Think about it:
Twenty-five years ago, Joseph Gribbins, the brilliant editor of the revered
hardcover periodical Nautical Quarterly, had not yet coined the word
"megayacht." (He did in the magazine’s Winter 1985 issue.) Twenty-five years
ago, a big boat was considered by many to be a yacht of 38 meters, with a really
big boat measuring something on the order of 50 meters. Twenty-five years ago,
no American yachtbuilder, with the exception of Burger Boat Company, had
delivered a boat larger than 38 meters since the introduction of the income tax,
and Burger had only delivered one, Arara III, which for many years held
the record for the largest all-alloy yacht ever built in the United States.
Twenty-five years ago, we didn’t have superyachts or gigayachts, the definitions
of which still confuse even the industry’s cognoscenti.
Burger’s Mimi (ex-Arara III) (top), Lürssen’s Carinthia VI (middle), Perini Navi’s Felicità (bottom). Top photograph by AdBit’s Advertising. Bottom photograph by Carlo Borlenghi. (Click images to enlarge)
Of course, the groundwork for today’s yacht fleet—and its
remarkable expansion in size, cost and number of hulls—was laid in the 1970s,
when leading-edge boats such as La Belle Simone, Carinthia VI and
Nabila showcased new designs and introduced much larger vessels to the
fabled ports of the Côte d’Azur. Nevertheless, barring royal yachts such as
Abdul Aziz and Britannia, there were very few yachts afloat that
exceeded 60 meters. But, oh, how times have changed.
Nowadays, the world fleet bristles with 75-meter boats, and the
idea that someone would consider building a private yacht over 100
meters—considered a milestone in the late eighties—is now, one hesitates to say,
passé. Indeed, the industry witnessed this pivotal event in 1991, when Blohm +
Voss delivered Lady Moura to Nasser al-Rashid, a businessman in Saudi
Arabia and advisor to the country’s King Fahd. Lady Moura broke the
100-meter barrier and began the push for ever-larger yachts that continues to
this day.
Who would have dreamed that in such a relatively short time
giants such as Octopus and Rising Sun would overshadow 100 meters?
Yet even these noteworthy boats are soon to be overtaken by the 163-meter yacht
for the emir of Dubai, and the secretive, 155-meter Blohm + Voss project being
constructed for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, for which the name
Eclipse allegedly is reserved.
 Known for his fierce competitive streak in
offshore sailboat racing, Larry Ellison has assembled an impressive fleet of
powerboats that includes Rising
Sun (pictured), which for a short time was the world’s
largest privately owned yacht. (Click image to enlarge)
Begun in the early 1980s with Fabio Perini’s debut of
Felicità, the trend for larger and larger sailing yachts continues.
Felicità sported a number of remarkable innovations, the most important
of which were high-speed, captive winches of Perini’s design that allowed more
easily handled rigs with a minimal crew. Since then, the technology for the
construction of spars, sails and sail-handling equipment has advanced steadily.
This technology, assisted by cutting-edge naval architecture and engineering,
recently resulted in the reigning monarchs of sailing yachts Mirabella V,
Athena and The Maltese Falcon.
1982. ShowBoats, founded by
Dave Fritzen and Bruce Vandale, debuts as a quarterly brokerage catalog.
Amels delivers its first yacht, Katalina, designed by Diana
Yacht Design. Azimut delivers 32-knot Failaka; at 32 meters, the
largest production FRP M/Y to date. 1983. Shergar (bottom) delivered to the Aga Khan by Lürssen. The nascent Perini Navi delivers
Felicità.
Sterling Yachts founded. (Click images to enlarge)
Although the general process for building yachts has remained
relatively constant, the differences in the industry over the last
two-and-a-half decades are many. During the mid-eighties, the prime mover in
large-yacht construction, at least where American buyers were concerned, was the
exchange rate. The U.S. dollar was then enjoying one of its strongest runs in
many years. Across the Atlantic, the Dutch guilder, then the de facto standard
in the yachtbuilding world, was hovering just below four to the dollar, and
American yachtsmen were taking advantage of the favorable rate to order boats in
unprecedented numbers.
Imagine having the opportunity to commission the construction
of a three-deck, 38-meter, all-alloy motor yacht with an eight-meter beam, MTU
396 series engines and an award-winning interior for $5.7 million. Built today,
the same boat from the same builder and naval architect would easily cost 20
million euros (about $31.6 million).
 1984. King Fahd takes delivery of Abdul Aziz, for two
decades the world’s largest yacht. 1985. Benetti purchased by Paolo Vitelli and amalgamated into the Azimut
Group. Alloy Yachts delivers Chanel (pictured). Oceanfast delivers Never Say
Never to American auto parts dealer Gary
Blonder. Photograph ourtesy of Alloy Yachts. (Click image to enlarge)
Klaas Hakvoort, whose family built many such boats, witnessed
the price of new construction double every 12 to 15 years, adding that in the
period between 2001 and the present, prices rose much faster than usual. A
43-meter motor yacht, delivered in the early nineties, cost approximately 17
million guilders (around seven million euros). Today, a boat of the same size
for delivery in 2011 would cost nearly 27 million euros, an increase of nearly
400 percent.
|
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Email This
Printer Friendly Version
Reprints & Permissions
Most Popular Searches
