It's one of the world’s longest superyachts; carries two submarines; Mick Jagger once used its recording studios; sixty full-time staff service a maximum of 26 guests in 41 suites; and costs R5.7 million a week to operate.
The Octopus docked at the V&A Waterfront last week and, being much longer than a rugby field, cannot be missed, Business Insider SA reported. It is owned by the 65-year-old Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the 45th-richest person in the world.
Being nearly twice the size, it puts another 72m superyacht, the Cloudbreak, which docked in Cape Town in February, to shame. According to the V&A’s yacht office, no definite date for departure has been set.
Built in 2003 by German shipbuilders Lürssen and refitted in 2008, its extras include two helicopters, a basketball court and a movie theatre.
While it has often been used for research expeditions, including the discovery of Japanese battleship Musashi off the coast of the Philippines, it's better known for the lavish parties Allen throws, where stars such as Usher, Dave Stewart, U2, and Johnny Cash have performed. Allen is even known to do a live performance at the parties himself, playing the electric guitar.
At his year's Cannes International Film Festival, actors Sharon Stone, Adrian Grenier, Svetlana Metkina, John C. Reilly, Jessica Lowndes, and Kelly Rutherford, as well as models Karlie Kloss, Melissa Bolona and Natasha Poly were reportedly among the celebrities who lounged on the Octopus.
In January 2016, another of Allen's superyachts, the MV Tatoosh, was blamed for wrecking a protected reef in the Cayman Islands. Officials with the islands' Department of Environment say the chain of the Microsoft co-founder's yacht destroyed 1 300 square metres in the West Bay replenishment zone – around 80 percent of the coral that's vital to marine life.