rupert murdoch yachts

Rupert Murdoch’s Former Superyacht Sailboat Is Up for Sale

The stunning superyacht is being sold by Silvio Berlusconi, ex-prime minister of Italy.

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In a time when millions of people including the rich and famous find themselves cooped up waiting out the coronavirus pandemic, it’s easy to dream of getting away from it all. A 158-foot superyacht with one hell of a legacy is for sale now for anyone well-heeled enough to spring for it. 

The Morning Glory is being sold by one-time Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who purchased it from Fox media tycoon Rupert Murdoch in 1999.

It’s got a pleasingly old-fashioned look but Murdoch commissioned the Glory in 1993 and even got married on board a few years later before selling it to Berlusconi for just over $7 million.

According to Robb Report, Berlusconi has made multiple upgrades, updating the diesel engines as well as the generators and the boat was rebuilt entirely just three years ago, the rigging refitted and the trim repainted a striking aquamarine.

Additional amenities include luxury dining inside and out, large lounge areas, and a huge master suite. Total capacity is sixteen people—eight guests and eight crew.

Berlusconi is a billionaire, ranked among the top 200 wealthiest people on Earth, so he could afford a few of these. He’s selling the Morning Glory through  Burgess Yachts , list price $11 million USD.

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An $11 million yacht formerly owned by Rupert Murdoch is being sold by Italy's most controversial Prime Minister - see inside 'Morning Glory'

Tim levin   .

Burgess Yachts

Morning Glory.

• A 158-foot sailing superyacht owned by Silvio Berlusconi - the highly controversial former Prime Minister of Italy - is for sale for $11 million.
• The yacht is called Morning Glory, and was originally commissioned and owned by Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who built the Fox empire.
• Morning Glory has room for eight passengers and eight crew members, a marble fireplace, multiple dining rooms, a vast master suite, and a full bar.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

If you've got a spare eight figures sitting around, there's something on the market that fits right in your budget: Silvio Berlusconi's 158-foot sailing yacht, which is yours for a cool $11 million.

Of course, most things on the market fit right in your budget. This one just happens to emphasize sailing.

The multimillion-dollar vessel, which is listed for sale through Burgess Yachts and was brought to our attention by Robb Report , has pretty much everything you'd expect from a massive - and massively expensive - superyacht. It's decked out in warm wood, has an operational marble fireplace, sports several lounging and dining areas, and sleeps up to eight guests.

Plus, it's got quite the provenance. Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire businessman behind the Fox empire, had Morning Glory built in 1993. He married his third wife Wendi Deng aboard it in 1999 , according to Robb Report, and sold the yacht to the controversial Italian businessman and former Prime Minister later that year.

Take a look inside Morning Glory:

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RUPERT MURDOCH LUXURY YACHT

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has sold his stunning yacht, named Rosehearty, for a staggering $29.7 million.

The 138 feet long yacht with an interior design by Christian Liagre features 5 guest cabins, a dining room, gym and a multi-media room. Water skis and full sets of diving gear were also included in the sale.

Rupert put the sailing yacht up for sale three months after filing for divorce from his ex-wife Wendi Deng, a frequent traveler of the vessel. The yacht was sold over Christmas by Alex Lees-Buckley in Monoco’s Camper & Nicholsons office. The identity of the buyer is undisclosed.

The yacht was built in 2006 by Perini Navi, the shipyard based in Viareggio, Italy, known for crafting bespoke luxury yachts.

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Rupert Murdoch Sells His Super Stylish $29.7M Sailing Superyacht

Embattled media mogul Rupert Murdoch has sold his sailing superyacht, listed for $29.7M just a few short months after he filed for divorce from his much younger wife, Wendi Deng. The 184-foot Rosehearty is one of the 25 largest sailing yachts in the world. It was custom built by Perini Navi , the Italian boatyard famous for the Maltese Falcon , for Murdoch in 2006. But what makes it one of the world’s coolest luxury yachts is the interior décor by Christian Liaigre, the famed French interior designer known for ultra-luxe minimalist chic aesthetic, whose A-list clients include Valentino, Karl Lagerfeld and Calvin Klein.

The sale of the yacht was completed shortly before Christmas by Alex Lees-Buckley, a broker in the Monaco office of Camper & Nicholsons, which has been “producing and managing yachts for the world’s richest people” since 1782, the London Telegraph reports. The identity of the buyer and the sale price are as yet undisclosed. With luxurious accommodation for up to 12 guests, Rosehearty is equipped with wireless internet and plasma televisions in every cabin. In 2008 future British Prime Minister David Cameron held private talks and attended parties with Murdoch on the yacht, which also features a large Jacuzzi on the deck.

Jared Paul Stern

Jared Paul Stern, JustLuxe's Editor-at-Large, is the Executive Editor of Maxim magazine and has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the New York Times' T magazine, GQ, WWD, Vogue, New York magazine, Details, Hamptons magazine, Playboy, BlackBook, the New York Post, Man of the World, and Bergdorf Goodman magazine among others. The founding editor of the Page Six magazine, he has al... (Read More)

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How a Murdoch sailed off with Maxwell's yacht: For years the press titans battled for supremacy and now Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife has bought and refitted Robert Maxwell's boat Lady Ghislaine - named after his disgraced daughter and scene of his death

• Disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell owned Lady Ghislaine superyacht
• He fell overboard in the Atlantic 1991 with his empire on the brink of collapse 
• Lady Ghislaine fell into Rupert Murdoch's family's possession - Maxwell's rival
• The yacht is now named Dancing Hare and owned by Murdoch's ex-wife Anna 

By Paul Bracchi for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:01 EDT, 12 February 2021 | Updated: 00:31 EDT, 13 February 2021

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The Dancing Hare, a 189 ft superyacht, is currently moored in Auckland after traversing the South Pacific and Caribbean Sea.

As displays of conspicuous wealth go, she certainly takes some beating with glass panels encircling the deck, wraparound glass railings, and accommodation for 12 guests — and up to 15 staff — in a master suite, four doubles and a twin stateroom.

The price? £11.8 million; at least that was the asking price when this behemoth was purchased in 2017.

The Dancing Hare, a 189 ft superyacht, is currently moored in Auckland after traversing the South Pacific and Caribbean Sea

Since then, Dancing Hare, flying under the flag of the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific, where she is officially registered, has been spotted sailing around the Galapagos Islands, St Lucia, Fiji, Tonga, and Bora Bora in French Polynesia. 

Those on board, according to online video diaries chronicling the cruiser's progress, enjoyed everything 'from diving adventures with sharks and turtles' to watching 'dolphins swimming off their bow'.

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Yet few outside the boating world will be aware that the white and orange striped flag fluttering in the ocean breeze belonged, in a previous life 30 years ago, to one of the most famous — or rather infamous — yachts in the world.

Back then it had a very different name. It was called the Lady Ghislaine and the owner was disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell.

On the evening of November 5, 1991, with his empire, including the Daily Mirror, on the brink of collapse, Maxwell's naked 22 st body was found floating in the Atlantic off the Canaries, having fallen overboard from the stern of his yacht earlier in the day.

The Lady Ghislaine was owned by disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell and named after his daughter

It soon became apparent that Maxwell, who was 68, was not only bankrupt (about £1 billion) but had also pilfered millions from the Mirror's pension fund.

Many believe his bitter rivalry with fellow media tycoon Rupert Murdoch was to blame for his downfall which 'unhinged him' and drove him to cripplingly over-extend himself.

But Maxwell must be turning in his grave for another reason.

For, three decades on, the Lady Ghislaine, Maxwell's pride and joy which he christened after his favourite daughter, Ghislaine — herself mired in controversy and awaiting trial in New York on charges, which she denies, of trafficking underage girls with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein — has fallen into the hands of the Murdoch family after changing hands several times down the years.

The irony is beyond parody.

The latest owner of the twice-renamed, refurbished Lady Ghislaine (which was first renamed Lady Mona K before her current moniker of Dancing Hare) is none other than Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife Anna, a new biography of Robert Maxwell reveals.

Scots-born Anna, 76, is the mother of three of Murdoch's children, Elisabeth, 52, Lachlan, 49, and James, 48, who have all played prominent roles in their father's media conglomerate.

On the evening of November 5, 1991, with his empire, including the Daily Mirror, on the brink of collapse, Maxwell's naked 22 st body was found floating in the Atlantic off the Canaries (pictured on the boat in 1990)

Why, though, of all the yachts, in all the world, would the former Mrs Murdoch — now Anna Murdoch Mann dePeyster, having twice remarried since divorcing Murdoch in 1998 — have chosen to buy this particular yacht? Author John Preston offers the following explanation in the very final paragraph of his book, Fall: The Mystery Of Robert Maxwell, which features a photograph of the Lady Ghislaine on the front cover.

He writes: 'In 2017, Rupert Murdoch's former wife Anna decided that she wanted to buy a yacht. Their son James, a keen sailor, offered to help. A few weeks later, he found just what he was looking for — a boat called the Lady Mona K, on the market for $14.5 million [more than £11 million at the time]. His mother went to have a look and liked what she saw.

'It was only after buying the Lady Mona K that Anna learned the yacht's name had been changed years earlier. It had previously been called the Lady Ghislaine.'

But The Times, one of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, knew about the yacht's history, reporting shortly before the former Mrs Murdoch bought it from a Saudi Arabian lawyer, that the Lady Mona K was on the market and was in fact the Lady Ghislaine 'with a refurbished guard rail'.

This was an open secret in yachting circles.

The latest owner of the twice-renamed, refurbished Lady Ghislaine is none other than Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife Anna (pictured)

So would it be beyond the realms of possibility to suggest there could have been more to the acquisition than meets the eye?

That acquiring the old enemy's once prized possession might have provided an unexpected incentive for the wider Murdoch clan, a kind of posthumous schadenfreude?

The Murdochs would be only human if they had. After all, their rivalry was the stuff of legend.

Anna and Rupert Murdoch were together for more than three decades, during which time Maxwell played the role of the pantomime villain, a Trumpian figure whose clashes with Murdoch, inside and outside the boardroom, dominated the 1980s and spilled over into bitter personal animosity.

The feud was even turned into a Jeffrey Archer page turner (The Fourth Estate), a thinly disguised account of the lives of the two tycoons. Anna had a ringside seat to the rivalry. It began in 1968 when Maxwell moved to buy the News Of The World but lost out to Murdoch — 'an Aussie upstart' — who was looking to crack the UK market.

'Never has a man caught a bigger whale with a smaller hook,' Maxwell said later, alluding to the fact that he felt Murdoch underpaid for the title, a deal which proved enormously profitable for him.

Many believe Maxwell's (left) bitter rivalry with fellow media tycoon Rupert Murdoch (right) was to blame for his downfall

Murdoch would also outbid Maxwell for The Sun the following year and The Times and The Sunday Times in 1981.

When Maxwell finally bought Mirror Group Newspapers in 1984, his Daily Mirror slugged it out with Murdoch's Sun, which culminated in a circulation war waged, to quote one colourful account from those times, 'with bingo giveaways, bare-breasted pin-up girls and screaming headlines'.

In New York, they also owned rival tabloids. Maxwell had the Daily News and Murdoch owned the New York Post.

However, Maxwell's spending spree in America, including paying $2.6 billion for publishing house Macmillan U.S., precisely because he was desperate to go toe-to-toe with Murdoch across the pond, left him heavily in hock to the banks — money he could not repay when profits fell, interest rates soared and recession loomed.

This was the background to his last fateful voyage on the Lady Ghislaine.

Just before 5am on November 5, 1991, Maxwell phoned the crew to complain that his cabin was too cold. The air conditioning was turned off. Sometime afterwards, he walked naked to the stern of the boat, probably to urinate, as he was prone to do. He was never seen alive again.

At about 6am, Kevin Maxwell rang his father. They were due to meet the Governor of the Bank of England in London, where they would have been grilled about the state of their business which left a multi-million-pound hole in the Mirror Group pension pot.

Maxwell did not reply. Around 12 hours later, a helicopter pilot with the Spanish national rescue service spotted the body of a man on his back, spreadeagled.

Was his death an accident? Did he jump? Was he pushed? The first scenario is most likely, but we shall never know for sure.

The Lady Ghislaine was placed in the hands of administrators and purchased, it is believed, for around £10 million by the aforementioned Saudi Arabian who reportedly sold the boat, by now renamed as the Lady Mona K, to Anna Murdoch three years ago.

The yacht, to borrow the description of one commentator, was a 'four-storey, floating symbol' of the brash, self-aggrandising attention-seeking Robert Maxwell himself.

It had a gymnasium and discotheque with decor which was '1970s Playboy Baroque' and where guests wore bootees to keep the deep-pile cream carpets clean. The former Mrs Murdoch, who now lives in Florida with her third husband, property developer Ashton dePeyster, 74, must have gained considerable satisfaction giving her acquisition the 'sophisticated' refurbishment referred to in the sailing press.

The entire interior design was replaced by London-based designer Olivia Outred and the yacht spent seven months at the Balk Shipyard in Amsterdam getting a state-of-the art overhaul.

Nevertheless, the new owner — who is understood to have received a $100 million (more than £70 million) divorce settlement from her first husband — has kept a low profile.

She has not advertised her links with Dancing Hare, which was relaunched in May 2018 with a baptism by a priest and a christening by the captain.

The owners are listed as Moonstone Enterprises, incorporated in Delaware in the U.S. where state laws mean individuals behind such companies can remain anonymous. Monaco-based KK Superyachts, which brokered the purchase of the yacht, are the commercial managers.

At the time of writing, neither KK Superyachts or Anna Murdoch Mann dePeyster wished to comment.

But why settle on the name Dancing Hare?

One of Anna Murdoch Mann dePeyster's favourite artists is the late figurative sculptor Barry Flanagan who was renowned for his bronze statues of hares which were exhibited in Europe and the U.S.

One such statue was called Dancing Hare. A symbol of everything the Lady Ghislaine was not.

• Additional reporting: Tim Stewart

Share or comment on this article: How a Murdoch sailed off with Robert Maxwell's superyacht Lady Ghislaine - named after his daughter

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On board with Joey Kaempfer, owner of sailing yacht Rosehearty

London-based American retail developer and superyacht owner Joey Kaempfer tells Stewart Campbell about his “perfect boat”, how he haggled with Rupert Murdoch to buy her and his ambition to take on the world’s wildest seas...

Joey Kaempfer has always been an ideas man, even if some of those ideas have nearly got him killed. The homemade plywood boat he took out into the middle of a lake near his home in Connecticut, aged just eight, wasn’t one of his best (“Lifejackets? What lifejackets?”). Nor was the floating hot dog stand – “the Floating Frank” – which he had to commit some mild insurance fraud to operate (at 15 he was too young to appear on the insurance document so he got an older boy to sign it). Thankfully things have improved since then and his latest plan – to sail his 56 metre yacht Rosehearty to some of the world’s finest and trickiest cruising destinations – is one of his best. So, it turns out, was establishing McArthurGlen 25 years ago. The company has become Europe’s largest developer and owner of designer outlet parks, with 22 locations and annual sales of more than €4 billion.

We meet at the company’s headquarters in London, a city the American has called home since the 1990s, and he wastes no time in getting out the pictures from  Rosehearty’s  recent trip through the Northwest Passage  – making his boat one of the first large sailing superyachts to make it through.

The 69-year-old Kaempfer was keen to get up there before it became too busy. “I think in the next few years you’re going to see tankers going through there and 1,000ft container ships. It won’t be quite the same thing. And I always wanted to see Greenland.” To join him on the passage, he invited a group of close friends and hired a pair of guides and an ice pilot, bringing to 24 (including crew) the number of people who would spend a month navigating one of the world’s last superyachting frontiers.

The pictures, however, are missing one important thing: Kaempfer himself. The owner of the boat and organiser of the trip never made it through the Northwest Passage. After joining the yacht in Greenland, he received the tragic news that his beloved son Lucas had died suddenly of heart failure in New York. He was just 24. It’s clear father and son were close. Kaempfer even converted Rosehearty’s main deck office into a cabin for his son. “He loved it,” Kaempfer says. “It was up on deck. He got up early and went to bed late, like 24-year-olds do.” His voice cracks later as he tells the story of the watch he’s wearing, which he had made for Lucas and which bears his name in an inscription on the back. The watch rarely leaves his wrist.

Kaempfer doesn’t have to tell me any of this, but his candidness and generosity and the fact he insisted the trip through the Northwest Passage must continue in his absence are a huge part of his charm. For an adventure he didn’t take part in, he remains incredibly proud of it. Rosehearty’s captain, David “Hutch” Hutchison, blogged throughout the journey from Newport up to Greenland, and then into the passage proper in Canada. Rosehearty made it through the Bellot Strait in August 2016 before heading north and east around Somerset Island for the trip home, first back to Greenland and then, finally, the island of Vinalhaven off the coast of Maine, where Kaempfer has a home.

He grew up not a million miles from here, on Long Island Sound, Connecticut. His parents weren’t big sailors – “my father worked in New York and took the train in every day for 40 years until it killed him” – but he remembers always being drawn to the water, so much so he turned his hand at a very young age to boatbuilding. “The first boat was probably six feet long and the bottom would have been a piece of plywood and the sides would have been fibreboard. My friends and I painted it and then way too soon, when it was wet, we took it to the lake and poled our way out. Nobody was watching us and, of course, it instantly started disintegrating. Some mother in one of the houses saw us and started screaming. I was a strong swimmer and managed to get everyone to shore, but it was a complete disaster. At that point my parents gave in and bought me a rowboat,” he says.

He soon graduated to dinghy sailing and, at 15, bought a pontoon boat with the help of his parents to set up his summer business selling hot dogs. “I worked my ass off that summer. I had to hire an 18-year-old to get insurance through Lloyd’s of London, which ate the profits,” he recalls. “It didn’t make any money and I sold it at the end of the year and repaid my parents.”

His entrepreneurial streak was further honed at New York University and later at Harvard Business School, after which he entered the real estate business in Washington, DC. “I started out building houses. All those guys seemed like they were having a ball, but they weren’t. They were losing their hair and getting fat and divorced. So I decided I’d build office buildings and started my own company at 29. Our first building was 186,000 square feet. Boy did we learn a lot!”

In the 1980s Kaempfer was cruising to work in a cherry red Ferrari 288 GTO, riding a commercial real estate boom that made him one of the richest 40-year-olds in the US. But the recession of the early 1990s bit hard, forcing Kaempfer to start again almost from scratch. When the opportunity arose to move to Europe and introduce the American concept of out-of-town outlet malls, he jumped at the chance, settling in Little Venice in London with his then wife and two children, Lucas and Annie.

The only retail he’d been involved in to that point had been on the ground floor of his office buildings, so it represented a significant shift in focus. “We weren’t retailers. We were contractors and builders and office building managers, but the business has just grown gigantically. We have 600 employees here in London, plus 30,000 who work across our business elsewhere. Who knew? All this from a couple of little shopping centres,” he says. “This business is much more fun [than office building]. It’s alive, it’s dynamic and it’s entertaining – we’ve convinced 100 million people a year to travel half an hour to come and shop.”

As his businesses have grown, so have his boats. His first indulgence was a six metre sailing boat, which was quickly upgraded to an eight metre. “I kept it up in Maine and sailed it every day I was there, dragging my kids along, who were in sailing school,” Kaempfer recalls. A 17 metre Oyster came and went and, around 15 years ago, he bought the 21 metre Hinckley Sou’wester Avatar , renaming it Annalu after the children. “That was a beautiful boat,” he says fondly. The Hinckley was eventually sold and he chartered for a few years but maintained ownership with a gorgeous 11 metre Morris sailing yacht, which he still owns today and regularly sails single-handed along the Maine coast – “even at my advanced age!”

The opportunity to buy Rosehearty appeared at the 2013 Monaco Yacht Show . The elegant 56 metre Perini quickly became one of the most recognised boats on the water when it was launched in 2006, for that distinct white hull and the celebrity of her first owner, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who named the yacht after the small Scottish village that was home to his ancestors.

The deal was put together quickly after Kaempfer’s tour of the yacht in Monaco. “I knew I wanted a Perini,” he says. “As I was taken on board I thought it was very handsome and then I got in it and took one look at the Christian Liaigre-designed saloon and I thought ‘magnificent’. Rupert originally wanted an outrageous price but I finally got to a price where I thought I could spend a couple of extra million to have the boat I wanted.” The deal was done in just four months, with Kaempfer taking ownership in early 2014. “I ended up spending a lot more than two million. I mean a lot more! But I’ve got the perfect boat now.”

The refit was done at Perini but the boat was back at the yard in 2015 in preparation for the Northwest Passage – which meant replacing the flybridge cover with a new one that couldn’t be penetrated by ice falling off the rigging, fitting new super-strong lights for spotting icebergs and adding comprehensive night vision equipment.

On 3 July, Rosehearty left Vinalhaven for the passage to Greenland, where the party of guests joined the boat, Kaempfer included, at Nuuk, the capital. “It feels like the edge of the world,” he says. “Everyone is very nice, but not much English is spoken.” They cruised north, touring the epic fjords of this enormous Arctic island, visiting Kangerlussuaq, home of the glacier from which the infamous Titanic iceberg is thought to have calved, and Qassiarsuk, which was settled by Erik the Red at the turn of the last millennium.

Minus Kaempfer, the yacht then crossed Baffin Bay and entered Canada on 2 August, exiting just more than 20 days later after completing one of the greatest yachting adventures. It wasn’t without its perils, reports Hutch. At one point they were anchored in Creswell Bay on Somerset Island when the wind picked up. “We started seeing these little white specks, which suddenly became hundreds of ice blocks as the current increased. We had to get out of there quickly,” he says. A week after leaving Resolute, meanwhile, the sea became solid ice and utterly impassable. “So it’s still pretty weather dependent.” Keeping 24 people fed for a month in an area without any hope of provisioning meant the spa pool was pressed into use as food and drink storage. “We had a 5,000 litre cooler on deck,” the captain laughs, “cooled by ice hacked off icebergs.”

The owner of the yacht hasn’t given up on experiencing all this himself; Rosehearty will be heading back to the extreme north again. But before that, Kaempfer has had a few other ideas – good ones. Chile and Easter Island are on the list, as is a transpacific passage to Australia. “I want to do Antarctica and I want to do the Galápagos,” he adds, smiling. “I have an awful lot to do.”

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Rupert murdoch’s newest sailing yacht: vertigo.

Designed by Philippe Briand, Vertigo is the seventh largest sailing yacht in the world and its owner is Rupert Murdoch , the famous magnate behind News Corporation. The beautiful 220-foot vessel boasts lovely interiors by renowned decorator Christian Liaigre. This is not the first time Liaigre is working for Murdoch and the business tycoon is not the first celebrity for whom Liaigre has worked. Karl Lagerfeld, Calvin Klein and other resonant names have also appealed to Liaigre’s expertise and talent.

Vertigo can accommodate 12 guests and a crew of 11 in five luxuriously appointed staterooms. Everything on the yacht is impressive and spells abundance, like the massive owner’s suite or the convertible gym.

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Rupert Murdoch to sell his $30 million yacht

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Alex has written for Vanity Fair, Barrons, Bloomberg and Condé…

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has put his $30 million yacht on the market. The 184-foot Rosehearty was launched in 2006. The interior was designed by Christian Liaigre. The living areas feature pale oak woods and Hermes leather furnishings. The formal dining area showcases a more intimate atmosphere with a dark wood table and chairs, soft lighting and warm red seating. Rosehearty comfortably accommodates up to 12 guests in a full-beam master suite, two identical VIP staterooms, two doubles and a single with Pullman berth.

The aft deck offers ample space for sun lounging with three steamer-style loungers, while the large upper deck and flybridge feature sun pads that extend the full width of the aft section with a large Jacuzzi in front.

Rosehearty sports aluminium masts and carbon furling booms with the latest in-boom furling for mainsail and mizzen and the trademark Perini captive reel winches, all designed and built by Perini Navi.

The yacht has a cruising speed of 13 knots, and a maximum speed of 16 knots.

Murdoch is selling the yacht in the wake of his divorce with Wendi Deng after 14 years of marriage. Deng is Murdoch’s third wife.

Alex has written for Vanity Fair, Barrons, Bloomberg and Condé Nast Traveler.

YOU'RE INVITED

This $14.5m superyacht made a mysterious 4-night stop in cleveland.

John Witt, a New York-based photographer, captured the superyacht in Buffalo, N.Y., in July. 

A 189-foot superyacht sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands spent four July nights in Cleveland before heading north into Canadian waters.

It is "very uncommon to have a vessel of that magnitude dock here in Cleveland," a spokesperson for the Port of Cleveland said in an email to Crain's. 

The yacht, dubbed the Dancing Hare, arrived midafternoon July 8 from Buffalo, New York, according to ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic .

A photo provided to Crain's shows the vessel docked in the Cuyahoga River just a few hundred yards inland from the historic Cleveland Coast Guard Station.

The yacht departed Cleveland the morning of July 12, making a brief stop in Amherstburg, Ontario, before heading to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, for two-plus weeks.

It is not clear why the superyacht stopped in Cleveland, though the Great Lakes have become increasingly popular for recreational boating in recent years. Crain's has not been able to identify who was onboard.

The Dancing Hare near New York. 

What we do know about the Dancing Hare, however, is that it is owned by Anna Maria dePeyster, a Scottish-Australian writer and the ex-wife of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

The two were married from 1970 until 1999. The couple had three children together, including Lachlan Murdoch, who Rupert Murdoch intends to anoint as his successor pending an ongoing family legal battle . 

The yacht, built in 1986 and designed by Jon Bannenberg, did not always belong to dePeyster, though. Long before she bought it in 2017, the vessel was the property of one of Rupert Murdoch's rivals, fellow media giant Robert Maxwell.

Maxwell died during a voyage on the boat in 1991. His body was found floating in nearby waters, the official cause of death listed as a heart attack and accidental drowning.

It is not clear how much dePeyster paid for the Dancing Hare in 2017, though the vessel was listed for $14.5 million at the time she bought it, according to the SuperYacht Times.

The Dancing Hare is among the top 5% of yachts in length, according to BOAT International. It can accommodate about a dozen guests and another dozen crew members.

The vessel spent the first six months of 2024 in and around Palm Beach, Florida, according to MarineTraffic data provided to Crain's. It began its journey north on June 22, its first stop being Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

The Dancing Hare is currently en route to Harbor Springs, Michigan, after spending two days docked at Mackinac Island, Michigan.

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Rupert Murdoch Yacht: Vertigo

November 25, 2022, introduction.

Rupert Murdoch is an American billionaire and businessman. Furthermore, he is the owner of American Media and publishing company, News Corp . Additionally, he also owns publishing outlets all over the world, including in the UK’s The Sun and The Times . As well as Australia's The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun , and The Australian . In the States, he owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post . Additionally, Murdoch also owns the book publishing company HarperCollins . He is the 31st richest person in the United States. Check out the Rupert Murdoch yacht below.

The yacht has nine bedrooms and over 5 bathrooms, with over 3,000 square feet of space inside. This superyacht was built by Alloy Yachts in 2011. It was designed by Phillipe Briand, with interior design by Christian Liaigre. Furthermore, with two caterpillar engines, the yacht is able to reach a top speed of 17 knots. The cruising speed is 12 knots. On the yacht there is a large gym. As well as a TV room. Additionally, the yacht also includes a stunning jacuzzi on one of the decks. Moreover, is there anything this yacht does not offer? Lastly, would you like to live in this yacht? Please leave your thoughts below.

Specifications:  Rupert Murdoch Yacht

Bedrooms: 9

Bathrooms: 5+

Square Feet: 3,000+ sq ft

Price:  $50 million

 Rupert Murdoch Yacht Net Worth: $17.3 billion

Photos:  Rupert Murdoch Yacht

In conclusion, I hope you enjoyed reading about  Rupert Murdoch 's yacht. Furthermore, please leave your thoughts and comments below. Finally, read some other articles like this one on our frontpage .

Lastly, which other celebrity yachts would you like to see on our site? Please leave the names of other celebrities that you would like to see on here. Check us out on Instagram too and like and follow. Leave your thoughts on our Facebook wall, or on Instagram in the comments of our posts.

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An Amazing Tour Of Rupert Murdoch's Mansions, Boats And Planes

Last year when News Corp was under assault by Julian Assange, Curbed compiled a list of hideouts for Ruper Murdoch if things go down under .

Half a year later, Murdoch faces a much bigger challenge to his empire following an international hacking scandal.

Luckily he still has great real estate in England, China, Australia and America, along with a few planes and boats he can sleep on.

Here's Murdoch's home in MAYFAIR, a central and very expensive section of London

Murdoch's New York headquarters is this triplex on FIFTH AVE, bought for $44 million in 2005

Murdoch put a boatload into renovations on FIFTH AVE, including a $400,000 gym

A short helicopter ride from Manhattan is Rupert's OYSTER BAY beach home, recently listed for $10.5 million

OYSTER BAY: A short drive (helicopter?) from Manhattan is this beach home, recently listed for $10.5M

A look inside the OYSTER BAY estate

Murdoch's villa in BEVERLY HILLS has 11 bedrooms spread over 8,700 feet

Somewhere in the luxury neighborhood near Beijing's FORBIDDEN CITY, Rupert owns a Confucian-style mansion with an underground pool

Source: NYT

Don't forget about Rupert's mobile home, his yacht ROSEHEARTY

Murdoch also owns a BOEING 737 like this one. It's also rumored that Elton John's GAMMA AVIATION GULFSTREAM IV G-MATF has been on lease to Murdoch for years

Rupert also has a MELBOURNE home -- location unknown. Here's a picture of the Melbourne farm where he grew up and his mother has lived for 82 years.

Source: The Guardian

BONUS: Murdoch sold this SOHO apartment for $25M in 2005

Source: Curbed

Meet another powerful man with lots of homes

The Countless Luxury Mansions Of Kim Jong Il >

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New Search Launched in Bizarre Case Linked to Murdoch

O ne of the men convicted of killing a British woman 55 years ago in a case of mistaken identity has asked to return to the UK in order to help locate her body. Nizamodeen Hosein says Muriel McKay's body is on the Hertfordshire farm he once shared with his brother, the other man convicted of kidnapping and murdering the wife of one of Rupert Murdoch's executives, the Guardian reports. But a new dig at the site turned up nothing, and McKay's family said they would request that the government have Hosein returned to the UK temporarily to aid in the search. "I have to go to the spot to be able to remember. So, I can't tell you from here," Hosein, who was deported to Trinidad and Tobago in 1990, told the BBC recently.

In 1969, the UK saw its first kidnap for ransom case when a pair of brothers followed Rupert Murdoch's Rolls-Royce, not realizing the media tycoon had allowed one of his executives to borrow the car. As such, the brothers mistook that executive's wife, Muriel McKay, for Murdoch's own wife, and kidnapped her from her home in December 1969, CBS News reports. They demanded a ransom of £1 million, or around $18 million today, and were arrested in early February 1970, the BBC reports in a look back at the case. They were convicted of McKay's kidnapping and murder, but her body was never found. Now, authorities are launching a new search.

Want to know more in just minutes? We deliver the news the way we like it—really short and unbiased. Subscribe to Newser newsletters .

They will dig, for the third time, at what was once called Rooks Farm (and is now called Stocking Farm) in Hertfordshire, the BBC reports. While one of the brothers died in a UK prison in 2009, the second was deported to his native Trinidad and Tobago after serving his 20-year sentence, and this year, one of McKay's daughters flew there to speak with him. He had previously said McKay collapsed and died while watching a news report about her abduction on TV, and neither brother had ever admitted to killing McKay, nor had they told anyone where she was buried. Telling McKay's daughter he wanted his "conscience to be clear," though, he has now given a sworn statement with a location, which has not been searched before. "This is really our last chance," McKay's son says, per the Guardian .

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This article originally appeared on Newser: New Search Launched in Bizarre Case Linked to Murdoch

Murdoch family battle highlights Nevada's secret trust boom

The Murdoch family feud taking place in an obscure Nevada court highlights the state’s surging popularity as a global center of family trusts and a friendly home to the world’s biggest fortunes.

According to legal industry rankings, Nevada is now the top state in the country when it comes to so-called asset-protection trusts like the one at the center of the Murdoch dispute. The state’s unique combination of no income taxes, iron-clad secrecy protections and strong defenses against creditors makes it the ideal location for big family trusts created to protect assets.

Nevada doesn’t report the total amount of assets in its trusts. The Western state’s fast-growing industry of trust and estate attorneys, trust companies and facilitators keeps a deliberately low profile. Yet experts estimate the state likely has hundreds of billions of dollars in trust assets locked away in nondescript office buildings or trust companies, offering little to no visibility to the outside world.

“Nevada is No. 1 and has been for at least four years,” said Steven Oshins, a Nevada attorney who publishes the most widely cited ranking of states based on their appeal to asset-protection trusts.

South Dakota is a “close second,” and then “there is a big drop-off for the next batch with Tennessee, Delaware and others,” Oshins added.

Nevada’s advantage puts it at the forefront of a massive wealth surge pouring into the asset-protection trusts. The U.S. hosted more than $5.6 trillion in trust and estate assets as of 2021 — more than double the level of 2011, according to data from economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. The estimate is just “the top of a multitrillion-dollar iceberg,” according to the group, since many trusts are not reported to the IRS.

Much of the recent growth is being driven by the so-called Great Wealth Transfer, in which over $80 trillion is expected to be passed down to the next generations, according to trust and estate attorneys. The possible expiration next year of the estate and gift tax exemption, which currently lets couples give away up to $27 million tax-free, is also driving the creation of new trusts. Fears of a global wealth tax, the  IRS crackdown on wealthy taxpayers  and a wave of foreign millionaires and billionaires using the U.S. as the latest offshore tax haven are also fueling demand.

In the race among states to attract the hundreds of billions of dollar in new trust assets, Nevada has a comfortable lead. Its legislature frequently updates its trust laws and regulations to make them more attractive.

Nevada has no state income tax, no corporate income tax and no inheritance tax, which helps trusts grow in value without having a chunk taken out. Its secrecy laws are also among the strictest in the country. In 2009, the legislature passed a law stating that any records submitted to the Division of Financial Institutions are “confidential.”

While all trust cases in Nevada are officially part of the public record, filing attorneys can use a new 2023 law to keep the trust name, settlors and beneficiaries confidential without a court order. Adding to the confidentiality, it is one of seven states that allow “silent trusts,” which permit the trustee to keep the existence of the trust from the beneficiaries under the trust terms.

Nevada is also unusual in having “no exception creditors” — meaning even ex-spouses, child support claims or lawsuit plaintiffs can’t gain access to a trust. Perhaps its most powerful advantage, and the one with direct bearing on the Murdoch case, is trust flexibility.

At the center of the Murdoch case is the Murdoch Family Trust, which holds the powerful voting shares in  News Corp.  and  Fox Corp.  that effectively control the companies. (The trust also contains the family farm in Australia, the Murdoch art collection and its  Disney  shares.)

Under the arrangement’s current terms, when Rupert Murdoch dies, control of the trust would pass to four of his children: Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence. Each would get one vote, meaning no sibling could gain control without the others. The trust was created as an irrevocable trust, meaning it’s designed to be permanent.

Yet according to  The New York Times  and  The Wall Street Journal , Rupert Murdoch has moved to rewrite the trust to give Lachlan control after Rupert’s death. He argues that it’s in the best financial interests of the other children, which at least some of them have challenged. Spokespeople for News Corp. and Fox declined to comment.

Changing an irrevocable trust is virtually impossible in many states. Yet in Nevada, it’s common, thanks to a special carve-out known as “decanting.” The state allows irrevocable trusts to be decanted, or changed, into a new trust as long as certain provisions are met. In the case of the Murdoch dispute, Rupert will have to prove to a probate court that he is acting “in good faith and for the sole benefit of the heirs.”

“In Nevada, you can usually fix those things fairly easily,” said Elyse Tyrell, a probate lawyer with Tyrell Law PLLC in Henderson, Nevada. 

Trust and estate attorneys in Nevada said it’s slightly unusual for a trust donor — in this case Rupert Murdoch — to argue that he’s acting in the interests of heirs who are opposing him. Yet if he can make the case that Lachlan’s control would maximize the financial value of News Corp. and Fox Corp., and therefore benefit all the siblings, the court may take his side. The trial starts in September.

It’s also unusual for a family to be able to create a trust in Nevada without business or personal ties to the state. Residing in Nevada is not a requirement for establishing a trust. None of the Murdochs appear to own any homes in Nevada, and none of their businesses have any public headquarters there.

“Normally a family would have some ties in Nevada to establish trust, either living here or having real estate,” Tyrell said. “I don’t believe any of the Murdochs ever lived here.”

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Dictators, a ‘love child’ and succession battle: The legal brawls of Australia’s billionaire siblings

Pretty much all of Australia's richest heirs are having a legal battle at the moment, providing a great deal of evidence of how fabulously weird the fabulously wealthy really are.

Charlie Lewis

Aug 23, 2024

If the golden era of TV really is drawing to a close , it may well be replaced by the golden era of messy courtroom dramas featuring the children of Australian billionaires (not quite as catchy an era designation, I grant you).

Please enjoy our round-up of the various legal catastrophes currently befalling the catastrophically wealthy.

Box billionaire Anthony Pratt has already given us so much . Who could forget his fun (and then discreetly culled ) following list on Instagram? His relentless and presumably very pricey cardboard-themed karaoke , in which he treats some of the great songs of the 20th century with the same level of care as Oliver Reed showed his liver? And of course, his on-again-off-again friendship with former US president Donald Trump — who allegedly told Pratt a bananas amount of detail about various US defence matters, which Pratt then allegedly passed on to 45 of his closest friends, including six journalists and THREE former prime ministers.

In addition to all that, Pratt and his siblings have been embroiled in a long-running battle with his half-sister Paula Hitchcock. Hitchcock is the “love child” Anthony’s late father Richard had during an extra-marital affair with horse trainer Shari-lea Hitchcock. Paula, now 27, is arguing that she is legally entitled to a chunk of the billions in the Pratt family trust, asking the NSW Supreme Court to declare her a “discretionary object” of the fortune and to void the deed of exclusion that cut her out of the inheritance as a child. The other kids are trying to get her case thrown out, arguing the pre-trial document search would be “intrusive” and “time-consuming”.

The Murdochs

In calling his attempt to redraw the terms of his succession plan “ Project Harmony “, Rupert Murdoch displayed a grasp of Orwellian language that his brigade of Australian commentators seldom do . Surely there could be no better example of doublespeak than using the word “harmony” in relation to his plan to prevent any of his non-Lachlan heirs from taking the international media empire anywhere near the political centre.

The trust, as it stands, currently hands control of the family business to all four of Murdoch’s eldest children after he dies, splitting control between Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence. But according to a blockbuster report in The New York Times last month, Rupert is arguing in a Nevada court that “only by empowering Lachlan to run the company without interference from his more politically moderate siblings can he preserve its conservative editorial bent, and thus protect its commercial value for all his heirs”.

Both parties have lawyered up ahead of a case set to start in September. Little wonder one of the terms of Murdoch’s separation from Jerry Hall was reportedly that she was not allowed to pass on any ideas to the writers of Succession .

The Hancocks

But the real spice is coming from the family of Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart. Her company Hancock Prospecting is  facing several challenges  over royalties and ownership of the Hope Downs mine, one from the company of her father’s late business partner, Peter Wright, and one from two of her own children.

Then there was the latest instalment of  poison pen letters between Rinehart and her father Lang Hancock. Christopher Withers SC, the lawyer representing Rinehart’s eldest children, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart shared letters in which Hancock had “pleaded” with his daughter to “stop her barrage of criticisms” in the late 1980s.

“I would be pleased if you would leave me alone to live the rest of my life my peace,” he said in an April 1989 letter to her.

Rinehart had been particularly brutal about Hancock’s marriage to the family’s housekeeper Rose Lacson (later Porteous), who Rinehart allegedly referred to as an “Oriental concubine” and a “prostitute” and tried to have deported. Oh yeah, and what Rinehart referred to as Hancock’s “reckless and possibly ruinous” business deals with Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Which family’s cash battle will you be most ardently tuning into? Let us know your thoughts by writing to [email protected] . Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.

• Rupert Murdoch's 'Project Harmony' shows just how vulnerable Lachlan is
• Rupert is still the most incorrigible manipulator of power in moguldom's long history
• Who are the other Murdoch siblings?
• Are Fox and News Corp the only viable business models?
• Let's take a look at some of the assets up for grabs in Rupert Murdoch's 'Project Harmony'
• Rupert could have made something worth keeping. He leaves what no-one wants to save
• Murdoch feud isn't about money: Lachlan's siblings want to save the empire
• Rupert Murdoch's own children don't trust him. Why should anyone else?
• Rupert’s legal argument finally drops the facade that News was ever a news business at all
• Watch Hong Kong (not Reno) to understand what News Corp is really up to

About the Author

Tips and Murmurs Editor @theshufflediary

Charlie Lewis pens Crikey's Tips and Murmurs column and also writes on industrial relations, politics and culture. He previously worked across government and unions and was a researcher on RN's Daily Planet . He currently co-hosts Spin Cycle on Triple R radio.

• Anthony Pratt
• billionaires
• Donald Trump
• Gina Rinehart
• Hancock Prospecting
• Lachlan Murdoch
• Project Harmony
• Rupert Murdoch

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… I thought they were all pratts….

It’s always heart warming to watch the evil machinations of the rich,greedy bastards,hanging out their dirty washing for the amusement of the great unwashed.Fabulously wealthy maybe,but seriously ugly characters for certain.Not enough money on earth to swap faces with any of them.It has been often said the face betrays the soul.Speaking of fugly,where’s Rupert’s mug?

I’d rather hear how ordinary people are surviving in this country while not being billionaires.

My clear favourite is the Hancock saga. The Hancocks have provided much fascination to us over the decades, nobody could make it up. There’s a 60 Minutes interview available on Youtube where Lang introduces the newly minted Mrs Hancock (formerly Rose Lacson), to the Australian public. Jana Wendt can barely believe what’s happening but manages to contain herself. Fortunately, there are more episodes remaining in the series. To be continued…

Crikey readers could also watch the House of Hancock miniseries from ten years back. Mandy McElhenny makes a marvelous Gina. Possibly time for a part two?

And then there was Gina rolling in big gun Cousin Jethro (‘Minister for Gina’?) to write letters (using his parliamentary letterhead stationary – ‘printing and communications’ allowance?) to her kids to lay off embarrassing her through the courts

Actually, don’t you reckon more Ellie Mae? It’s the drop of a hat inclination towards “whuppin'” and the coolness under pressure that swings it to the younger of the two Clampetts.

Further proof that money is wasted on the rich. Take it off them with a progressive tax system and wealth tax and spend the money on the sick and the homeless where it would have a real and useful benefit. Surely no good capitalist could object to improving the rate of return on investment.

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