocodile skin, not to mention white stingray hides on the walls.
Even the yacht’s three motor boats reportedly cost around $1m each.
Few details are available yet about the interior of the new sailing yacht – described by Boat International magazine as “a monument to invention” – but it is hardly going to be any less lavish.
It features the longest piece of curved glass made, 59m2, which runs along one of the decks instead of railings. Heavily reinforced glass will also be used for an underwater observation pod.
The 54-man crew will be responsible, among other duties, for handling three sails that could cover a football field. The 50-ton masts were built by a British firm after years of research and testing.
One hopes they get the paint job right – Melnichenko sued the owner of Dulux for £62m, claiming the paintwork on his motor yacht was flawed. The case is understood to have been settled.
Melnichenko, who made his fortune in banking and coal, may be an extreme example, but he epitomises one of the most noticeable trends in superyachts – billionaires letting their imagination run completely wild.
Owners are increasingly trying to make their fuel-guzzling beasts more energy-efficient.
Streamlining the hull may reduce the space inside, but the yacht cuts through the water more easily. Many boats boast solar panels or use diesel electric engines that use less fuel than traditional diesel ones.
But no one can really say they’re saving the planet in a superyacht, even a wind-powered one.
Ultimately, nothing is allowed to get in the way of extreme self-indulgence.
Daily Mail