lady moura yacht new owner

The global authority in superyachting

• NEWSLETTERS
• Yachts Home
• The Superyacht Directory
• Yacht Reports
• Brokerage News
• The largest yachts in the world
• The Register
• Yacht Advice
• Yacht Design
• 12m to 24m yachts
• Monaco Yacht Show
• Builder Directory
• Designer Directory
• Interior Design Directory
• Naval Architect Directory
• Yachts for sale home
• Motor yachts
• Sailing yachts
• Explorer yachts
• Classic yachts
• Sale Broker Directory
• Charter Home
• Yachts for Charter
• Charter Destinations
• Charter Broker Directory
• Destinations Home
• Mediterranean
• South Pacific
• Rest of the World
• Boat Life Home
• Owners' Experiences
• Conservation and Philanthropy
• Interiors Suppliers
• Owners' Club
• Captains' Club
• BOAT Showcase
• Boat Presents
• Events Home
• World Superyacht Awards
• Superyacht Design Festival
• Design and Innovation Awards
• Young Designer of the Year Award
• Artistry and Craft Awards
• Explorer Yachts Summit
• Ocean Talks
• The Ocean Awards
• BOAT Connect
• Between the bays
• Golf Invitational
• BOATPro Home
• Superyacht Insight
• Global Order Book
• Premium Content
• Product Features
• Testimonials
• Pricing Plan
• Tenders & Equipment

Lady Moura: On board the 105m Blohm+Voss superyacht

At the age of 30, Lady Moura is maturing with impressive grace. Now under new ownership, we remember one of the biggest brokerage sales of 2021...

Whatever Lady Moura's been taking, I’d like some. She may be 31 years old, a respectable age for a yacht, but the palatial interior of this seven-deck, 105 metre looks as pristine as the day Blohm+Voss launched her to international fanfare in 1990 - and she's just found a new owner.

With exteriors and interiors by Luigi Sturchio , she was then the ninth largest yacht ever built – and the most expensive . Three decades of ultra-private family use followed before she made her public debut on the brokerage market in 2019. As of June 2021, she is under new ownership after just two short years on the market and was asking a cool $125,000,000 .

Her (original) carpets are still soft, pure cream; flowers tumble from vases on to freshly polished dressers. “One of the things that we’re most proud of, actually,” says relief captain Sebastian Rauber, “is that most of the interior is still original.” One beauty secret here is constant maintenance by an army of crew who know every corner of the boat. “The average time crew have been on board is 18 years: the chief housekeeper has been here for 25 years; the bosun 28 years; the chief engineer came on board the first time in 1993; the captain has been here for 17 years. A lot of people have spent more time on this boat than at home over the last 20 years.”

The second secret of youth is use – or the lack of it. She’s never been chartered; in fact she hasn’t moved much at all. To those familiar with Port Hercules, Lady Moura is as distinctive a feature as the Foster + Partners-designed Yacht Club – and she pre-dates that by 24 years. “Cruising – we didn’t do too much,” says Captain Matthias Bosse. There are 13,500 running hours on the clock – that averages out at around 37.5 a month.

The third factor is the bone structure that Blohm+Voss installed. “ Lady Moura was built in one of the most important shipyards in the world,” says Paolo Casani, CEO of Camper & Nicholsons .

“She was built by a passionate owner who participated very much and influenced the shipyard with some solutions. So over five years of construction plus one year for engineering – there were in total six years planning and construction, which means that they had time to take care of every little detail. This is one of the reasons why the boat, after 30 years, is still in very good condition.”

She was also a technical marvel, with some achievements that are, Casani says, “very, very modern – amazing solutions considering that it was built in 1990. Some of the most important shipyards in the world came to visit  Lady Moura  for ideas, to understand details to replicate.” Blohm+Voss, which is now owned by Lürssen (itself at the cutting edge of yacht design today), includes in that list: tenders that are stored inside, behind hydraulic doors; a huge sunroof that slides open over the indoor pool on the top deck; a lounge amidships on the lower deck that runs the full beam; hydraulic opening sea terraces, and much more.

“Subcontractors at that time were focused on standard and commercial outfitting equipment – not at that high level that today is called ‘yacht standard’,” says Blohm+Voss, adding, “Everything was new, not proven technology as it is now.”

The yard’s own engineers developed Lady Moura ’s hydraulic tech – for example, the hidden side gangways – alongside their subcontractors. Strength calculations for a vessel with so many openings and gangways were also a challenge. “The thing to remember about this ship is that everything comes out of holes or folds in/folds out,” says Rauber. “Navigation lights fold out on top, the mast goes up on the foredeck so as not to break the design, the bridge wings slide out. Everything is pop-up, everything moves. That’s why we have a pretty clean design. I think at that time it was very revolutionary to have so many moving parts in the hull and in the structure.” Today’s superyachts may be studded with fold-out balconies and hatches – not so in 1990. This “perforated hull”, as Blohm+Voss describes it, required new calculation methods and highly competent engineering.

The well-maintained two-storey engine room is testament to the enduring value of that competence: the original MTU engines (which Rauber describes as “honest” and offer an impressive 8,000nm range at 17 knots) were overhauled in the past two years. The changes that have been made to the boat since launch have mainly been behind-the-scenes technical upgrades. The bridge, for example, is a very different beast to the one installed in 1990.

There are, however, a few more visible changes, says Rauber. On the vast helideck (“You can land pretty much anything on this deck,” he says) the original blue “concrete cement” sole was replaced with a more modern rubber in a neutral tone. The bright blue hull has been repainted in easier-to- maintain white and the whole boat’s teak decking has been replaced.

So what does Lady Moura feel like today? Well, the blunt answer is really, really big. That is hardly a surprise at 105 metres long, but her 6,539 gross tonnage is the real figure to note.

With exterior rather than interior space increasingly maximised in 21st-century yacht design, you would expect Lady Moura’s volume to be greater than more modern examples – but the distance by which she outsizes them is staggering. Take 107.6-metre Benetti superyacht Zoza, by some way the most voluminous of Benetti’s three 100m-plus launches last year; Lady Moura is two metres shorter but packs on 689GT more. For a historically relevant comparison, take the 103.8-metre Al Mabrukah , launched in 1982, at 4,633GT – that’s a difference of nearly 2,000GT.

Together with Lady Moura’s rich, enveloping decor by Luigi Sturchio, this translates to a feeling of being cocooned in a private world. High-gloss mahogany gleams down corridors that taper so far into the distance it seems impossible that this could be a yacht. There’s space for every conceivable luxury, from a cinema to a concealed hair salon next to the lobby, and an owner’s dressing room so vast there’s space for several glass-encased, rotating tie-racks and a walk-in wardrobe just for shoes. There are cabins for hairdressers, make-up artists, beauticians and any number of private staff, as well as substantial offices for the owner and his wife.

The five huge children’s cabins on the owner’s deck are decorated in a lighter style than the rest of the boat. “All five have this en suite dressing room and an en suite bathroom, and four have Pullman beds as well, if you have nannies or friends,” says Rauber. At the other end of the colour spectrum, the full-beam VIP cabin on the owner’s deck is replete with deep burr wood, smoked mirror, and as Rauber accurately puts it, “is actually bigger than a lot of owner’s cabins on slightly smaller boats”. The master dwarfs all of this. Taking over the entire aft half of its level, it is sequestered into a light main cabin with access to a private terrace, a separate cabin, that vast dressing room and a central lobby with a wall of television screens.

The formal saloon on the main deck is predictably vast, as is the seldom-used 18-plus-seat dining saloon on the same deck. But there are more intimate spaces too, notably the family saloon on the bridge deck, which opens on to an aft deck. But the loveliest social space is the pool on the top deck, forward of the helipad. Glass-clad, with an opening roof, it offers a private set-up, surrounded with casual dining and coffee tables, a spa pool , dance studio and terrace.

But just as essential to the self-contained feeling of this boat is the sophisticated service structure that’s built in. As much of the bridge deck is dedicated to senior crew operations – with a suite of offices and living quarters – as the deck below is dedicated to the owner. The tank deck, meanwhile, is a warren of facilities that make the yacht tick, with sheer numbers necessitating separate galleys and laundries for crew and guests – all amply sized. “In the season normally we used to have something like 65 to 70 crew,” says Rauber. The crew also have a dedicated hospital, complementing the intensive care unit up in the guest area. There’s also a bakery, a workshop, a crew gym – “it’s normally full from six in the morning until midnight” – and, of course, massive stores. Crew cabins, on the lower deck, are decently sized and have en suites.

Connecting the tank deck hub to the rest of the boat are two crew staircases – one aft and one forward – and two crew lifts. Also of logistical value is the unusual set-up on the lower aft deck. Arriving on Lady Moura , moored stern-to, guests are routed straight up a central staircase to the main aft deck and into that impressive main saloon. Behind that staircase, but also accessible from the dock, is a cleverly concealed area for crew operations, allowing them to handle deck equipment, take on provisions, or just take a breath of fresh air, unseen by guests.

Here, at the less glamorous end of Lady Moura , lies the crux of her success. While she has monogrammed bins and a gold-plated nameplate (yes, really) she is, in essence, a well-designed machine, rigorously maintained. After all, that is the true secret of beauty.

Imagery courtesy of Camper & Nicholsons

More about this yacht

More stories, most recent, from our partners, sponsored listings.

Inside the €103 million Lady Moura

Most Popular

All the headlines and highlights from monaco, direct to you every morning.

Sign up for the Monaco Life email newsletter.

• Cars, Jets & Yachts

Step Inside the Lady Moura Yacht

Lady Moura has had just one owner; now, for the first time in her 30-year history, she's up for sale.

By Kim Ayling

Towards the end of the 20 th century, the Lady Moura yacht was one of the finest superyachts that could be found anywhere in the world. First delivered in 1990 by German shipbuilders Blohm + Voss, at the time she was one of the largest and priciest yachts the industry had ever seen. While the yachting world has changed considerably during the last 34 years, and yes Lady Moura has been superseded by several newer and larger ships, to some, she was the original superyacht.

Stretching 344 feet in length, when she was originally built, Lady Moura was the 9 th largest yacht in the world. While she has certainly dropped positions in the list since then, her 6,500GT volume remains an impressive figure in the modern market. Despite primarily operating as a stationary vessel, she’s actually capable of covering over 8,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 17 knots (however this sizable ship actually maxes out at 20 knots).

For the majority of her life, Lady Moura had a single owner, Saudi businessman Nasser Al-Rashid. However, in 2021 she was purchased by a new owner, Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.

[See more: Step Inside the Black Pearl Yacht]

As a yacht designed for prolonged onboard family living rather than just short-term cruising, Lady Moura’s interiors are impressively comfortable and luxurious – even by superyacht standards. Despite receiving a significant refit in 2017, Lady Moura has retained much of her original interior, which acts as a testament to the skill of her designer, Italian-born Luigi Sturchio, as well as the impeccable level of care from the crew in her 30-year lifetime.

[See also: The 10 Biggest Superyachts in the World]

The Rise of the Superyacht Marina

How Louis Vuitton Made the America’s Cup the Voyage en Vogue

H3: The Market’s Most Expensive Superyacht Debuts a New Design

The ship offers 27,986 sq ft of private guest space, with the entirety of one of its seven decks dedicated exclusively to family living. The vessel can accommodate up to 26 guests across 13 cabins, subject to PYC compliance, with additional space for 65 crew members, making for a desirable guest to staff ratio. Lady Moura’s interior is lavish: think opulent marble details, plush soft furnishings and rich mahogany furniture in the lounges and bedrooms, with wicker and nautical stripes in the chic beach club.

As you would expect on a luxury yacht of this magnitude, the owner’s cabin onboard the Lady Maura is vast – in fact, the full-beam VIP cabin outsizes the owner’s accommodation in many other ships. Occupying the entire aft half of one deck, the owner’s suite includes the main sleeping cabin that leads directly onto a private terrace, a secondary cabin, a dressing room and a lobby area.

In addition to her extensive accommodations, the Lady Moura yacht is awash with recreational space. On her top deck, you will find an indoor swimming pool complete with a retractable roof, a spa with a sauna and hot tub, and full gym facilities.

Content from our partners

Why Northeastern Spain is the Finest Family Destination

The Ritz-Carlton, Cayman Cookout: A Culinary Celebration

Managing Director Dustin Dent on the Transformation of Nemacolin

Thanks to the ship’s thoughtful design, the beach club (which was one of the first seen onboard a superyacht) can theoretically be enjoyed open air at all times – even when cruising – making it the height of functionality. Off the beach club are not one but two balconies with boarding platforms, both offering access to the ocean.

[See also: The Best Luxury Yacht Builders in the World]

Lady Moura also offers a full-size helipad, which in recent years has received a significant upgrade. Her original blue concrete was replaced with a neutral-colored blue pad for a touch of modernization, which makes it one of the few aesthetic updates that Lady Moura has had in her lifetime. More amenities are discreetly stowed in a mid-level boat garage, including a Boston Whaler, waterski boat and landing craft, all of which are accessed by sleek, hydraulically operated doors.

As a family vessel, children’s entertainment is catered for onboard. Aside from the expansive beach club, Lady Moura also boasts a kid’s room on her bridge deck, which doubles up as a video game zone.

Lady Moura is also the perfect vessel for hosting, with a formal dining room providing space for up to 24 guests and multiple lounges, as well as a movie theatre and DJ booth/dance floor. In the interest of guest safety, there is also a fully equipped medical center onboard.

[See also: These are the Yacht Interior Designers You Need to Know]

[See more: A First Look at Interiors Onboard Superyacht Somnio]

The truth is Lady Moura isn’t much of an explorer . This isn’t to say she can’t, however – in fact, there is room for up to three months’ worth of provisions on board and she can cruise for up to 12,000 nautical miles without needing to refuel. But to date, her owner hasn’t tested her capacities with any conviction, with her furthest voyage being a trip to the Caribbean in the nineties.

Speaking to BOAT International in mid-2020, Lady Moura’s captain Matthias Bosse revealed that the ship only has around 13,500 traveling hours, which is a remarkably low number for a yacht of her age. Instead of traveling the four corners of the world, the superyacht is usually used as a residential dwelling in the south of France and has never been available for charter.

However, with the spectacular vessel now on the market for the first time, the future may be more adventurous for Lady Moura – her captain was keen to share that apart from the Arctic zones (which require a stronger steel hull), she can navigate virtually any of the world’s vast oceans.

The Lady Moura yacht is listed with Camper & Nicholsons, POA.

camperandnicholsons.com

Latest in Luxury

The explorer.

Thank you for subscribing to Elite Traveler.

“Lady Moura”– Famous luxury yacht changes hands

The world’s largest super yachts are a status symbol

They are a status symbol of the rich and beautiful and often cost several hundred million dollars. Trade journalists have reserved the name “giga-yacht” for the largest yachts in the world, which are over a hundred meters long. Often, they do not fit into any harbor and have to anchor in front of it. The dimensions of these floating luxury objects are usually reminiscent of cruise ships, and when they are sold, it is usually from one billionaire to another.

The Century Yacht “Lady Moura”

Probably one of the most famous mega-yachts in the world was completed in 1990 by the German shipyard Blohm + Voss. When she was built, she was considered the ninth largest private yacht in the world. Now she is said to be 48th on the list. The construction of “Lady Moura” is said to have cost around $ 250 million (€ 213 million) when she was completed in the late 1980s. The superyacht is powered by two DEUTZ 6868 HP engines, and each has 5,121 kW of power and controllable pitch propellers. Despite her size, the “Lady Moura” can reach a cruising speed of 17 knots. A world sensation when launched, a sophisticated hydraulic system opens and closes a multitude of doors, flaps, retractable roofs or walls and cranes. Whether things and lifeboats or the anchor, these are hidden behind panels to avoid impairing the aesthetics of the yacht. “Lady Moura” is considered by many connoisseurs to be the epitome of a giga-yacht. Since her launch, she was owned by the Saudi Arabian billionaire Nasser al-Raschid for 31 years. The once 250-million-dollar luxury object has now changed hands for $ 125 million.

The indoor pool with adjoining spa

The new owner is a Mexican billionaire

The “Lady Moura” is now said to have gone to a new owner for $ 125 million. Some sources name the Mexican multi-billionaire Alberto Bailleres. The 89-year-old father of seven makes his money from the largest and most productive silver mines in the world. According to Forbes, his fortune is estimated at € 9.3 billion. His mines are said to produce 25 tonnes of gold and 25 000 tonnes of silver per year. It should not have been difficult for the billionaire to meet the asking price for the “Lady Moura”. However, OnLocation knows from a reliable source that actually this billionaire did not buy the giga-yacht “Lady Moura”.

The “Mou” in the name of the Giga-Yacht stands for Mouna Ayoub

The new owner of the “Lady Moura” is actually the billionaire Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego, also from Mexico, who with his Grupo Salinas group of companies has holdings in telecommunications, media, financial services and retail. Mexico’s third richest man recently made headlines because he reaffirmed his support for Bitcoin and announced his intention to open the first bank in the country to accept Bitcoin. The sale of the “Lady Moura” sets a record in the brokerage world. The brokers Camper & Nicholsons were able to find a new owner in only 554 days. This represents the fastest known brokerage sale of a vessel over 100 meters in the last 10 years. What persuaded the new owner to put the $ 125 million on the table for the “Lady Moura” is likely to be the lavish and luxurious fittings, the design and the golden lettering.

Juan Carlos and George Bush landed on the helipad

The name of the Giga-Yacht “Lady Moura”

The name “Lady Moura” has a special meaning. The “Mou” stands for Mouna Ayoub, one of the most dazzling figures of the jet-set and now ex-wife of the billionaire, Nasser al-Raschid. The “ra” comes from the billionare’s surname. Mouna Ayoub is one of the most colourful women in the middle east. It is said that she has spent $150 million on jewellery, and her annual clothing budget is said to be $3 million. And her fortune is believed to be several hundred million dollars. The woman who looks 40 is actually over 60 years old. Possibly the richest woman in the middle east, she grew up in Kuwait as the child of Lebanese parents, attended a Jesuit boarding school, and had to move to France because of the civil war. She met her future husband, the Saudi Prince Nasser al-Raschid, while working in a restaurant in Paris. At the age of 19, she married him, moved to Riyadh and converted to Islam. But as an Islamic woman at the side of a prince, the palace became a prison, and divorce followed in 1996. What remains of the great love of his life for the billionaire is the name of the giga-yacht “Lady Moura”.

Each letter of the lettering „Lady Moura“ is covered with 24-carat gold

Features and design of the “Lady Moura”

“Lady Moura” is often referred to as the world’s first mega-yacht. The iconic ship, which the experts define as a giga-yacht, has seven decks, one of which is dedicated to family life. In addition to the luxurious owner’s suite, there are 13 cabins used exclusively by family members and guests. This area alone covers 2,600 square metres. Italian designer and architect Luigi Sturchio created the entire interior on the super yacht. The mega yacht has total accommodation capacity for 72 crew members and 26 guests. In addition, the “Lady Moura” offers a floating luxury village with bakery, cinema. disco, medical clinic and an indoor pool with adjoining spa. Furthermore, there are hatches in the hull for motorboats or jet skis. Even former King of Spain Juan Carlos and former President George Bush are said to have landed on the yacht’s helicopter pad. The really special highlights of this mega-yacht, however, are the unusually long dining table (24 meters) and the lettering “Lady Moura” on the hull – each letter is covered in 24-carat gold and is said to cost a proud € 12,000. If you would like to see the giga-yacht, it is usually moored either in Monaco or Palma de Mallorca.

The Italian designer and architect Luigi Sturchio created the entire interior

Source: On Location Magazine

672 Wine Club

• Motorcycles
• Car of the Month
• Destinations
• Men’s Fashion
• Watch Collector
• Art & Collectibles
• Vacation Homes
• Celebrity Homes
• New Construction
• Home Design
• Electronics
• Fine Dining
• Benchmark Wines
• Brian Fox Art
• Disneyland Resort
• Ka La’I Wakiki Beach
• Raffles Hotels & Resorts
• Sports & Leisure
• Health & Wellness
• Best of the Best
• The Ultimate Gift Guide

Inside the ‘Lady Moura,’ a Convention-Defying, 344-Foot Superyacht Built to Be a Mansion on the Water

The veil has finally been lifted., julia zaltzman, julia zaltzman's most recent stories.

• These Charter Yachts Let You Tag Hammerhead Sharks and Count Spirit Bears for Research
• These Luxe Villas Are the Place to Stay in This Retro-Chic Enclave on the Tuscan Coast
• The 7 Most Exciting New Superyacht Marinas in the World
• Share This Article

When it comes to superyachts with authentic pedigree, few have as much blue blood as the 344-foot Lady Moura . When she was delivered to her owners in 1990 by German shipyard Blohm+Voss, the levels of design innovation and onboard engineering were unprecedented. Built to be a private residence, the yacht has been cloaked in mystery to the outside world for three decades.

This New 72-Foot Yacht’s New Hybrid Propulsion System Is the First of Its Kind

• This Electric Hypercar Just Set the Laguna Seca Lap Record by Accident
• Legendary Formula 1 Car Designer Adrian Newey Is Joining Aston Martin

Now that the yacht is for sale for the first time by her original owner, the veil has finally been lifted. Robb Report was one of the first outsiders to tour the yacht recently at a Monaco event hosted by Lady Moura’s broker, Camper & Nicholsons .

“The owner’s intention was to make an impact,” says Captain Matthias Bosse, who first joined the yacht as Staff Captain in 1992. “He wanted to build the biggest yacht, at the best shipyard, with the most advanced technology in the world.”

Bosse adds: “She was built to be a family home, not for cruising.”

The beach club, now commonplace, was a radical concept in 1990.  Camper & Nicholsons

A family home indeed. Two fully equipped ICU units and a fulltime onboard doctor are not standard protocol on most superyachts. Neither are two galleys—one for the owner, the other for the crew—with up to six chefs and a separate bakery. And few superyachts that spend the majority of their time running between Monaco and Palma carry a permanent helicopter on board. Conforming to the conventions of the world, however, was never the owner’s priority.

Making statements in design and technology were. Well ahead of her time, Lady Moura has one of the first beach clubs on a superyacht , and an entire owner’s deck. The owners also wanted a clean exterior look, so all doors, flaps, roofs, gangways and cranes are hydraulically operated so they can be sealed tight against bulkheads or into floors. Most equipment is hidden behind integrated hydraulic doors, including the yacht’s tenders, anchors, and even a set of navigation lights designed for the sole purpose of traversing Egypt’s Suez Canal (but were sadly never used).

A helicopter permanently attached to a yacht based in Monaco was considered unusual, but Lady Moura’s owners wanted what they wanted.  Camper & Nicholsons

The yacht has a range of more than 8,000 nautical miles at her full cruising speed of 17 knots. She was never run at full capacity. The farthest, in fact, she ever ventured from the Med was to the Caribbean in 1993. Lady Moura was a homebody.

What a home. Matching her 344-foot length is a huge internal volume of 6,359 gross tons across seven decks, including a deck for the owner’s family. She accommodates up to 26 guests, serviced by 72 crew and staff, and two crew elevators. Painstakingly preserved with regular maintenance and vigilant upkeep, Lady Moura is a museum piece adorned with Art Deco detailing and sumptuous styling.

The yacht was used as a permanent home by the owners, so areas like the formal dining room were rarely used.  Camper & Nicholsons

Perhaps the most surprising element during our tour is Lady Moura’s immaculate condition. Thirty years after launch, she has all her original flooring, carpets, walls and staircases. The silk walls in the guest cabins look as new as they did in 1990. Not even a new coat of paint has been required to spruce up Luigi Sturchio’s original interior color scheme.

The simple reason for this unusually high level of preservation is that Lady Moura has barely been used, other than by immediate family. The formal 24-seater dining room has entertained guests just three times—the most recent being last month to announce her sale.

The spa was part of an elaborate beach club on the owner’s deck.  Camper & Nicholsons

Despite her age, Lady Moura feels like a modern yacht. Her beach club was considered revolutionary three decades ago and stacks up well beside contemporary superyachts. Positioned amidships with balconies both port and starboard, the club transformed how the owner could access the yacht from the water. The indoor pool with its retractable roof, gym, spa with sauna, and cinema complete the full complement of entertainment amenities.

The owner’s deck was also a novel concept. Reserved exclusively for family living, the floor contains six guest cabins, and a full-beam master suite. Generous walk-in wardrobes and two en suites pair with enough space for the owner to comfortably remain within his private quarters (as he did when the yacht became his permanent residence in 2018). Below-deck cabins, including a full-beam VIP, are reserved for non-family guests.

The superyacht had an overhaul for seven months in 2017 at Blohm+Voss, and her 2018/19 refit focused on rebuilding the generators and engines, installing new teak decks and refurbishing crew and technical spaces. Captain Bosse, who is obviously partial, believes that Lady Moura represents excellent value, given her condition and design. He calls it “the steal of the century.”

Read More On:

• Blohm + Voss
• Camper & Nicholsons

More Marine

Axopar Just Unveiled Two Electric Boats Capable of Reaching Thrilling Speeds

This New Solar-Electric Catamaran Comes With a Massive, Fold-Down Beach Club

These Otherworldly New 142-Foot Superyachts Were Inspired by the Moons of Mars 

Meet the Wine Club That Thinks Differently.

Receive editor-curated reds from boutique California producers four times a year.

Give the Gift of Luxury

Latest Galleries in Marine

The AX/E 22 and AX/E 25 in Photos

Phobos and Deimos Superyachts in Photos

More from our brands, sparkling silver looks are trending on mtv vmas 2024 red carpet with paris hilton, sabrina carpenter and more, trump-harris debate outdraws all nfl games besides super bowls, ‘venom: the last dance’ trailer: tom hardy ends trilogy with more brain-eating symbiote action, 3,000-year-old military fort unearthed in northern egypt, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors.

US$ 250 million Mega Yacht Lady Moura

• Inspiration

Related News

Popular news this week, popular news this month, latest news.

• Yacht Charter & Superyacht News >

Written by Maria Korotaeva

The 38th largest superyacht in the world,  LADY MOURA  is a superb 105-metre luxury vessel built by Blohm & Voss in 1990. 

Lady Moura during the Monaco Yacht Show in 2017. Photo credit Julien Hubert

Upon her launch over 28 years ago, she was surrounded by rumours and secrecy, as was the ninth largest yacht. Back in the days a 100+ luxury yacht created an enormous amount of discussions. A while after her launch some official informaiton had been released, which created another buzz. At 105 metres LADY MOURA has a beam of 18.5 metres, which allows accommodating 30 guests and 61 crew. Another wow feature unveiled that time was her logos and name plates being plated with 24 karat gold and her owner being Nasser Al-Rashid, a businessman from Saudi Arabia.

Spotted in Monaco in October 2017. Photo by @guillaume_conti_photography

LADY MOURA was refitted in 2007 and has since been maintained to the highest standard, which allows her to retain her status of being one of the most expensive yachts in the world. Her estimated net worth is currently US $250 million.

Lady Moura spotted with Atlantis 2, Madame Gu and Ace. Photo credit @boat_man_33

Imposing Lady Loura among other luxury yachts in Monaco. Photo by @jager_bomb_mc

Nowadays, LADY MOURA is one of the highly admired yachts in the industry and is a real celebrity on the Social Media. Spotted in the finest cruising grounds of the Mediterranean together with other luxury superyachts, LADY MOURA always attracted attention and a large number of yachting enthusiasts dreaming of stepping onboard this privately owned yacht. Unfortunately, very little information is available regarding the interior styling and the exact layout of the yacht.

Lady Moura showing off her gold platted name plate

Lady Moura in Monaco. Photo credit @pikeykey

Her classic white exterior design was created by Luigi Sturchio , who also designed the interior spaces. The naval architecture is by the Blohm & Voss in-house team. The automated gates and locks, which allows lowering of her tenders and boats and access way for the guests and crew members. Guests can arrive by helicopter, which lands on a helipad specifically designed by easy take-offs and arrivals in style.

The yacht is equipped with a nightclub, casino, spa centre and vast lounges. The upper deck is dedicated to the enormous swimming pool with the slide-open roof.

Lady Moura is powered by two 6,868 hp Deutz-MWM TBD510BV12 Diesel engines, which allows her to reach a top speed of 22 knots.

MORE INFORMATION & IMAGES.

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "US$ 250 million Mega Yacht Lady Moura".

• Charity & Fund Raising
• CharterWorld News
• Classic Yachts
• Coronavirus
• Cruise Ship
• Ecological Yachts
• Expedition Yachts
• Expert Broker Advice
• Feature Superyachts
• Interior Design
• Legal & VAT Yacht Issues
• Luxury Catamarans
• Luxury Gulet
• Luxury Phinisi
• Luxury Trimarans
• Luxury Yacht Design
• Luxury Yachts
• Marinas & Harbours
• Marine Ecology
• Marine Electronics
• Marine Equipment
• Mega Yachts
• Modern Yachts
• Motor Yachts
• New Launch Yachts
• New To Charter
• Open Style Sports Yachts
• Private Jets
• Sailing Yachts
• Social Media
• Sports Yachts
• Superyacht Crew
• Superyacht Photographers
• Superyacht Products & Supplies
• Superyacht Refits
• Superyacht Reviews
• Superyachts
• Uncategorized
• Yacht Builders
• Yacht Charter
• Yacht Charter Destinations
• Yacht Charter Picks
• Yacht Charter Specials
• Yacht Delivered to Owner
• Yacht Designers
• Yacht Events & Boat Shows
• Yacht Fashion
• Yacht Industry News
• Yacht Photos
• Yacht Racing
• Yacht Racing & Regattas
• Yacht Safety Equipment
• Yacht Support Vessels
• Yacht Tenders
• Yacht Videos
• Yachting Associations
• Yachting Awards
• Yachting Business
• Yachts For Charter
• Yachts For Sale

Quick Enquiry

Superyacht news:.

Email Your Yachting News to: news @ charterworld.com

The Mediterranean

Dilbar – The Secretive Superyacht Titan

Blohm & Voss Yacht LADY MOURA Gets Special Makeover by Wild Group

Five famous superyachts spotted over the festive season 

Six magnificent luxury yachts spotted in Mediterranean charter grounds

Luxury motor yacht SIDURI III for charter in the Western Mediterranean

Yacht Charter Etiquette: Essential advise for a seamless travel experience

10 sensational superyachts with spectacular swimming pools

Superyacht KAŞIF on route to the 2024 Cannes and Monaco Yacht Shows

A luxury charter yacht is the perfect way to encounter New England’s fall foliage display

45m custom superyacht SAN will debut at the 2024 Monaco Yacht Show

Inaugural CROYA Charter Show announced for 4th to 6th October 2024 in Split, Croatia

Charter yachts offering citizen science opportunities around the world

55m superyacht YN20555 is launched by Heesen Yachts and named superyacht SERENA

31m luxury yacht CARPE DIEM available for charter in the Bahamas

Late summer special offer on board 72m superyacht ARBEMA in the Western Mediterranean

• Automobiles
• Watches & Jewelry
• Art & Collectibles
• Wine & Spirits
• Destinations
• Resorts & Spas
• Jetset’s Top 5
• Real Estate
• Cover Features
• Entertainment

• Love at First Sight
• The Fine Art of Carchitecture
• Investing in Fine Wines
• Best of Both Worlds

Record Sale: Lady Moura, the World’s First Superyacht, Sells for $125M

The superyacht industry emerged around three decades ago, when German ship-building company Blohm+Voss introduced the impressive 105-meter motor yacht, Lady Moura , to the public. Like a mansion at sea, this vessel, with its Luigi Sturchio-designed interiors and innovative seven-deck construction, shattered previous notions of what a yacht could be through its unmatched elegance and extraordinary scale. The ship was built to house dignitaries and statesmen, its high-end amenities and private spaces making it a perfect getaway for the world’s elite. A year and a half ago, however, Lady Moura’s owner placed the superyacht on the market, and in a swift 554-day turnaround, it sold in-house for a record 125 million dollars: the largest superyacht sale by a broker since 2019.

Lady Moura’s new captain is now in command of a piece of boating history. In 1990, it became one of the first yachts to feature a beach club area and a hydraulic fold-out balcony, innovations that would later become standard fare for the industry. The vessel’s wide 18.5-meter beam allowed for spacious interiors, much larger than preceding models of the time, and its splendorous family residence area has inspired shipbuilders to up their game and produce even more lavish maritime living quarters. Despite its exquisite reputation, many of the ship’s innermost rooms are a mystery, their designs and layout having never been fully disclosed to the general public. This sense of mystery only makes the vessel more intriguing; when it appeared on the market last year, the yachting world went wild with speculation about who the next lucky owner would be.

In addition to its sporty exteriors and sleek architecture, the yacht presents an array of high-end features that have stood the test of time. Onboard, passengers will find a swimming pool, flanked by a shady lounge area, and deck after deck where seafarers can spread out and soak up the sun in style. The vessel’s dining area looks fit for a king, with a long table that stretches from one end of the room to another—ideal for a feast with close friends. Some rooms, like the ship’s office, are accented by vaulted ceilings, while others, like the saloon, feature marble and mosaic flooring, a look that is positively palatial. The fact that most spaces come with windows tall enough to fill each room with natural lighting but modest enough to maintain a sense of privacy demonstrates how much thought went into this innovative craft’s design. One doesn’t have to search high and low to see why Lady Moura turned the tides of the yachting lifestyle decades ago.

30 years after she set off on her maiden voyage, Lady Moura is still turning heads, shattering records, and rocking the entire boating industry. This most recent sale, engineered by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons , represents just one chapter in the storied life of this iconic vessel, which continues to stun with its sophistication and timeless flair. The ship’s staggering price tag only underscores its desirability—maturity and majesty wrapped into one magnificent vessel.

SuRi Yacht – The Amazing $45M – Superyacht

The Best Yacht Concepts From Around The World

The Stunning Ritz Carlton EVRIMA Yacht

Gliding Across Tokyo’s Sumida River: The Mesmerizing Zipper Boat

• Zuretti Interior Design
• Zuretti Interior
• Zuccon International Project
• Ziyad al Manaseer
• Zaniz Interiors. Kutayba Alghanim
• Yuriy Kosiuk
• Yuri Milner
• Yersin Yacht

• Superyachts

LADY MOURA Yacht – Refined $250M Superyacht

The impressive LADY MOURA yacht is a superyacht owned by Dr. Nasser Al Rashid.

She features an interior and exterior design from Luigi Sturchio and was built in 1990 by Blohm + Voss, a German shipbuilding company.

The yacht was a cutting-edge vessel when she was built and set trends in personal yachting.

LADY MOURA yacht interior

The interior of the LADY MOURA yacht was designed by Luigi Sturchio, a renowned Italian designer.

The incredible yacht was designed to be a floating personal residence, with many people spending more time on the boat than off in the last 20 years.

She has accommodation for 27 guests in 13 cabins that comprises a master suite, a VIP suite, and 11 more cabins. There is accommodation for 71 crew members in 36 cabins.

The interior was kept under wraps for 30 years, but with her sale in 2021, the details have finally been revealed.

The interior design reflects the level of opulence reserved for royalty at the time of her launch as a private vessel. Her sheer size allows for a large number of onboard amenities.

The facilities include a helipad and a hospital suite for guests and crew members.

The yacht has a DJ room and a movie theatre for guests to enjoy. There is a beach club for the perfect indoor/outdoor areas, which compliments the generous swimming pool.

The deck areas are plentiful with al fresco dining options and sunbathing areas.

There is a spa, gym, multiple saloons, and a bakery on board. She features several tenders and water toys, including a limousine tender, a waterski boat, and a landing craft.

Luigi Sturchio also designed the exterior of the LADY MOURA yacht. She was built by Blohm + Voss and delivered in 1990, and recently refitted in 2020.

At the time of her launch, she was the most expensive and innovative yacht in the world.

The amazing yacht set a new standard for yacht building 30 years ago. The yacht features a white hull and superstructure made from steel.

The name and the escutcheon are engraved in 24-carat gold onto the yacht’s exterior. The striking yacht is complimented by underwater lights that illuminate her in the dark.

Specifications

The LADY MOURA yacht has a whopping length of 104m, a beam of 18.5m, and a draft of 5.5m. She can reach a top speed of 22 knots and a cruising speed of 17 knots.

She has a range of 8000 nautical miles and is powered by twin Deutz engines.

She has a displacement of 6439 gross tons. She has at-anchor stabilizers that provide exceptional comfort levels for guests while at the water.

LADY MOURA was built to Lloyd’s Register classification society rules.

Now valued at $125 million, LADY MOURA was rumored to cost more than $200 million to build. The yacht has an annual running cost of $10 to $20 million.

LADY MOURA in Gibraltar

Do you have anything to add to this listing?

• Blohm + Voss
• Luigi Sturchio

Love Yachts? Join us.

Related posts.

SHERAKHAN Yacht – Phenomenal $25 Million Superyacht

SEANNA Yacht – Exquisite Craftsmanship $60M Superyacht

YERSIN Yacht – Masterful $70M Superyacht

FORCE BLUE Yacht – Remarkable $20M Superyacht

• € 105000000 per week
• 105.00 M 17 MPH 1 13

At her launch, Lady Moura was the most expensive and innovative yacht in the world. A true statement of success at a 105M, and as private yacht built by Blohm & Voss. She registered as the ninth largest yacht ever built in an era when clients of royal status were nearly the only people capable of considering such an opulent yacht. Coupled with the most innovative systems and engineering, Lady Moura set a new standard in yachting, earning her the modern accolade of the original superyacht.

Offered for sale by the original owner, and on the market for the first time, Lady Moura is truly a standout superyacht. Commissioned by a team of experts who paid meticulous attention to every detail, she bears only the finest finishes, most luxurious lifestyle features, and exudes extravagance from every angle, highlighted by her famously gold-plated nameplate.

Serving as a private family residence, Lady Moura has been maintained to the ultimate standard, so much so that continuous improvements have negated the need for major refits with largest yard period to date being a seven-month period at her original builders, Blohm + Voss, in 2017. Built to Lloyds Classification and delivered in 1990, this incredible yacht is 6,359GT. She has a phenomenal range in excess of 8,000nm at full cruising speed of 17knots, easily surpassing that of most modern superyachts. Recent upgrades in 2018/19 included her generators and engines being rebuilt, new teak decks, refurbished crew and technical spaces, and the new hull paint, which was applied in 2017, still glistens. Lady Moura also has an advanced remote monitoring system which allows for condition-based maintenance, real time troubleshooting and support, and she has an extremely low operating expense for a yacht of her stature.

Lady Moura lead the way for many innovative design elements and, in many ways, continues to do so today. Her balconies off the beach club and side boarding platforms, were an engineering first and transformed the way an owner could access and the water. Additional design highlights include: hydraulic operated shell ports, doors, flaps, roofs, gangways and cranes delivering effortless operation and optimum guest comfort. Most equipment is hidden behind these hydraulically operated doors to achieve an uncluttered, streamlined look – that includes tenders, anchors and even navigation lights.

Conceived specifically as a haven for the family to spend time together, but also to serve as a platform for important social engagements, Lady Moura dedicates one of her seven decks exclusively to family living. Along with the opulent full beam owner’s suite on this deck, are six cabins exclusively for use by family members, culminating in a total of 2,600sq.m of private chambers. She can accommodate up to 26 guests in total and provides quarters for a complement of 72 crew and staff – a highly desirable crew to guest ratio for a new owner seeking the ultimate levels of service and comfort.

Lady Moura’s resplendent interior was designed by the Italian-born Luigi Sturchio. From inviting lounges with deep cushioned sofas to regal dining rooms and palatial staterooms with en suites finished in marble, every aspect of the design uses indulgently tactile finishes and the furnishings have been chosen with great consideration for functionality, without impinging on aesthetic.

Lady Moura’s incredible volume allows for an impressive number of onboard amenities. She boasts: a helipad, movie theatre / disco with DJ room, gym, owner’s study and medical suites for both owner/guests and crew. There are also two galleys aboard, one for the owner and one for the crew both equipped with the finest commercial-grade appliances, a bakery and separate owner/crew laundry facilities.

One of Lady Moura’s most notable features is the recreational deck featuring an indoor pool, gym and spa with sauna. The pool is covered by a retractable roof that allows usage to be optimized in all conditions.

The beach club also deserves a special mention. Positioned midships with balconies both port and starboard, this lounge at the water’s edge offers easy access to and from the ocean.

In addition to this, Lady Moura has six hydraulic gangways (when alongside or stern-to) and 2 entrances ensuring a safe and seamless transition from tender to mother ship in any sea condition.

The tenders themselves, including a large Boston Whaler, waterski boat and a landing craft, are stowed midships behind hydraulically operated doors.

Lady Moura is a unique purchase proposition. The significant role she has played in the superyacht industry has afforded her a status that is assured for years to come. Her new owner will not only be acquiring a superyacht of premium pedigree, but be continuing a legacy of luxury and splendor.

Main Features:

• Full custom build
• Refit 2019/2020
• One owner since new
• Iconic vessel
• Maintained in Class (Lloyds)
• Trans Oceanic range (8,000nm) @ 17kn
• Low engine hours
• Seven decks
• Guest elevator

EUR 105,000,000

Guests: 26 Cabins: 13 Crew: 65

Specifications

Exterior Design

Interior Design

Ocean Marine QA © 2024 All Rights Reserved

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?

The Good Life Aquatic

‘Have you ever seen anything so cool in your life? ” Jamie Edmiston, the 29-year-old super-yacht broker, has to shout, for we are in a Eurocopter EC130 over the ocean off Antibes, on our way to a yacht called Senses. It’s May of last year, and all the giant luxury boats are clustered on the Côte d’Azur for the Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo. Having wintered in Palm Beach, the Caribbean, and beyond, the crews have streaked across the Atlantic while their employers jetted over on their Gulfstreams, Citations, Boeing Business Jets, and Bombardier Global Expresses.

Edmiston and I have taken off from the so-called Quai des Milliardaires (“Dock of the Billionaires”) at the International Yacht Club of Antibes, which was begun in 1999 to berth the big boats. As we fly over the seagoing behemoths, Edmiston points certain ones out: the Leander, parking-lot tycoon Sir Donald Gosling’s stately home on water; Aussie Rules, built by golf star Greg Norman and recently sold to Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga, which has a swimming pool, a movie theater, and a dozen smaller boats on board; Sokar, the pride of Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, on which his son, Dodi, and Princess Diana spent their last days, in 1997.

We’re 12 miles offshore, the minimum requirement for a helicopter to land on a boat along the Riviera, approaching Senses, a 194-foot exploration yacht, one of the largest in the world, with interiors by Philippe Starck and an abundance of “toys,” a yachting term that can mean anything from a Jet Ski to a submarine. Edmiston cries, “Look at the dolphins!” The copter tilts sideways, and I can see dozens of dolphins, leaping into the air and leading us straight toward the boat, as if they had been sent to fetch us. When we land on the fourth and uppermost deck, the yacht’s co-owner, Alan Gibbs, 65, the New Zealand inventor, takeover artist, and telecommunications mogul, is standing there in his bathing suit with two ravishing young women in string bikinis at his side—Emma, his daughter, a neuroscientist, and Sandra Baker, his Tahitian girlfriend.

Gibbs leads us to the sundeck for lunch. “It’s about freedom to, not freedom from, ” he says to explain the thrill of owning a yacht. “We’re free to do, free to go, is how I see it. We’re not going to fly to the moon from here. But it would be hard to find a better way to explore the earth than on this.”

The boat beneath us is a $40 million Goliath with a 120-ton fuel tank that costs $80,000 to fill and can keep the yacht at sea for a good part of the summer. Gibbs has taken Senses halfway around the world. “We were the first large yacht that actually visited Tunisia,” he says. “They couldn’t quite cope with it. The helicopter just drove them nuts—that some private person would have a ship that looked like the navy and wanted to fly all over Tunisia in a helicopter.”

Suddenly he shouts, “Get the toys in the water!” There is an instant buzz of walkie-talkies, and 14 crew members scurry out. Up goes the yacht’s helicopter, and down go the 42-foot tender, the 32-foot sailing yacht, and six Jet Skis. Then Gibbs yells, “Launch the Aquada!” A hatch opens, and the world’s first high-speed amphibious car, Gibbs’s invention, seven years in development and coming to the market soon, glides down a ramp into the sea. As its wheels retract, it turns into a speedboat. Gibbs drives, and the women sit atop bucket seats, spume wetting their hair as they seem to push the limits of extravagance. Back on board minutes later, Gibbs says, “That was really James Bond stuff out there. But Bond is only mucking it up. We’re really doing it!”

‘Ever larger boats have replaced palaces, estates, and art as the ultimate symbols of wealth, which is not altogether surprising, given the fleeting and disposable nature of our society,” says Mark Getty, the son of Sir J. Paul Getty Jr., as he shows me around Talitha G, which was launched in 1929 by the head of Packard, sold to the chief of Woolworth’s, requisitioned by the U.S. Navy during World War II, rescued by Saturday Night Fever movie producer Robert Stigwood, and immaculately restored by J. Paul Getty Jr. in 1993. Named for his second wife, Talitha G has six staterooms, open fireplaces, Lalique glass doors, period art and furnishings, and the latest technology. Hollywood superstars and captains of industry can charter her for $350,000 a week, excluding gas and gratuities.

It’s the day of the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, and from *Talitha’*s aft deck Mark Getty and I are gazing out on a sea full of super-yachts. We can hear the Formula One race cars buzzing around curving hillsides above us and the crowd’s cheers. But the bigger race is definitely here in the harbor, Port Hercule, where 111 boats pack every available slip—at a cost of $25,000 to $50,000 a week each—while dozens more that can’t find space or are just too big to fit are moored around the harbor’s rim. As big as cruise ships, super-yachts have names to match— Giant, Kingdom 5KR, Hedonist, Huntress, Limitless, Seawolfe, Passion, Nectar of the Gods, Naughty by Nature, Big Roi.

Sir J. Paul Getty Jr.'s Talitha G , restored in 1993 by the late Jon Bannenberg, long considered the world's foremost yacht designer.

In order to see them up close, I descend three decks and get into a Wally Tender, the motorboat used to ferry owners, guests, crew, and supplies from ship to shore and yacht to yacht. Like everything else in yachting, the Wally Tender is over the top; this $670,000 propeller-powered Batmobile is considered a necessary accessory by everyone from the designer Valentino to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. I’m traveling with Luca Bassani, the owner of Wally Yachts, who has revolutionized yachting, first with sailing yachts and then with power ones. He slams the tender into gear, and the boat almost levitates, quickly bringing us right up alongside the huge vessels.

They rise up from the ocean like monoliths. There’s the vanilla-colored, $100 million Pelorus (378 feet), one of four super- yachts owned by the Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich. Pelorus is equipped with bulletproof glass, a missile-detection system, two helicopters, a submarine, and high-intensity “paparazzi lights,” designed to obliterate the film of any interloping photographer. Beyond that is Lady Moura (344 feet), owned by Saudi billionaire Dr. Nasser al-Rashid, with an 80-member crew, a fully equipped hospital, an onboard sand beach, and a 59-foot dining table. Next is Greek shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos’s 379-foot Atlantis II, which has rarely left the harbor since his death, in 1996. Then comes Delphine, launched in 1921 by American automobile magnate Horace Dodge and requisitioned by Franklin Roosevelt for meetings with Winston Churchill and Vyacheslav Molotov during World War II; restored, it rents for $60,000 a day.

Moored outside the port is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Octopus, making its debut in the Mediterranean, having just sailed from New Orleans, where Allen used the boat to promote his company’s new software at a convention of cable-TV executives. Built at a cost that reportedly escalated from $250 to $400 million, with a crew of 60 that includes former navy SEALs, Octopus is, at 413 feet, the world’s largest privately owned yacht, so huge that the lifeboats strapped to its side look like tiny toys. Anchored by means of a dynamic positioning system that enables the captain to stop with perfect precision, it’s a skyscraper with seven decks, two helicopter landing pads, a swimming pool, a basketball court, an infirmary, a garage, a movie theater, and, in its belly, a port to house many of the 14 tenders. These include a custom-built submarine that can remain underwater with 10 people for two weeks and a remote-controlled robot for exploring the ocean floor. There’s a concert space for 260, a massive guitar sculpture that rises up through the entire height of the boat, and a recording studio, which is a second home to musicians ranging from Dan Aykroyd to Robbie Robertson. On the lowest level is an observation lounge with a glass bottom and stadium-strength lighting that illuminates the depths, for watching sea creatures.

This colossus has everything on it but torpedoes, which Allen declined when the builder suggested them for security. Meanwhile, Allen’s great rival, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, has just completed Rising Sun, 47 critical feet longer than Octopus, a new record for length. As J. P. Morgan once said when asked about the cost of his yacht, Corsair III, which, at 300 feet and with a crew of 70, was the world’s largest in the early 1900s, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.”

In the shadow of these monsters in the harbor is an array of smaller yachts, which are still big enough to be classified as “mega-,” or “super-,” a category that includes all powerboats and sailboats more than 80 feet long, according to Diane Byrne of Power & Motoryacht magazine. There are between 5,000 and 6,000 super-yachts in the world, and the number is growing steadily—622 were launched in 2003 alone.

“It’s a grand traveling home,” says Dr. Charles Simonyi, one of the pioneers of Microsoft and a driving force behind the invention of its Excel program, as he relaxes on the sundeck of *Skat—*Danish for “my darling.” A slate-gray, 231-foot vessel that is sometimes mistaken for a battleship, it serves as the bachelor’s home and office six months of the year. Decorated with Victor Vasarely and Roy Lichtenstein paintings and Arne Jacobsen “egg” chairs, Skat is the result of Simonyi’s failed search for satisfying apartments. “I tried Montréal, I tried Monte Carlo, I tried Copenhagen,” he says. But why, he finally decided, join the dogfight for locations and suffer the indignities of local taxes, constant maintenance, and zoning restrictions when you can sail into the heart of the capitals of the world on a luxurious, fully staffed fortress? “In all of the Scandinavian capitals—Oslo as well as Copenhagen and Stockholm—we are always docked next to the king’s or queen’s palace,” he says. “We are occupying the best real estate, and I have the nicest bathroom and a fantastic restaurant.” Although Simonyi insists that he uses Skat as a base to run his businesses, life on board most boats is pretty sybaritic—breakfast until noon, lunch until 3, cocktails at 6, dinner until 12, and drinks until dawn.

When the Grand Prix winner is announced, every yacht in the harbor blasts its horn, and they sound like an armada of whales, drowning out the applause coming from Monte Carlo’s natural amphitheater above. Within hours most of the boats will depart, untangling themselves from one another’s anchor lines and heading out to sea.

If you don’t own a yacht, you can always charter one, at prices ranging from $203,000 a week for the 175-foot Perfect Prescription (which Jaguar leased and lent to Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matt Damon during the filming of Ocean’s Twelve ) to $850,000 a week for Annaliesse, a 279-footer with 18 staterooms (instead of the usual 12). On the day of my visit, Annaliesse has been chartered for a wedding. Lionel Richie is on board to serenade the party, and the bride and groom and 100 guests arrive by helicopter, all of them dressed in white bathrobes.

With the exception of Tiger Woods, who owns a 155-foot boat he christened Privacy, celebrities tend to lease or rent. Denzel and Pauletta Washington rent a yacht almost every summer; so do Magic Johnson, rap star Jay-Z, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. If you can’t charter, you can visit friends who do or, as they say in the yachting world, go hopping. “Yacht-hopping,” explains fashion model Naomi Campbell, who took her first cruise a decade ago, on Mohamed Al Fayed’s yacht. When I meet her, she’s staying on Formula One racing impresario Flavio Briatore’s Lady in Blue. Today, she says, she’ll hop from Lady in Blue to Valentino’s TM Blue One to the Brazilian party boat called Bossa Nova. “Boat to boat,” she says. “It’s disgusting. When I say, ‘yacht-hopping,’ I mean I go to say hi to my friends.”

Darwin Deason with his partner, Katerina Panos and their crew and security force, ready to greet guests for cocktails.

I’ve been invited to spend some time on the Apogee, at 205 feet the 62nd-largest yacht in the world, according to *Power & Motoryacht’*s 2004 rankings. It cost $50 million and charters for $320,000 a week. “Welcome to the Apogee, ” says the steward who scoops up my luggage from the dock at Cagnes sur Mer and deposits it in a tender. Speeding through the soup of Jet Skis, minnow speedboats, and midsize yachts, I can see the Apogee and its owner, Dallas-based international computer-services titan Darwin Deason, and his glamorous partner, Katerina Panos, waving from the aft deck. They are flanked by the 17-member crew, standing in two neat lines.

They greet every guest this way, 12 of us all together, with the whole crew shaking our hands and introducing themselves before they escort us to the six guest staterooms, each named for a Greek island. Our bags are unpacked for us, and Deason gives us a tour of the interior’s 26,000 square feet: the wood-paneled upstairs and downstairs saloons, the Apogee Club Bar, the disco dance floor with a Wurlitzer juke-box, the formal dining room—all the way up to the fourth-level sundeck, where we forgo the fully equipped gym and the 12-person Jacuzzi to bake in the sun until cocktails are served. By then the twin Caterpillar engines are purring and we’re cruising the five miles to Monte Carlo.

‘A yacht is a demonstration of wealth,” says yacht broker Nicholas Edmiston, Jamie’s father. Formerly C.E.O. of the venerable yacht-sales-and-charter company Camper & Nicholsons, Edmiston created his own business in 1996 to focus on selling and chartering “really big yachts,” which he says means upwards of 150 feet. Business is booming, with yacht construction up 22 percent over last year and a $950 million increase in sales, according to industry experts. “There has been a huge expansion in big yachts over the past six to seven years, with even bigger ones on the drawing board,” says Edmiston. “More than ever in history—because we’ve got more rich people. A yacht is probably the most expensive single purchase that anyone is ever going to make.”

Nothing else comes close. A jet? A mansion? They are mere starter kits for yacht enthusiasts. “There was a huge prime estate that just came on the market in England—3,600 acres, the most beautiful grade-one house, designed by Sir Christopher Wren’s protégé. Immaculate. And that is $75 to $80 million. I’m selling yachts today for $150 to $200 million.” He looks out over the port of Monte Carlo. “I always say to people, ‘Never spend more than 10 percent of your net worth on buying a yacht.’ So the guy that wants to buy a yacht for $25 million is worth $250 million.”

Time is of the essence, Edmiston says, because once you have enough money to buy a boat, chances are you don’t have nearly enough years left to enjoy it. “From the beginning of the planning to taking delivery is three to four years,” he says. “So if you’re the 67-year-old billionaire standing on the dock here with a young woman on your arm and she says, ‘Honey, I’d love one of those!,’ can he risk waiting four years to get it built? Or is it better to say to the guy who just paid 50 million for a new yacht, ‘How about if I give you 65?’ I know what I’d do.” A new yacht from a German or Dutch shipyard can appreciate approximately 25 percent the minute it hits the water, he says.

“Roughly 10 percent of the price of the yacht is what it costs every year to run it,” adds Edmiston, listing the costs: captain and crew (plus helicopter pilots, personal maids, guides, masseuses, hairdressers, etc.), insurance, harbor fees, maintenance, fuel—which industry experts say can run as high as $300,000 for a summer’s fill-up for Paul Allen’s Octopus. Edmiston motions across the harbor to a 300-footer. “To paint a yacht like that is around $4 to $5 million,” he says. “Of course, you don’t have to do it every year.”

Most owners charter their yachts, but the super-rich never do; they want them in constant readiness. “I was on a big yacht down in Sardinia not long ago, and the owner was complaining that he couldn’t get any decent fresh fruit,” says Edmiston. “It’s a nice place, Sardinia, but not really noted for agriculture. So there was a helicopter on the yacht, which I sent to the market in Cannes, a 400-mile round-trip. He got his raspberries and strawberries and was very happy.” The fruit probably cost $4,000 in fuel and other expenses. “Who cares?” says Edmiston. “What I cared about is that the owner got what he wanted.”

‘This yacht took two years in dreaming, three years in building,” says Mexico City industrialist Carlos Peralta, standing on his seventh boat, a Swarovski-crystal-encrusted fantasy called Princess Mariana, for his wife. It has six decks, six bars, 1,600 movies, 16,000 pre-programmed songs, three chefs, a cellar with 2,000 bottles of wine and 1,000 bottles of tequila, a laundry, a wall that opens to turn a bedroom into a terrace, and such high-tech features as fingerprint-identification pads to secure staterooms and other areas. We’re bobbing in the bay off the Hôtel du Cap, surrounded by yachts, including Barry Diller’s two-masted ketch, The Mikado. Peralta tells me that covetous Saudi princes have been circling his boat all week in powerboats, and that he has turned down several offers to sell it at an enormous profit. “It’s the most expensive thing you can build,” he says, “but it gives you pleasure like nothing else.”

“I’ve bought a second boat that I call the Lady Lola Shadow, a 186-foot, 20-year-old supply vessel, and I’ve just loaded her with toys,” says Idaho-based newspaper magnate Duane Hagadone, who, in commissioning his 205-foot Lady Lola, admonished the designers, “Give me some sizzle!” The result includes the 18-hole Lady Lola Golf Club, where golfers hit floating golf balls off a retractable tee on the sundeck toward 18 floating pins and have their games tracked by satellite and displayed on a television screen. “The second boat follows along behind the Lady Lola. I’ve got a custom-made wooden boat, a 150-mile-per-hour speedboat, a submarine, landing boats, canoes, kayaks—17 boats, plus the helicopter, in the Lady Lola fleet.”

“Most people don’t even know they want a yacht,” international boat broker Steve Kidd says of his clientele, powerhouses who think they’ve done it all until someone leads them onto a yacht and into another dimension. “Fifty kilograms of Iranian beluga at $500,000, 300 bottles of Dimple scotch, 300 bottles of Johnny Walker Black, 50 cases of champagne, 40 pounds of foie gras, close to 100 pounds of Niman Ranch beef—bill just shy of a million,” says a provisioner of one boat owner’s memorable order. London-based designer Donald Starkey adds, “I’ve personally put on one yacht alone a Picasso, a Dubuffet, two Utrillos, two or three Chagalls, and more. The value of the art is probably three times the value of the yacht.” Valentino’s rep Carlos Souza says, “Whenever guests come to TM Blue One, they make sure they pack lots of cashmere, because Valentino likes the temperature subzero, the air-conditioning running full blast.” Public-relations executive Lara Shriftman tells me, “On one boat I went on, they had a different set of designer china for every single meal. The crew cleaned the boat morning, noon, and night. In the bathrooms they had 20 different kinds of shampoo in a basket for a lot of high-maintenance girls. All the linens were Pratesi—600-thread count.”

What is it about a yacht that bewitches the super-rich? “Abandonment, an immediate yes,” says the actor George Hamilton without hesitation. King Edward VIII engaged in his romance with Wallis Simpson, which led to his abdication, during a 1936 charter on a steam yacht called Nahlin. But the allure of a yacht goes beyond mere romance. Occidental Petroleum magnate Armand Hammer had three wives, but the only photograph he carried in his wallet was of his yacht, according to Nancy Holmes in her book The Dream Boats. Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, whose yachts included Agneta, a teak beauty with rust-colored sails, liked to say, “You can tell what a man is like only by his boat and his woman.”

After dining on Gloria and Loel Guinness’s yacht, Sarina, in the 60s, Elizabeth Taylor told Richard Burton she wanted one. “We chartered a sweet old lady, whose original name I’ve forgotten, to go to the Greek islands,” Taylor tells me, describing the dilapidated, 165-foot motor yacht built in 1906 that she and Burton bought for $200,000. They named her Kalizma, an acronym for their children Kate, Liza, and Maria, and spent a reported $2 million in restoration. “She wasn’t pretty at all on the interior—all navy and nautical trim—and yet there was something so charming about her. Richard and I fell in love with her immediately, although it meant doing a complete revamp. I hired a decorator and asked him to remove every trace of the nautical theme. We put in diesel engines and stabilizers and transformed her into a cozy, comfortable, pretty little house, very romantic and colorful. We hung our paintings in the dining saloon and put Louis Quatorze chairs in the living room. The bedroom was all yellow and white. I think it was the prettiest one we ever had. There were rooms for all the kids, and we used her as a floating home. We took her up the Thames and kept all of our dogs on board because of the quarantine laws in England. Other boats would pass by and shout that we had the largest floating kennel in the world. She gave us more pleasure and fun and was the best present we ever gave each other.”

The exterior of the yacht, Christina O .

I’m on a tender off the coast of Cap-Ferrat, sailing toward the mother ship of super-yachts, the Christina O. On this 325-foot former Canadian Navy frigate, which Aristotle Onassis bought in 1954 for $34,000 and transformed at a cost of $4 million, the Greek tycoon invented yacht culture: living on his boat for months at a time, conducting his international business empire from his master suite, seducing in his “lucky” stateroom such fabled women as Maria Callas, Greta Garbo, and Jacqueline Kennedy. “So this it seems is what it is to be a king,” Jackie Kennedy allegedly said when she first stepped onto the Christina in October 1963.

King Farouk called the Christina “the last word in opulence,” and in Jackie’s day it had a crew of 60, two French hairdressers, three chefs, a masseuse, a maid for each of the 12 staterooms, and a small orchestra. Restored for $50 million and relaunched as the Christina O in 2001 by a syndicate, the yacht was booked for a cruise for $1.54 million for two weeks during the 2004 Olympics, in Athens.

“This boat is a place of fire, burning fire, a place of romance, power, and beauty!” says Michel Blanchi, of the Christina O Partnership, as he takes me through the Callas Lounge, which has a Steinway piano in it; the Lapis Lounge, with its famous lapis lazuli fireplace; the aft deck, with the hydraulic swimming pool whose bottom rises to become a dance floor; the master suite, with a painting by Renoir in it; and into Ari’s Bar. The handles on the bar are whales’ teeth carved with pornographic scenes from The Odyssey, and the seats are covered in the foreskins of whales’ penises. Once, leading Garbo to the bar, Onassis said, “I’m going to sit you on the biggest prick in the world.” She responded, “Mr. Onassis, you are a presumptuous man.” But she soon succumbed to his advances.

Onassis’s arch-enemy, fellow Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, not only married Onassis’s first wife, Tina, but also had the gall to compete with him in boats. When Onassis converted the Canadian frigate Stormont into the Christina, he added about 30 feet so that it would be bigger than Niarchos’s boat. When Niarchos dared to build an even bigger yacht, the Atlantis II, 55 feet longer than the Christina, with a gyroscopically controlled swimming pool whose water remained steady in rough seas, Onassis went ballistic. “I was actually there, and Onassis was furious!” says Peter Evans, author of two books about him, Ari and Nemesis. “Making phone calls around the world, to see if he could get a gyroscope adapted for his pool.” Evans smiles. “Rivalries and silliness. But it mattered to these people.”

Left, a spiral staircase on the Christina O , the Onassis yacht; Right, the notorious bar on the Christina O , with barstools covered in the foreskins of whales' penises; here Aristotle Onassis romanced such fabled women as Maria Callas, Greta Garbo, and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis unwittingly became a bellwether of the coming craze for yacht supremacy. Having heard all about her husband’s sexual conquests on the Christina, Evans says, she almost persuaded him to sell it and design a new yacht from scratch, to be called Jacqueline. She even had the perfect designer to suggest: Jon Bannenberg.

‘Nobody needs a yacht,” Jon Bannenberg liked to say, so instead of designing yachts for practicality, he created yachts that spoke to his clients’ dreams. “He opened the floodgate of imagination,” says Jim Gilbert, the founder of ShowBoats International magazine. “When he came into the business, teak and mahogany were the only woods; blue and white and the occasional forest green were the only colors. This guy starts telling people that the same principles that apply to fashion should apply to yachts, that a yacht should stimulate all of the senses, not just the nautical senses.” One Dutch shipyard added $1 million to the cost of every Bannenberg-designed yacht for what it called “the Bannenberg factor.”

“My father never lost sight of the fact that all of us in this amazing business owe our livelihoods to people who spend, well, you know the sums, so he always made the whole process the most fantastic, exciting experience,” says Dickie Bannenberg, who has run Jon Bannenberg Ltd. since shortly before his father’s death, in 2002. A Sydney-born interior designer, Jon Bannenberg began his yacht-designing career in the early 1960s, when one of the clients of his London firm asked him what he thought about the plans for the yacht he was building. “It’s terrible,” Bannenberg said. When the client dared him to do better, Bannenberg did, and thereby embarked on a career that would span four decades and the creation of about 200 yachts. He introduced many of the features that are standard on today’s big vessels: bold hull and window shapes, split-level saloons, elevators, back stairs for crew, his-and-her baths, movie theaters, and such special touches as aft-deck garages for automobiles.

His creations included Carinthia V, for German retail tycoon Helmut Horten (who, after it sank on its maiden voyage, commanded Bannenberg to build another, bigger and faster); the Highlander, for Malcolm Forbes; the Lady Ghislaine, for British media baron Robert Maxwell (whose drowning off the yacht in 1991 remains a mystery); the Southern Cross III, for Alan Bond, the Australian industrialist who won the America’s Cup; the restoration of Talitha G, for Sir J. Paul Getty Jr.; and the 316-foot Limitless, for the Limited-store magnate Leslie Wexner.

The yacht that shocked everyone was the $70 million Nabila, which Bannenberg designed for Adnan Khashoggi. When it was launched, in 1979, it was the most opulent yacht in the world. Nabila Khashoggi, the daughter of the notorious arms dealer, meets me in a Sunset Boulevard coffee shop, in her home base of Los Angeles. In her mind the Nabila is as new as it was on the day it was launched, when she was 15. “Your baba made a boat!” she remembers being told before being led, with her eyes covered, by her stepmother, Lamia, and her nanny to a slip at the Benetti shipyard in Viareggio, Italy, where the Nabila stood on stilts. “I opened my eyes and . . . first, the size!” she remembers. “I just burst into tears.”

The 270-foot silver yacht had twin engine exhausts that resembled wings, a crew of 40, three chefs, 11 staterooms, a helicopter, a movie theater, a disco, a hospital with rotating crews of surgeons (and coffins, just in case), 296 telephones, and a fortune in revolving art. “It looked like a silver bullet,” Nabila remembers. When it was launched, hundreds of doves were released and priests and imams said prayers. Soon celebrities the world over began streaming on board, and spectators packed docks whenever the vessel pulled into port.

“I went on the Nabila with Elizabeth Taylor,” says George Hamilton. “A plane was sent for us. You would have thought you were landing on the Titanic. I don’t think Elizabeth ever wanted to leave. There were helicopters that would take you wherever; if you wanted to go to another country, you were on a plane in 15 minutes.”

Khashoggi also filled his yacht with a steady supply of beautiful, consenting young women. “Oh, definitely,” Nabila says. “My father certainly lives life to the fullest, but there’s an elegance about him. So it wasn’t like a frat party. But there were a lot of girls . . . when my stepmother wasn’t there.”

The party ended in 1989, when Khashoggi was jailed on charges of mail fraud and obstruction of justice. (He was acquitted the following year.) The first thing to go was the yacht, which he sold to Donald Trump for $25 million, after deducting $1 million on the assurance that Trump would change its name. Trump called it Trump Princess. The vessel was later sold to Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, currently the world’s fourth-richest man, according to Forbes, who renamed it Kingdom 5-KR and who also bought Trump’s stake in the Plaza hotel. “If I wanted revenge on Donald, I’d marry this guy and get everything back,” Ivana Trump said as a joke while I was interviewing her about her own yacht, M/Y Ivana.

“Just recently, I was walking with my father on the Croisette, in Cannes, and Prince Alwaleed was sitting at a coffee shop, and the Nabila, now the Kingdom, was in the bay,” says Nabila Khashoggi. “He invited us to sit with him, so there were the three of us sitting and talking about the boat, how beautiful it was. It was very sweet, because to me Prince Alwaleed called his boat the Nabila. ”

Size matters is the message on Michael Breman’s T-shirt. Breman is sales director of Lürssen, the German shipyard, and we are bobbing on a dinghy beneath the blue bow of Paul Allen’s Octopus. Lürssen built it as well as Larry Ellison’s Rising Sun, and “Size matters” is the shipyard’s unofficial slogan. Beside Breman is Espen Øino, the Antibes-based designer of Octopus and other breakthrough yachts. They were together in Øino’s office in 1998 when the “brief,” or purchaser’s outline for a new yacht, came through Øino’s fax machine.

“Wow, this is the boat I would build if I had the money,” Breman remembers saying when he read the fax, although the two men refuse to identify the client and will discuss only the yacht, which several other designers and shipyards also made bids to build. “The client didn’t want a flashy little Mickey Mouse yacht,” says Breman. “He wanted a yacht in ship’s clothing,” says Øino.

As we circle Octopus, we can see many of the 46 antennae for every imaginable communications device as well as the two life-boats capable of rescuing the crew of 57 and 26 guests. Using the Finnish icebreaker Fennica as a model, Øino won the commission for the boat, which took three years to build. As always, Breman consulted his daughter, Josi, then seven, when he was trying to come up with a name. “Octopus,” she said, and the name stuck.

Like Allen, Larry Ellison had been stricken by the notion of the perfect yacht. Like Allen, too, he already had three yachts, including the Katana, formerly owned by Mexican TV titan Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, who pushed his designer, Martin Francis, to create a wonder, according to Øino, who worked on the boat with Francis. “He said, I am a very private person and I don’t want to be seen. But when I do go to port, I want my presence to be felt through my boat.’” The result was one of the world’s fastest and most stylish vessels, with a gas-turbine jet engine, three decks of cyclopean windows, and a 260-foot oil tanker so that El Tigre, as Azcárraga was known, could refuel at sea. Ellison bought the yacht from Azcárraga’s estate in 1998 for $25 million, spent $35 million overhauling it, and recently sold it for $68 million. But this almost perfect yacht only “drove him to contemplate what the perfect boat would be like,” Matthew Symonds writes in Softwar, his biography of Ellison. The perfect yacht would be “a proper ship, not some ghastly floating palace,” Ellison told Symonds. After interviewing every conceivable designer, Ellison walked into Jon Bannenberg’s office off London’s Kings Road in late 1999 and found the man to interpret his dreams.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's 413-foot Octopus has seven decks, two helipads, and a concert space for 260.

Bannenberg didn’t live to see *Rising Sun’*s completion, but he finished the design. “It’s not only the greatest yacht that I have ever built but the greatest that has ever been built in the tradition of great yachts going back to 1810,” he told Symonds.

A longtime bitter rival of Paul Allen’s in business and yacht racing, Ellison originally called the boat by the code name LE120, for its 120-meter length (393 feet). But Ellison eventually decided to extend Rising Sun to 460 feet, 47 feet longer than Allen’s Octopus. “The boat is very beautiful—a kinetic sculpture made of metal and glass,” Ellison told Symonds. “But in a post September eleventh world it seems excessive. Now everything that’s not essential seems excessive. Beautiful gardens and beautiful boats have lost their place in the dangerous new world we live in. They no longer promise an escape from the world. There is no escape anymore.”

The race, however, is hardly over. “I’m presently designing a yacht that will outsize Rising Sun considerably, but I can’t tell you any more,” Espen Øino informs me.

In addition to luxury and size, the super-yachtsman yearns for speed. Larry Ellison almost died for it, pushing himself and his crew to sail through a hurricane-force storm in which five boats sank, six men died, and at least 55 sailors had to be rescued by helicopter, to win the Sydney-to-Hobart race in 1998.

Robert Miller, the Hong Kong based owner of Duty Free Shoppers, the international chain of stores, forsakes everything for speed. “He likes the action, the shit fight, when things get hairy,” says the captain of the Mari-Cha IV, the world’s fastest monohull racing yacht, of his boss and skipper. An engine-room fire 400 miles off the coast of Brazil, sharks in Madagascar, and hellish storms around Cape Horn are all occasions to which Miller has risen. His captain, Jef D’Etiveaud, says that the 72-year-old tycoon is happiest when awakened in his bunk—a hammock swinging in an otherwise empty cell—to steer his ship through a churning sea.

“When you get to a certain speed, she sings, she tingles, and she roars—she loves the speed,” the soft-spoken, Massachusetts-born Miller tells me as we step onto his yacht, a 140-foot sailboat emblazoned with a red dragon logo, which he commissioned at a cost of roughly $10 million for one purpose only: to break world records. (Most recently he did the San Francisco to Hawaii run in just over five days.) He can have all the comfort he needs on his other boat, Mari-Cha III, with its museum-quality art, John Munford interiors, and Honduran mahogany paneling, in the company of his Ecuadoran wife, Chantal, and their three daughters and 10 grandchildren.

On his racing yacht, Miller does whatever it takes to win: spending weeks with his crew of up to 26 (which has included his son-in-law Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece), rationing water, eating freeze-dried astronaut food, and living in a stripped-clean hull with nothing to weigh it down. Miller is proud of his current dominance in racing, and he’d like to see if he can break the monohull record for sailing around the world, which stands at 93 days. He expects Mari-Cha IV to continue winning for at least another year, by which time someone will have managed to build a faster boat. “I’ll be very unhappy,” says Miller, knowing that when that happens he’ll be back at the drawing board.

‘I’m on the world’s most luxurious sailing yacht, and I have to live up to it,” says Mouna Ayoub as the moon rises over Cap-Ferrat and her stewards serve us a six-course extravaganza of nouvelle-French fish dishes on the everyday Christofle by Bernardaud china—not the 150-year-old Meissen, which is reserved for royalty. Our hostess is wearing white fox, a Galliano gown, and big diamonds, and we are on Phocea, her magnificently restored four-masted schooner, which has a 16-member crew and sycamore interiors by Viscount David Linley, nephew of the Queen. Having divorced one of the world’s richest men, the extravagant couture buyer oversees every aspect of her yacht, which she charters out for 197,000 euros a week.

She calls her acquisition of the boat “a love story about a woman who was deprived of freedom since she was five, a love story about a woman who found love and freedom. It’s not a man who gave me this. It’s Phocea. ” She spotted Phocea in the Bay of Volpe, off Sardinia, in 1992 and fell in love with it. Back then she was ensconced on Lady Moura, now the seventh-largest yacht in the world, the 344-foot possession of Saudi Arabian Dr. Nasser al-Rashid, which, when it was launched in 1991 at an estimated cost of $100 million, was the most expensive yacht ever built. Ayoub had designed the interiors, “the whole boat, every inch,” and its name was an acronym of her name and Rashid’s. The couple divorced in 1996.

World-class clotheshorse Mouna Ayoub on Phocea , which she bought in a dilapidated state for $5.35 million and restored at a cost of $30 million.

In her memoir, La Vérité, she wrote that her life as the wife of a Middle Eastern magnate was a prison from which she could escape only in an abaya and veils, but tonight she refuses to discuss her ex-husband or his boat. She recalls the morning in 1992 when she left Lady Moura on a tender for a jog along the Bay of Volpe and first saw Phocea. She swam up to it and asked for a tour. Her request was denied because the owner, entrepreneur Bernard Tapie, who owns the Olympic Marseille football club, was asleep.

Back on Lady Moura, Ayoub stood on the A Deck and gazed at Phocea. “I knew that with those sails I could go anywhere, even without an engine,” she says. She made a vow: “One day she’s going to be mine, and nobody is going to prevent me from coming on board.” Even before her divorce, she went after Phocea, and after its owner was convicted of bribery, the yacht ended up, she has written, “sad and neglected, in Port Vauban, where she lingered for months begging for love and care. I decided that I should be the one to save her.” Though the chief engineer of Lady Moura told her Phocea was a wreck, Ayoub bought it at auction for $5.35 million and launched a $30 million restoration.

Yachtsmen speak about porn boats, yachts with all-female crews, and yachts with stripper poles and endless lines of “trolley dollies,” those loose young women forever eager to roll their suitcases down gangplanks. But the template for misbehavior at sea is docked in Monte Carlo’s Port of Font-vieille, the low-slung, two-masted schooner called Zaca, the infamous yacht of the late actor Errol Flynn, who, the six-member crew insists, still haunts the boat on which he slowly went insane, despite an actual exorcism by the Anglican Archdeacon of Monaco in 1978.

“We feel him here; things happen that we just can’t explain,” says the captain, Bruno dal Paz, leading me into *Zaca’*s saloon, which has been restored by an Italian businessman and hung with a 1943 Picasso. Captain Bruno opens a thick scrapbook of yellowed press clippings. In 1946, Flynn, after beating the charge that he had committed statutory rape on his first yacht, Sirocco, fled Hollywood. “Instead of killing myself I bought a new boat,” he wrote in his autobiography, My Wicked Wicked Ways. Perhaps Zaca, Samoan for “peace,” was cursed from the start; at its 1930 christening, the champagne bottle failed to break on its bow, always a bad omen. On one of Flynn’s first voyages, Zaca sank. On another, his crew mutinied. On what was supposed to be a “make-up” cruise, Orson Welles split from his wife, Rita Hayworth. After two wives left Flynn, the swashbuckler fell into a delirium of booze and drugs on the boat—a descent that included orgies, drug smuggling, a trip to Mexico to help a friend who was a Nazi evade an arrest warrant, and a second rape charge, by a woman barely of legal age. At 50, Flynn was “drinking vodka for breakfast and keeping a condom full of cocaine in his swim trunks,” according to a clipping in *Zaca’*s scrapbook. “I’ve squandered seven million dollars. I’m going to have to sell Zaca, ” Flynn lamented in an interview just before flying to Vancouver with his 17-year-old girlfriend, Beverly Aadland, to sell it for $150,000. The sale never took place, however, because Flynn had a heart attack, or committed suicide, just before signing the papers.

There are approximately 30,000 people working on yachts. Moving from one giant vessel to another, I was amazed at how young, attractive, well educated, and multi-lingual the crews all were. I soon discovered that, for every crew member employed, there are hundreds waiting to join a career that comes with unlimited perks (I watched the crew of Skat eating rack of lamb and drinking Taittinger for dinner) and excellent pay (a captain’s annual salary is $1,000 per yacht foot, and crews are usually paid in cash, says Dallas-based international financial consultant George Kline, who invests many a captain’s and crew member’s earnings). Even off duty, they refuse to mention specific owners or yachts, because they generally sign confidentiality agreements with their employers.

“On a boat I’m not going to mention, we had a group of Americans out for the Cannes Film Festival,” says Sebastian Frazer, a steward. “One night they went into the Jacuzzi with five women, but then the men went to bed, leaving the women, who began a full-on porn show. By then we’d lifted anchor from the Bay of Cannes, and they were going at it, completely oblivious that there were boats on both sides. The funny thing was that the Jacuzzi wouldn’t get hot enough, so we were boiling water and running up three levels with kettles to warm it, while also serving them Dom Pérignon. Even though the women hadn’t chartered the yacht, any guest that comes on board you still treat as a paying guest.”

In the mid-90s, a yacht owner placed one of the first ads to offer charters in a Moscow newspaper, and newly rich Russians swarmed to pony up $250,000 for a week on the boat. “ Whiskey beer! ” was all the first Russian on board said, at eight in the morning. “I took a step back, and he repeated it three times. Bring whiskey beer!’” remembers a steward named Gabriel, who arranged multiple brands of whiskey and beer on a silver tray, which he presented to the guest, who immediately began slugging down a succession of boilermakers. Soon a party was raging. “Six guys, 15 prostitutes—behavior that would send shivers down your spine,” says the steward. “Every horizontal surface on the boat gets some action. When the crew’s around, they generally give us a wink ... and keep going.”

Americans currently lead the world both in buying and chartering yachts, but soon the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich may surpass all others. The 37-year-old father of five, who started life as an orphan and whose wife is a former Aeroflot stewardess, chartered his first yacht in 1998, according to Abramovich: The Billionaire from Nowhere, by Dominic Midgley and Chris Hutchins. He then quickly began snapping up super-yachts as capriciously as he’d bought oil rights in Russia and the Chel-sea Football Club. First he paid an estimated $25 million for Sussurro, a 161-foot gas-turbine Feadship, a product of the famed Dutch shipyard. Next he paid between $80 and $100 million for the 370-foot Le Grand Bleu, previously owned by cellular-telephone king John McCaw. The largest American-owned private boat when it was launched in 2000 and now No. 6 in the world, it’s complete with an Austin Powers—style bottom-level viewing port, around which guests sit to watch the sea life, which Abramovich summons by shooting out food via remote control. After that he bought the 377-foot Pelorus, the world’s fifth-largest, from Saudi billionaire Al Sheik Modhassan. Then, last summer, he took possession of his new, 282-foot, $100 million Feadship, which he christened Ecstasea, and went with his full fleet of four yachts to Portugal. “He always comes on with his family. They don’t drink, they don’t smoke, they eat healthy, they work out,” says a source who has been on the boats. Another source adds, “He likes to have breakfast on one yacht, lunch on another, dinner on the third, and, of course, he’s got a different set of chefs on each yacht.”

P. Diddy Combs is another celebrity who has thrust himself into yacht culture. In the summer of 2002, after yacht-hopping for years on St. Barth’s, he decided to charter a boat. He settled upon the 170-foot Samax, whose former owner had named the boat Tits and the tenders Nipple I and Nipple II . P. Diddy took Samax to his favorite spot on the French Riviera, Saint-Tropez. “He spent $25,000 on clothes,” remembers Fonzworth Bentley, Combs’s former assistant.

Immediately, tabloid headlines blazed with allegations of all manner of misadventures and mayhem at sea. The reality, says Bentley, consists mostly of cannonball competitions off the top deck, endless games of spades, round-the-clock apple pie à la mode, and constant surveillance by local authorities. “Two years ago, Puff got a speeding ticket on the WaveRunner off of Saint-Tropez,” says Bentley. “The thing is, Puff didn’t actually do it. Someone else from the group got the ticket. But he was on Puff’s boat and he was black, so it was just Puff. The reality is we’re still black. I don’t care if you’ve got a yacht and you’re in Saint-Tropez. The police is watching.”

Still, Bentley admits, life on a Diddy-chartered boat is a 24-hour party.

“This man was on Broadway!” he exclaims, referring to P. Diddy’s run in the 2004 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. “If I was on Broadway as long as he was, on the last day either I would have ran through Times Square butt-naked screaming or got a phat yacht and went crazy overseas. So he chose the latter.”

But, he adds, the super-yacht world is equally insane. “You hear about how black people like to flaunt their wealth? But the level of flaunting of the wealth on a yacht is far more ridiculous.” Bentley and P. Diddy call it flossing. Bentley explains: “You staying on a yacht? O.K., how big is your yacht? It’s not only the size of the yacht, it’s also the width. Then it’s: How good is your dock space? Then it’s: How many times does your crew change from daytime to evening? Then it goes to: What kind of wood is your dinner table made out of? Ours is padauk wood from India . . . ”

‘You see the planes? I organized!” says Formula One racing king Flavio Briatore on his spectacular yacht in the Bay of Volpe as a squadron of jets does crazy loops overhead. The air show is impressive (it was actually organized by the state), but the show is just as good on Briatore’s new yacht, the Lady in Blue, with its stunning Alberto Pinto interiors, Fernando Botero paintings, César sculptures, and a lunch table crowded with beauties in bikinis. Last night, at the opening of his Billionaire Club in Porto Cervo, where the jewelry shops stay open past midnight, Flavio was surrounded by gorgeous young women. The paparazzi screamed, “Flavio! Flavio!,” and his club’s video screens flashed endless photos of him: Flavio holding up the trophy he and his Renault Formula One team had won at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix; Flavio with his harem of famous women, which has included Naomi Campbell, Elle Macpherson, and the mother of his baby daughter, Heidi Klum; Flavio in close-up, climbing out of a swimming pool.

“Why do women love yachts?,” I ask Flavio, who is sitting in the saloon wearing a sarong. Before he can answer, Naomi Campbell, who’s staying on the Lady in Blue, explains. “I can’t imagine a woman who would say, ‘I don’t love a boat, I don’t love a private plane.’ I mean, when I met Flavio, I didn’t know what he did, who he was. But I think the yacht’s part of his whole mystique, his appeal. It’s a whole package.”

Once lovers, they are now friends. After their first date, a dinner in Athens, where Naomi was on a modeling assignment, Flavio flew her to the shipyard in Genoa and showed her his yacht, the first Lady in Blue, which was being refitted. When the work was completed, he gave Naomi the ultimate gift: his yacht on her birthday. Last year marked the fifth such birthday party, off Saint-Tropez, with a performance by Cirque du Soleil, fireworks, and 400 guests, including U2’s Bono. “That’s the old Lady in Blue, ” says Flavio, motioning out into the bay, which is littered with super-yachts, from New Sunrise, the mammoth vessel of the Israeli businessman Sami Ofer, to Kisses, the fabulous Art Deco—filled Feadship of former Philadelphia Eagles owners Norman and Irma Braman. The original Lady is now called Sirahmy and is owned by the head of Telecom-Italia.

“It was very sexy,” Flavio says of his former yacht. But the new one, three years in development, is even sexier—“the top boat, technically, at this moment,” he says proudly.

(A scant three months after taking delivery, Flavio sold his new Lady in Blue to Miami developer Jeffrey Soffer. “The yacht wasn’t for sale, but Flavio said, Everything’s available at the right price,’” says Soffer’s father and business partner, Don Soffer. The boat was sold fully furnished, but Flavio insisted on keeping several major pieces of art, as well as his captain, Luigi del Tevere, who had previously captained the yachts of Adnan Khashoggi, the Sultan of Brunei, the Swarovski-crystal family, and Mohamed Al Fayed. “Mr. Briatore already has a bigger boat, which he is calling Force Blue, ” says Captain del Tevere.)

‘For me, everything comes from the sea, and a boat is a kind of laboratory, a quarry,” the architect Renzo Piano says on his yacht, Kirribilli. Based in his hometown of Genoa, the birthplace of Columbus, Piano has spent his career transferring his yacht designs to his architectural projects. The ferro-cement he developed for his yacht is now on the roof of the Menil Collection art museum he designed in Houston. The idea of a “ship like Jules Verne would design in the middle of the sea” established the overall theme of Paris’s Pompidou Center, which he co-designed. The carbon-fiber antennae on Kirribilli will soon appear in a gigantic steel replica atop the new New York Times Building on Eighth Avenue.

Just as Piano applies his yacht designs to his architectural projects, some of the world’s most famous designers transfer their fashion showmanship to oceangoing vessels. Diego Della Valle, the Milan-based fashion magnate and owner of Tod’s, sitting in his all-mahogany Marlin, formerly John F. Kennedy’s motor yacht, whose auction Della Valle heard about through a Christie’s newspaper ad, says, “I went to see it, and after 10 minutes I made my offer. That same day, Ralph Lauren invited me to lunch at his house. His phone rang, and Ralph answered and passed the phone to me, saying, ‘Diego, you have bought a boat!’ After renovation, the Marlin began to cruise the Mediterranean, still holding the American presidential flag.”

Clothing designer Roberto Cavalli is another boat-lover. Of his new, 132-foot yacht, RC Roberto Cavalli Freedom, he says, “So special! So unusual! So Cavalli!” The motor yacht’s iridescent exterior changes colors, from papal purple to emerald green, “taking the reflection from the water down and the sun up,” Cavalli explains. There are leather-covered floors, python armchairs, lacquered goatskin walls, a profusion of animal horn, and Cavalli’s signature leopard-print and purple bedspreads with white mink throws. “The most important thing about the yacht is the color, like my clothes, and to be special, like my clothes!” he says, then whispers conspiratorially, “And it’s a little bit sexy, too, like my clothes.”

“My mother was a very elegant woman, and I think my boat has that same sort of elegance,” says Giorgio Armani, sitting on his super-yacht, Mariu, named for a song his mother sang to him as a child. The boat’s hull is the silver of Armani’s hair, and its interior is an homage to Armani’s world, from the 16-member all-male crew decked out in Emporio Armani to stem-to-stern Armani Casa furnishings.

Probably the most ferocious design force to hit the yacht world is Philippe Starck. We are sailing on Virtuelle, the silver sailing yacht Starck designed for Carlo Perrone, the Genoa-based businessman and great-grandson of the 19th-century arts patron Marie-Laure de Noailles, whose Paris mansion now houses the Baccarat Gallery-Museum. “One day I was in my office in Paris, and a very elegant woman arrived, who said, Can you design me a yacht of something like 80 meters [250 feet]?,’” Starck remembers. He didn’t know the woman, but he knew he would never design a mega-yacht. He had followed the escalating gran-diosity of these vessels with outrage, even lambasted the refrigerator-white gin palaces so vehemently in speeches at yacht-society meetings that people left the room. “I’m sorry,” he told the woman. “I love boats. I have seven boats of my own. But I shall not design for you a big powerboat.”

Owner Carlo Perrone, the Genoa-based businessman, and French designer Philippe Starck aboard Virtuelle , the silver sailing yacht.

She asked why, and he let rip. “Vulgarity!” he said. “All of these big boats are just purely vulgar! People build and buy these boats to show the money they have, the power they have! For me, it’s social pollution! For me these boats are . . . gold shit!”

Starck had unleashed his fury on Hala Fares, wife of the Lebanese deputy prime minister Issam Fares and one of the world’s most stylish women, famous for her taste, evident in her clothes and the interiors of her homes and the family’s 727 jet.

“She did not speak for one minute,” says Starck. “Finally she said, ‘If I challenged you to make a yacht elegant, what would you do?’ So I was trapped!”

For five years, Fares, Starck, and Feadship collaborated on the Wedge Too. As with all of her design projects, Fares built the yacht without any hindrance from her husband, who would not even see it until it was completed, during the 2002 Christmas holidays in Monaco. “We invited our president and First Lady for Christmas, and oh, my God, my heart was beating,” Fares remembers. But the moment her husband saw the yacht’s two-level superstructure of oiled teak panels and stepped onto the 7,530 square feet of hardwood flooring, covered with Starck’s outrageous yet handsome furnishings and interior design, he smiled. “This is great!” he said, and the 20-member crew broke out the champagne. The next year Wedge Too won the ShowBoats International award for the most innovative motor yacht.

Although he still despises conventional super-yachts, Starck has nonetheless joined the yacht race. He’s now designing “the most advanced, the most modern boat in the world,” a 300-plus-foot mega-vessel whose plans look like Titanic meets 2001: A Space Odyssey. The client? “A young Russian genius of mathematics, a Russian Bill Gates,” says Starck. “[Aesthetically] we are deeply in love.”

‘We had Gregory Peck, Frank and Barbara Sinatra, Michael Caine, Harry Belafonte, Sean Connery, Julio Iglesias, Roger Moore, Hubert Givenchy, Alan King, Anna Magnani, Adnan Khashoggi, Gina Lollobrigida, Rex Harrison, Don Hewitt and his wife, Marilyn, who were married on the boat—on and on and on,” says Simone Levitt. From 1972 to 1982, there was no more coveted invitation than a lavish, all-expenses-paid, two-week vacation on La Belle Simone, the 250-foot “floating Taj Mahal” of William J. Levitt, the developer of the post–World War II housing projects called Levittowns, and his beautiful French wife, Simone. “It was a fairy tale,” says Simone Levitt of her life on a yacht so big that it ignited a feud between her husband and Revlon founder Charles Revson, whose Ultima II was 15 feet shorter, and so grand that it was used as the *Christina—*instead of the actual *Christina—*in the 1976 movie about Onassis called The Greek Tycoon.

Then, just like that, the yacht was gone, sold to Saudi Arabia’s former OPEC minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, along with every last penny and possession. Before Bill Levitt died, in 1994, at the Levitt Pavilion of New York University’s North Shore University Hospital, which he’d underwritten, he repeated something he’d long before told his wife: “A yacht is a furnace that just burns money.”

Things got so tough that Simone Levitt was reduced to serving as a hostess on a cruise ship. Today super-yacht life for her is reduced to framed photographs on her bathroom wall. “We were good schnooks, my husband and I,” she says. “Oh, my God, they drank our champagne and ate our caviar. He played the piano and I sang. When I had the boat, everybody is kissing your you-know-what. But after my husband died, people aren’t rushing to invite me.”

She continues: “Do you realize what I would give now to have the money that we spent on the champagne, the caviar, the trips, the crew, the oil, the gasoline? It cost a million a year. My God, I could live like a queen today. We just gave and gave, and sometimes, when we went onshore, they had the audacity not to pay for dinner. Once in a blue moon, yes, but most of the time my husband put his hand in his pocket.”

She insists that she’s not bitter. “I had a woman approach me at a party and say, ‘Oh, my dear, it must be terrible to have been all the way on top and fall all the way down.’ I said, ‘If someone told you that for 10 years you could have anything in the world—a yacht, a Rolls-Royce, sables, minks, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires—but at the end of the 10 years you would have to give it back, would you not do it?’ She said she’d rather not have it at all. But now my memories are my wealth, and no one can take them away from me.” She adds, “Everything ends, nothing is forever. A yacht is a fantasy, and whoever believes it’s going to be there forever is going to be hurt.”

Tonight I’m dressed as a Renaissance fop in one of the costumes flown in from London for a bash on the 180-foot super-yacht Amnesia, on which I’ve sailed from Naples to Capri to Sardinia. Across the rose-petal-strewn dinner table sit my host, Daniel Snyder, the 40-year-old owner of the Washington Redskins, who has chartered the boat for two weeks, and his wife, Tanya, dressed as Romeo and Juliet. Next to them, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his wife, Gene, are costumed as Sir Lancelot and Guinevere, and nearby are original CNN anchorman Bernie Shaw and his wife, Linda, dressed as Henry VIII and one of his wives. In a few hours former superagent Michael Ovitz and his wife, Judy, whose yacht, Illusion, is moored nearby, will join the party. Docked between Ultima III, owned by Revlon’s Ronald Perelman, and Te Manu, owned by Mel Simon, co-owner of the Indiana Pacers, we’re having a feast. Our crew, whom we’ve come to love like family, are also in Renaissance apparel, and the chef has cooked a suckling pig.

I’m so up, enjoying all this opulence, that I halfway believe I belong, until a stewardess, dressed as a serving wench, whispers in my ear, “And what time will you be departing in the morning, sir?” When I return to my stateroom, my old suitcase has been placed beside the bed.

The next morning a new group of guests arrive, and I hear the crew laughing at their jokes, as they recently did at mine, and pouring them champagne. As a crew member holds out his hand to help me onto the tender that will deposit me back on dry land, I hesitate, longing to hang on to Amnesia like a suckfish on a whale, but for me the party’s over. On 6,000 super-yachts around the world, however, the party never ends.

The Most Fabulous Yachts at Sea

Special Correspondent

Yacht, IMO 1002380

• VesselFinder
• Miscellaneous

The current position of LADY MOURA is at West Mediterranean reported 3 mins ago by AIS. The vessel is en route to GR PIR - ES TAR , and expected to arrive there on Sep 2, 06:00 . The vessel LADY MOURA (IMO 1002380, MMSI 309221000) is a Yacht built in 1990 (34 years old) and currently sailing under the flag of Bahamas .

Position & Voyage Data

Map position & Weather

Recent port calls, vessel particulars.

Registered Owner

Address Website - Email - Address Website - Email - ISM Manager - Address - Website - Email - P&I Club - Classification Society   LADY MOURA current position and history of port calls are received by AIS. Technical specifications, tonnages and management details are derived from VesselFinder database. The data is for informational purposes only and VesselFinder is not responsible for the accuracy and reliability of LADY MOURA data. Super Yachts The Billionaires Club Favorites 0 Description Similar listings. WhatsApp Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linkedin Email M/Y A: 119m Super Yacht by Blohm & Voss, Design by Philippe Starck 🚤✨ €300,000,000 stefan katafai View Listings M/Y A: 119m Super Yacht by Blohm & Voss, Design by Philippe Starck 🚤✨ Introduction Motor Yacht A is a massive and luxurious motor yacht that epitomizes elegance and grandeur. 🛥️ Launched in 2008 by Blohm + Voss Shipyards & Services, this 119-meter (390 ft) vessel, originally known as Project Sigma (Sf99), is a masterpiece designed to accommodate up to 14 passengers and is operated by a crew of 42. Its stunning design and construction were the result of a collaboration between renowned designers Philippe Starck and Francis Design. 🎨🌟 Shipyard Work & Yacht Design ⚓🏗️ Designer Collaboration: The wider design collaboration for Motor Yacht A involved Francis Design, with formal naval architecture by Francis Design and interior styling by Philippe Starck. 👩‍🎨🧑‍🏭 Construction: Built in Germany by Blohm + Voss Shipyards & Services, the yacht was officially launched in 2008 in Kiel and delivered to its owner after sea trials. 🇩🇪🚢 Dimensions: The yacht boasts a beam of 18.87 meters (61.91 feet) and a draught of 5.15 meters (16.9 feet). It features a steel hull with a steel superstructure. 🛳️🔩 M/Y A Engines & Speed 🚀🌊 Engines: Powered by two substantial MAN diesel engines, Motor Yacht A can reach a top speed of around 23 knots. ⚙️💨 Power: Each engine generates 6034 horsepower, totaling 12068 horsepower (9000 kilowatts). 🐎⚡ Propulsion: The yacht is driven by twin screw propellers (five blades). 🛠️🔧 Stabilizers and Thrusters: Equipped with Quantum Zero Speed 4 Fin stabilizers and Brunvoll thrusters. ⚓🚤 Cruising Speed: It has a cruising speed of 19.5 knots and a range of 6500 nautical miles. 🌊📏 Guest Accommodation 🛌👨‍✈️ Motor Yacht A can comfortably accommodate up to 14 guests and has a professional crew of 42, ensuring a luxurious and personalized experience for all on board. 👫🏡 Specifications 📜🔍 Length: 119 meters (390 feet) 📏📐 Guests: 14 👫👭 Crew: 42 👩‍✈️👨‍🍳👨‍🔧 Builder: Blohm + Voss 🏗️🔨 Designer: Philippe Starck 🎨✨ Interior Designer: Philippe Starck 🛋️🏠 Year: 2008 📅🗓️ Speed: 18 knots 🚤💨 Engines: MAN ⚙️🔩 Volume: 5,500 tons ⚖️🔧 IMO: 1012141 🔢📊 Price: US$ 300 million 💵💰 Annual Running Cost: US$ 30 million 💸📈 Owner: Andrey Melnichenko 🧑‍💼🌟 Key Takeaways 🌟📌 Motor Yacht A, a symbol of luxury and success, was built by Blohm + Voss and designed by Philippe Starck and Martin Francis. It’s owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and cost approximately US$300 million. 🏆🛥️💰 Notable features of the yacht include its modern, minimalist interior, capacity to accommodate 14 guests and a crew of 42, and high performance with a maximum speed of 18 knots. ⚡🏡 Despite its grandeur and status, MY A has faced controversy, including a $100 million lawsuit against Dutch paint producer Akzo Nobel over a faulty paint job. ⚖️🎨💼 The yacht, globally recognized for its distinctive design, has been sighted in numerous locations around the world, including Honolulu, Puerto Rico, and Antibes. 🌎📍🌴 There were rumors of the yacht’s sale to Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, but these were denied by Melnichenko’s representatives. 📰🚫❌ The yacht was reportedly available for sale at one point with a hefty price tag of EUR 250 million or US$ 300 million, but it’s confirmed that the yacht is currently not on the market. 💵🔒 Exceptional Design and Specifications 🛥️⚙️ Motor Yacht A boasts robust MAN engines, a top speed of 18 knots, a cruising speed of 12 knots, and an impressive range of over 3,000 nautical miles. With its sleek design and remarkable performance, it truly sets a benchmark in the world of luxury yachting. 🚤🌊 Modern and Minimalist Interior 🛋️✨ The interior of the mega yacht presents a perfect blend of modern design and minimalist aesthetics, where space and light are in abundance. Capable of accommodating 14 guests and a crew of 42, it offers an indulgent experience for all on board. 🎨🏡 High-Profile Ownership and Business Symbol 💼🌟 Andrey Melnichenko, the owner of Motor Yacht A, often uses this magnificent vessel as a mobile office for his global business affairs. Its exclusivity and privacy make it an ideal platform for high-level negotiations and meetings. 🌍🧑‍💼 Controversy and Legal Battles ⚖️💼 Despite its grandeur and popularity, MY A has not escaped controversy. In 2013, Melnichenko’s company, Hamilton Yachts Limited, initiated a $100 million lawsuit against Dutch paint producer Akzo Nobel over an unsatisfactory paint job. 🎨⚖️ Global Travels and Sightings 🌎🗺️ The luxury yacht has been spotted at various international destinations, including Honolulu, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Antibes, France. Its distinctive design makes it instantly recognizable wherever it sails. 🏝️🌴🚤 Rumored Sale to Masayoshi Son 📰❌ There were rumors that Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son was the new owner of the A yacht, but these were swiftly denied by Melnichenko’s representatives. Son, the founder of SoftBank, is known to have a net worth of $45 billion. 📰🚫💼 The Story Behind the Name “A” 🔠📜 It is often assumed that the name “A” is derived from the initials of Andrey and his wife Aleksandra. However, the main intention behind this unique name is to ensure the Yacht A’s priority listing in shipping registers. 📜🔡 Legal Feud with Akzo Nobel ⚖️🎨 In 2013, a lawsuit concerning a subpar paint job on the yacht caught the attention of both the media and the yachting industry. Hamilton Yachts Limited filed a $100 million claim against Akzo Nobel, marking a significant episode in the yacht’s history. 💼📈 Travel Destinations and Notable Appearances 🌏📍 Motor Yacht A has been seen at numerous global locations, including an appearance near Monaco for the Formula 1 race in May 2016. 🏎️📸 Sales History 💵🔒 Although the yacht is not available for charter, it was once reported to be for sale with a substantial asking price of EUR 250 million or US$ 300 million. 💰📈 A List of the Specifications of the M/Y A: Superyacht Name: Motor Yacht A Ex: (Project Sigma) Sf99 Built By: Blohm + Voss Shipyards & Services GmbH Built in: Kiel, German Launched in: 2008 Length Overall: 119 metres / 390.42 feet. Waterline Length: 118.38 (388.39 ft) Naval Architecture: Francis Design, Francis Design Interior Designers: Philippe Starck Gross Tonnes: 5500 Hull / Superstructure Construction Material: steel / steel Helicopter Landing Pad: Yes Material Used For Deck: teak The Country the Yacht is Flagged in: Bermuda Official registry port is: Hamilton Class society used: LR (Lloyds Register) Max yacht charter guests: 14 Number of Crew Members: 42 Main Engine(s) is two 6034 HP or M/Y A Kilowatts MAN. Engine Model: RK280 diesel. Total engine power output 12068 HP /9000 KW. Cruising at a speed of 19.5 nautical miles per hour. Top Speed: 23 nautical miles per hour. Range: 6500 at a speed of 15.5 knots. Fuel tanks: 75700 L. Water: 57900.00. Generators: Caterpillar 3508b 3 times 960 Kw, 1 times C18 440 kilowatts. Stabalisers: Quantum Zero Speed 4 Fin. Thrusters: Brunvoll 2x. A/C: Bitzer X3. Yacht Beam: 18.87m/61.91ft. Waterline Length (LWL): 118.38m/388.39ft. Draught at deepest: 5.15m/16.9ft. Miscellaneous Yacht Details As she has a heli-pad area on deck this means further support for A. Bitzer X3 is the brand of AC employed to regulate the temperature. A features a teak deck. 119 meter Super yacht “A” designed by Philippe Starck If you wish to present a offer to buy  M/Y A, then please contact [email protected] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcP-JMam5ZE https://www.facebook.com/BillionairesCCP/photos/a.3191607130960978/3191607754294249/?type=3&theater Sailing Yacht A click here   https://www.instagram.com/p/BppKRm5h6CU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link The Billionaires Club – Connecting People 🚤 Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko has docked his superyacht, Motor Yacht A , in the UAE 🏝️, evading Western sanctions on supporters of Moscow’s war on Ukraine 🇺🇦. ⚓ Melnichenko’s yacht has been in Ras al-Khaimah for weeks, highlighting the UAE’s mixed stance on sanctions. The UAE remains a hub for wealthy Russians despite Western concerns. 🌍 The UAE aims to balance neutrality with being a financial haven, while wealthy Russians find ways to navigate financial challenges, often using second passports or cryptocurrencies. 💬 Some argue there’s hypocrisy in Western criticism of UAE’s handling of Russian assets. Name: A Year: 2008 Exterior: Philippe Starck Interior Philippe Starck Country: Russia Top speed: 23 Cruise speed: 20 Listing ID: 215 Price: €300,000,000 Property Type: Blohm + Voss Shipyards Property Status: Off Marked Yacht Name: A Ship Yard: Blohm & Voss Yacht Designer: Philippe Starck Interior Designer: Philippe Starck Naval Design: Martin Francis Design IMO: 1009340 MSSI: 538071242 Meters: 119 M/Y ECLIPSE 162m Mega Yacht by Blohm & Voss GmbH €750,000,000 M/Y KOSATKA 82m Private Yacht by Blohm+Voss (Sevmash Shipyard) €120,000,000 M/Y LADY MOURA 105m Private Yacht by Blohm + Voss €140,000,000 MAYAN QUEEN IV 92m Private Yacht by Blohm & Voss Compare listings Reset Password Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email. Share WhatsApp Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linkedin Email 228 COMMENTS Lady Moura Lady Moura is a private luxury yacht.She was the ninth largest private yacht when she was launched in 1990 for USD$200 million (equivalent to $466 million in 2023) [1] but has moved down the list in 2021 to number 48. She was owned by Saudi Arabian businessman, Nasser Al-Rashid but bought by a Mexican businessman in 2021 from yacht broker Camper & Nicholsons for USD$125 million (equivalent to ... Lady Moura: On board the 105m Blohm+Voss superyacht Three decades of ultra-private family use followed before she made her public debut on the brokerage market in 2019. As of June 2021, she is under new ownership after just two short years on the market and was asking a cool $125,000,000. Lady Moura has been used sparingly in her 30 years: she has a mere 13,500 running hours on the clock so far. Look Inside Lady Moura, the 30-Year-Old 1-Owner Yacht Brokers and buyers are getting a look inside Lady Moura in person next week—but we can give you a look now. Listed via Camper & Nicholsons for $125 million, the 344-footer (105-meter), with a volume of 6,359 gross tons, was astoundingly large for her era. At the time of her delivery in 1990, "big" megayachts weren't even half her LOA ... Inside the €103 million Lady Moura One of Monaco's most well-known superyachts, Lady Moura, has returned to its home port to continue the hunt for a new owner, a first in her 30-year history. So, let's take a look onboard. When Lady Moura was delivered by Blohm+Voss in 1990, she was the most innovative and most expensive yacht the world had ever seen. LADY MOURA Yacht • Ricardo Salinas Pliego $125M Superyacht The Lady Moura yacht, measuring 105 meters in length, is among the world's largest and most voluminous superyachts. She was originally owned by Dr. Nasser Al-Rashid and is currently owned by Ricardo Salinas Pliego. Crafted by Blohm and Voss, the yacht features powerful Deutz diesel engines and gold-plated insignia. Step Inside Blohm+Voss's 344 ft Lady Moura Yacht Step Inside the Lady Moura Yacht. Lady Moura has had just one owner; now, for the first time in her 30-year history, she's up for sale. Measuring in at 344 feet, Lady Moura was the ninth-largest yacht in the world when she was first built / ©Shutterstock. Towards the end of the 20 th century, the Lady Moura yacht was one of the finest ... Dr NASSER AL RASHEED • Net Worth $8 billion • House • Yacht He was owner of the yacht Lady Moura, which he listed for sale asking $125 million. We are not sure if he is building a new yacht. He sold Lady Moura to Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.. The Lady Moura yacht, measuring 105 meters in length, is among the world's largest and most voluminous superyachts.. Crafted by Blohm and Voss, the yacht features powerful Deutz diesel engines and ... "Lady Moura"- Famous luxury yacht changes hands Features and design of the "Lady Moura" "Lady Moura" is often referred to as the world's first mega-yacht. The iconic ship, which the experts define as a giga-yacht, has seven decks, one of which is dedicated to family life. In addition to the luxurious owner's suite, there are 13 cabins used exclusively by family members and guests. Peak Inside World's First Megayacht, Lady Moura: Finds New Owner for This time span is possible as, hold the milk, the Lady Moura also features a certified sewage treatment plant. While some folks may have been worried about spending $125 million on a yacht that ... LADY MOURA At her launch, Lady Moura was the most expensive and innovative yacht in the world. A true statement of success at a 105M, and as private yacht built by Blohm & Voss. She registered as the ninth largest yacht ever built in an era when clients of royal status were nearly the only people capable of considering such an opulent yacht. Inside 'Lady Moura,' a 344-Foot Superyacht Built to Be a Mobile Manse Lady Moura was a homebody. What a home. Matching her 344-foot length is a huge internal volume of 6,359 gross tons across seven decks, including a deck for the owner's family. She accommodates ... LADY MOURA Yacht Arrived at YAS Marina for Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix The superyacht LADY MOURA arrived at Yas Marina yesterday. She is berthed next to the Yas Marina Circuit, which will host the Formula 1 Ethiad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2022. We assume that the yacht's owner Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego will be attending the Grand Prix at November 20th, 2022. Mexican F1 driver Sergio Pérez ... US$ 250 million Mega Yacht Lady Moura The yacht is equipped with a nightclub, casino, spa centre and vast lounges. The upper deck is dedicated to the enormous swimming pool with the slide-open roof. Lady Moura is powered by two 6,868 hp Deutz-MWM TBD510BV12 Diesel engines, which allows her to reach a top speed of 22 knots. MORE INFORMATION & IMAGES. Record Sale: Lady Moura, the World's First Superyacht, Sells for $125M A year and a half ago, however, Lady Moura's owner placed the superyacht on the market, and in a swift 554-day turnaround, it sold in-house for a record 125 million dollars: the largest superyacht sale by a broker since 2019. Lady Moura's new captain is now in command of a piece of boating history. LADY MOURA Yacht The impressive LADY MOURA yacht is a superyacht owned by Dr. Nasser Al Rashid. She features an interior and exterior design from Luigi Sturchio and was built in 1990 by Blohm + Voss, a German shipbuilding company. The yacht was a cutting-edge vessel when she was built and set trends in personal yachting. Name: Lady Moura. Length: 104 metres 344ft) Inside $200 Million Lady Moura 104m Superyacht Inside $200 Million Lady Moura 104m SuperyachtLady Moura is a 104m private luxury yacht. She was the ninth largest private yacht when she was launched in 199... Blohm + Voss Lady Moura Superyacht: Features, Photos & Specifications guest. 13. cabin. 71. crew. At the time of her launch, Lady Moura was one of the most expensive and innovative yachts in the world. In many ways, she still is. She served as a family residence for nearly 30 years for one owner and was offered for sale for the first time since her construction in late 2019 through broker Camper & Nicholsons. LADY MOURA Her new owner will not only be acquiring a superyacht of premium pedigree, but be continuing a legacy of luxury and splendor. Main Features: Full custom build; ... Name: LADY MOURA Yacht Type: Motor Yacht Class: Lloyd's - 100 A1 Yacht - LMC / UMS Builder: Blohm & Voss Exterior Designer: Interior Designer: Luigi Sturchio: The Legendary 105 Meter Lady Moura Now Available For Sale For The First Lady Moura is currently listed for sale with price available upon application. Though the yacht's value has been estimated to be in the region of 200 million euros. Images courtesy of: Camper & Nicholsons International. Blohm+Voss Camper & Nicholsons Lady Moura Superyacht Yacht for Sale Yachts. An Icon, a Legend, the 105 meter (344 ft) Blohm ... 105m superyacht Lady Moura has been sold The 105m Blohm & Voss superyacht Lady Moura has been sold, she had a last known asking price of $125,000,000. The 105m Blohm & Voss superyacht Lady Moura has been sold, she had a last known asking price of $125,000,000. ... yachts for sale & charter and superyacht intelligence. SuperYacht Times is the authority in yachting. News, yachts for ... On A Booming Super-Yacht Market Back then she was ensconced on Lady Moura, now the seventh-largest yacht in the world, the 344-foot possession of Saudi Arabian Dr. Nasser al-Rashid, which, when it was launched in 1991 at an ... LADY MOURA, Yacht Yacht, IMO 1002380. The current position of LADY MOURA is at West Mediterranean reported 1 min ago by AIS. The vessel is en route to GR PIR - ES TAR, and expected to arrive there on Sep 2, 06:00. The vessel LADY MOURA (IMO 1002380, MMSI 309221000) is a Yacht built in 1990 (34 years old) and currently sailing under the flag of Bahamas. M/Y A: 119m Super Yacht by Blohm & Voss, Design by Philippe Starck There were rumors that Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son was the new owner of the A yacht, but these were swiftly denied by Melnichenko's representatives. ... M/Y LADY MOURA 105m Private Yacht by Blohm + Voss. €140,000,000 +12 Guests overnight Super Yacht MAYAN QUEEN IV 92m Private Yacht by Blohm & Voss. €120,000,000; Off Marked Super Yacht catamaran gulet motorboat powerboat riverboat sailboat trimaran yacht