The big new thing in the luxury boat world? Supersizing it. Take, for example, the Eclipse owned by Russian billionaire Roman A. Abramovich. As the world’s largest superyacht, the Eclipse comes with a helicopter, a missile defense system, and a mini submarine. Let’s not forget the crew of 70 who operate it, and attend to guests swimming in the two pools or lounging in the multiple hot tubs. Recently reporting from the Monaco Yacht Show, the International Herald Tribune explains that one fifth of the 500 exhibitors presented mega yachts ranging from 82 to 295 feet in length. (The Russian tycoon's yacht is 557 feet long.) This increase in yacht size has been a trend since 2007. The IHT quotes Thomas Mee, marketing director for Camper & Nicholosons, the international yacht broker, “Sales of superyachts correlate directly with the rising number of billionaires in the world.” Last March, Forbes counted 1,210 billionaires, an even greater number than before the financial crash.
Photo of the Eclipse anchored off Antibes in France via The Daily Mail