The Definitive Guide to Super Yacht Owners.

Learn All You Need to Know About Yachts and Yachting

Yacht Industry Statistics and Freuqently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is  a Super Yacht (or superyacht):

A large and - usually - privately-owned luxury yacht. She is professionally crewed and extremely expensive. A few are owned by state organizations. There are few shipyards capable of building such a complex vessel.

What does a (Super) Yacht cost?

A mega yacht generally cost more than US$ 10 million. Although the most expensive super yacht launches can stretch to several hundred million dollars. A yacht built in Northern Europe costs around US$ 65,000 per ton.

What is the most expensive yacht?

Is is probably Dilbar, the world’s largest yacht. Her costprice is near US$ 800 million. Some call Eclipse ‘the US$ 1.5 billion yacht’, but she has cost less than that amount.

How rich is a yacht owner?

Most large yachts are owned by extremely wealthy individuals. For example someone who purchases a US$ 10 million yacht, will probably have to have a net worth of more than US$ 20 million. As he will not want to spend all his money on a boat.

The larger yachts (longer than 80 meters or 260 feet) are invariably owned by billionaires. Most billionaires also own or charter a private jet.

What are the running costs of a large yacht?

The yearly running costs (including crew, maintenance, interest on yacht loans, insurance and fuel) roughly account for 10% of the build price. So US$10 million a year on a US$100 million vessel. It seems smarter to charter a yacht…. Or you have to win big at a casino.

What is the biggest yacht?

The biggest yacht in terms of volume is Dilbar. She is owned by Alisher Usmanov. The longest yacht in the world is Azzam (180 meters/590ft). She is built for the Emir of Abu Dhabi.

What is the biggest sailing yacht?

The largest sailing yacht is ‘Sailing Yacht A’. She is built for Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko

What is the craziest yacht ever built?

One of the most modern (styled) luxury yachts is called simply A . She was built for the Russian billionaire Andrei Melnichenko. He also owns the amazing Sailing Yacht A. Another crazy styled boat is YAS, a 140-meter yacht. Which Sheikh Hamdan of the United Arab Emirates converted out of a warship.

Who owns the most yachts?

The Royal Families of the United Arab Emirates (Al Nahyan, Al Maktoum) and Saudi Arabia (Bin Saud) own dozens of large motor yachts.

What is the most famous, well known yacht?

The most famous of them all is probably Kingdom 5 KR owned by Prince Al Waleed bin Talal. He is a cousin of the King of Saudi Arabia. It was featured in the James Bond movie “Never Say Never Again”. The yacht was once owned by US President Donald Trump.

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Who buys a large yacht?

Mega yachts are often purchased by UHNWI or Ultra High Net Worth Individuals

What is a UHNWI?

A UHNWI is someone with net assets over US$ 30 million. Although some experts calculate with an amount of US$ 50 million.

It is estimated that the world population of UHNWI is around 200,000 individuals. Around 5% of these UHNWI, or 10,000 individuals, own or frequently use a yacht.

The mean net worth of a yacht owner is estimated at US$ 680 million. A figure no doubt influenced by the relative high number of billionaire Russians. The average age of a buyer of  superyachts for sale is estimated around 65 years.

Many yacht owners have a house in Fort Lauderdale. The area is also a nice yachting destination.

What means: "not for sale to us residents while in us waters"?

It is related to an old (1908) US tax law. It is preventing sales of foreign-flagged yachts to U.S. citizens when the boats are in U.S. waters. The law requires the selling owner of a foreign-flagged yacht to pay an import fee before they are offered for sale to U.S. residents while in U.S. Waters. Mostly these are foreign flagged yachts, cruising in US water on a cruising permit. The (selling) owner has to pay  an 1.5 % import tax on the value of his yacht, even before he knows what the actual selling price will be. By clearly stating that the yacht is not available for US residents, the owner does not have to pay this tax.

Yacht Price

Based on the data of several hundred projects sold or listed for sale, we created this rough indication of prices (in US$). The price is related to the length. There is an obvious exponential influence of the yacht’s length to the yachts price. Which can easily be explained by the fact that longer yachts have more decks. And they are wider and thus have more volume.

Length (50 m - 164 ft)

US$ 35 million

Length (60 m - 197 ft)

US$ 40 million

Length (70 m - 230 ft)

US$ 80 million

Length (80 m - 262 ft)

US$ 120 million

Length (90 m - 295 ft)

US$ 140 million

Length (100 m - 328 ft)

US$ 160 million

Length (150 m - 492 ft)

US$ 300 million

Length (170 m - 558 ft)

US$ 450 million

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Yachting Definitions

Displacement:

Displacement or displacement tonnage is the weight of water that a ship displaces when it is floating, which in turn is the weight of a ship (and its contents).

Gross Tonnage:

Gross tonnage (often abbreviated as GT, G.T. or gt) is a unit less index related to a ship's overall internal volume

Length over all (LOA):

The maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship

Waterline length (LWL):

The length of a ship or boat at the level where it sits in the water. The LWL will be shorter than the length of the boat overall (LOA) as most boats have bows and stern and stern protrusions that make the LOA greater than the LWL

Beam:

Its width at the widest point as measured at the ship's nominal waterline. Beam may also be used to define the maximum width of a ship's hull, or maximum width plus superstructure overhangs.

Draft / Draught:

The vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull (keel), with the thickness of the hull included. Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate.

Range:

The distance a motor yacht can sail without refueling.

Sloop

A sailing boat with a single mast and a fore-and-aft rig. A sloop has only one head-sail.

Ketch

A sailing craft with two masts. The distinguishing characteristic of a ketch is that the forward of the two masts (the "mainmast") is larger than the after mast. The mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post.

Yawl

Similar to a ketch but the mizzen mast is stepped aft of the rudder post.

Rudderpost:

The vertical member of a stern frame on which the rudder is hung.

Naval architect

An engineering discipline of vessel engineering. It is incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering. It is applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and operation of marine vessels.

Yatch

A frequently used type error of the word yacht.

Yacht Broker

A specialist who serves yacht builders or boat sellers. He can also server buyers with yachts for sale. He acts as a representative for the sale or purchase of a yacht or boat. Yacht brokers are paid an agreed commission.

Yacht Tender

A support vessel which is used for service and entertainment. They provide transport for yacht owners and crew.

Displacement:

The volume or weight used by the submerged (part of the) hull which would otherwise be occupied by water.

Displacement hull:

A round-bottomed hull. “Plowing through the water

Semi-displacement hull:

A cross between a planning and displacement hull, generating an amount of lift while moving.  The yacht’s weight will still be supported by buoyancy.

Planing hull:

The hull is designed to rise up and glide on top of the water when enough power is supplied. These hulls operate like displacement hulls when at rest or at slow speeds but climb towards the surface of the water as they move faster.

Dimensions

1 Meter

3,28084 foot

1 Foot

0.3048 foot

1 Knot

1.852 km)per hour / 1.151 mph

1 Nautical Mile (NM)

1,852 meters (about 6,076 feet)

1 Ton (US)

907.185 kilo

1 Ton (Metric)

1000 kilo

Yachting: Nice to Know.

Eclipse is thought to be the most expensive yacht. She is rumored to have cost more than a billion US dollars.

The actual build price of the yacht will probably have been considerably less. We guess around US$ 500 million.

Nowadays the largest yachts are owned by Arabs or Russians.

The second largest is Eclipse (172 metres/564ft) owned by the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Abramovich currently has two yachts: Eclipse and Sussurro. Although Sussurro is rumored to be owned by his ex-wife. She was part of a divorce settlement.

Until 2014 Abramovich also owned the expedition yacht Luna, but he sold her to Azerbaijani billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov. The third largest yacht is Dubai, owned by the Ruler of Dubai.

The largest mega yachts are not necessarily the world's longest. One of the largest boats measured by interior volume is Al Salamah. Built for Prince Sultan of Saudi Arabia, it was put up for sale in 2012. This was after Prince Sultan died. Her asking price was EUR 250 million (US$350 million).

Famous Yacht Owners

The most famous UHNWI owners include Roman Abramovich, Larry Ellison and Google’s Larry Page.

US President Donald Trump has been owner of Trump Princess. The world’s richest man Bill Gates does not own a yacht. He owns an extremely large house though, watch Bill Gates’ house here.

The Yacht Industry

It is expected that the amount spent on luxury yachts worldwide is increasing 25% the coming 5 years. There is a trend towards expedition vessels. In stead of (fast) displacement yachts.

But also new built yachts seem to grow bigger over the years. The yacht industry is doing well. And there are many yachts for sale. And the yacht charter brokers have a busy time.