Taking the phrases ‘one-upmanship’ and ‘market flotation’ at their most literal, the world’s billionaires and oligarchs are increasingly taking to the oceans to show off their wealth
What is a gigayacht?
It’s the third order of yachts. At the bottom of the pile is the common or garden yacht such as you might see parked up at Troon or Largs. Typically these have galley kitchens, a couple of bunks, toilets that would make an EasyJet loo appear spacious and names like Seas The Day or Buoyoncé. Then there’s the superyacht, which has a proper kitchen and a proper loo (i.e. it has a jacuzzi) and a deck long and broad enough to accommodate a helipad and a five-a-side pitch. And now we have the gigayacht which, as the name suggests, is even bigger than a superyacht.
How big?
If it’s over 300 feet, isn’t armed with surface-to-air missiles and isn’t called HMS something, it’s generally reckoned to be a gigayacht. There are plenty of them around already but the number looks set to increase markedly: 2020 was a bumper year for orders and sales, and 2021 looks set to top even that. According to Sam Tucker of nautical market intelligence firm VesselsValue, the market is “absolutely roaring ... There’s been a record number of transactions done, and that trend is being sustained even until now”. Second-hand superyachts are selling quickly too.
Who has a gigayacht?
Nobody you know, though a few people you may have heard of such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. According to news organisation Bloomberg, Bezos has commissioned a gigayacht from Rotterdam-based company Oceanco at a cost of £350 million. The price tag won’t trouble him though. His personal wealth is estimated to have doubled since 2017 and now stands at around £140 billion. And not only is he having a 400 foot gigayacht built, he has also commissioned a motorised superyacht support vessel for it. Because the main yacht is just that – it has three massive masts and is designed to travel under sail – this support vessel will house the helipad, a collection of luxury cars and (it is rumoured) a mini-submarine.
So the gigayacht has some eco credentials?
Those which are wind-powered do. Another example is the Black Pearl, a slightly smaller gigayacht built by the same Dutch company for the Russian oligarch Oleg Burlakov. It has an aluminium superstructure and carbon fibre masts, generates its own electricity when it’s under sail, employs heat capture technology throughout and as a result is thought to be able to cross the Atlantic on a mere 20 litres of fuel. Then there's the sleek, Philippe Starck-designed Sailing Yacht A, owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, which was launched in 2015. It has an underwater observation pod in the keel, so if Jeff Bezos trucks up alongside in his mini-sub the two moguls can wave at each other.
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