Eclipse Entering Juan Les Pins

I guess if you had a beautiful 50m yacht you would be the little guy in town.

Yep, because everything in the picture is above 60-meters

we just lack Amadeus in the middle

a little movie of Eclipse lying in the bay of Juan les pins

I have posted a little movie of me going round the Eclipse on a little boat.

http://youtu.be/jU8ywi1SZbU

I am very surprised that they let you cruise around without shooting at you.
I understand that they even have missile defense systems on board.

It's funny how the "missile defence system" idea pops up every so often... always on a different yacht.

Unless that was very much "tongue in cheek" I am disturbed that someone would think anyone had the right to deny you the right to sail your little boat as close as you felt like going without fear of reprisal from another private citizen, no matter how wealthy or arrogant they might be. Even more disturbing coming from an American.

When "A", also owned by a young Russian guy, came in San Francisco and anchored in the middle of the bay, I went out to take some pictures from different angles because of the very unusual shape of the yacht.
When I went around for the second time, two guys in a big dinghy came over and circled around me. They did not say anything but it was obvious that they were checking me out, maybe because the owner was on board.

I was filming Eclipse with a long stick with my gopro camera inmediately, two men on the side came out with walkie talkies to check me out.

Took this the other day whilst having lunch on the beach (still work, honest)


Plenty of action on board with the Heli and various shell doors opening and closing, must be like running a small village! They probably have a chef to cook for the chefs that cook for the guests, and a stew to do the laundry for the stews that do the laundry if you know what I mean. She is always an awesome sight.

Weapons on board internationally traveling yachts have loads of legal complications to contend to which raises the questions of the rights for yachts to defend themselves. Usually those concerned travel with private security.

Not so sure about that..

The majority of countries allow a Foreign Diplomat's or Consular Officers privilege of immunity, including but not limited to: Foreign offices/homes, Vehicles/Vessels, Aircraft and Personal Belongings. Thus, any vessel of a Diplomat Office arriving at a port that recognizes the Diplomatic Relations Act of the Vienna Convention (1961) would be free from search or risk of repercussions for having any munitions, components, equipment or items that the host country deems illegal. They would/could never even board the vessel under most circumstances.

I would venture to guess that most of your 300'+ yacht owners have diplomatic ties enough to receive a diplomatic seat to afford such ease of travel. Not to say that they will be flaunting M-16's and Surface-to-Air missiles at every port... But to think that many of those ships don't have that capability or exercise that capability is probably incorrect. Especially because the owners of these yachts (1) can afford it, (2) do it legally (if diplomat), (3) may think they need it due to enemies, fear for family, etc..

All that to say is that Eclipse could probably cruise the Somali coast at 2 knots back and forth to taunt pirates and easily deal with any predator. Further to say, that I am sure there are more than a few vessels that anchor with munitions without search or seizure. Just need to check the owner/flag of vessel..
That would be a fun youtube video

Hi only4her
I never said it couldn't be done. Only that it will have a lot of complications involved caring weapons/firearms internationally. If you tried going into the Bahamas with a fire arm, you can do it, you have to declare your weapons while in port, explain yourself as to why you brought weapons into there country, who knows what sort of duty's are involved, but it can be done.

Hi,

That is one of the biggest load of bollocks I have read on this subject.

Have a go at travelling the world with firearms onboard and see what sort of issues you encounter then report back rather than wasting bandwidth.

Thank you, and I took the opportunity to clarify some details.

I finally managed to get a look at the infamous M/Y Eclipse "with my own eyes".

Here are my 2 observations:

1) M/Y Eclipse is exemplary of the most recent superyacht new-buildings in that this particular behemoth, ostensibly "a private motor yacht", possesses few attributes unrelated to the size of the vessel. Some here may remember watching John Holmes (better-known as Johnny Wadd) back in the '70s / '80s as an example of just how far "size" counts...?

2) Those of us who've worked in the industry for several decades and still somehow continue to look forward to the day that they might actually one day be able to own and afford their own modest yachts (30/40 footers), will perhaps empathise that we would probably prefer to name our boats after our mothers, children or other relatives and animals etc.

But not "Eclipse". I can't think of any more flagrant example of "willy-waving" in the yachting industry to date. I don't really give a rat's arse that whoever owns the M/Y Eclipse wanted to have a bit of fun in the naming of his huge yacht (at the expense of similarly and ludicrously rich individuals, perhaps business competitors, but probably more simply targetted at the pretty girls "the other guy" had aboard the other boat...). What I would suggest to the owner of the M/Y Eclipse is that it is renamed something else ASAP (now that he's had his fun), because it's almost 100% guaranteed that someone else of similar "mental capacity" decides to launch an even bigger boat (or lengthen their current newbuilding to surpass it). In the meantime, 100's of thousands of these yacht owners' employees despair worldwide (but hopefully remain ignorant) as to how exactly the boss spends the "profits / losses on his business operations" every year, good or bad...?! Because if they really did understand how their bosses behaved, it might somehow encourage these employees to conduct wholly uncharacteristic acts in their workplaces in order to simply encourage / placate formerly capable and responsible bosses back to "the job". As a final warning, of course.

Yeah, I also saw M/Y Eclipse off Antibes / Juan Les Pins. Boring...huge yacht, I could draw you a mosquito trap which would be 100 times more aesthetically-pleasing than that.

Same goes for all the other behemoths that frequently pay a visit to the south of France yet are rarely able to obtain a berth in harbours here.

I've never been comfortable dealing with very large yachts. No problem upto about 60-65m, but most comfortable with 50-55m size. Had to accommodate an 85m since, no real problems except with increased crew turnover / managing agents involved etc., all just complicated smooth and efficient support / running of the vessel. And none of them were ever named after "big dicks" or equivalent. There was one 50-55m called "Big Tits" many years ago, but I never had the pleasure of working with them...

that boat was called TITS and the tenders were called Nipple one and nipple two was build at van lent at the kaag .It was a gift From Shell for the Sultan of Brunei

I have ported several countries along the delta and black sea. Here in the United States, my vessel has never been boarded by the Coast Guard. I don't have financial means or the boat size to travel to Mexico or Caribbean, but I don't believe it would pose an issue.

While here in the US, I was given an identity card from the Department of State, which was to be used when interacting with state or government officials while on duty here. In my country, Ukraine, I also have identification, with a diplomat passport and identification I have cruised the black sea and the delta, anchored, and never boarded by coastal officials.

As to it being 'bollocks' is quite interesting, because you missed my point. You are correct to say travelling the world with a gun can get you in much trouble, but only for the general public (yes, 99.999% of people or more). But I see no reason to apologize if your mind doesn't have the "bandwidth" to comprehend that it (generally) does not apply to members of the Diplomatic Community.