Largest Private Yacht

I'm only impressed by someone who is capable of contributing constructive commentary without the use of vulgarity. Unless you have something useful too add, I'd prefer to subtract your membership.

enough? there's no point of "enough" - if it's in the sports like the 100m run (almost every 5 years there's a new record) or within the crazy people that have so much money, that their daily interests are a lot more than what i get in one year - these people will always build bigger yachts as they got enough money.
there will always be someone who builds the next biggest yacht, even if he has just 10 family members....
i mean the best size for a real megayacht seems to be 120m like octopus, that kind of "yacht" is what i'd build, no one really needs a yacht 140m+
you can't dock with those yachts anywhere...

but it seem like everyone has its size equal to his money... (i don't have one )

80m is quite the best size, but 40m->55m<-70m is also ok for the minimum excelent requirements for cruising. Less crew and less spaces to be cleaned. Actually 80m is already too much space for nothing and can be arranged all amenities in world you want without missing anything. More than 100m for a yacht and even more than 150m is just no sense anymore. Nobody needs that size to show-off him/herself if the design of the thing does not help much. In fact i prefer a tremendous different well shaped all correct design than size. Quality is much better than Quantity. More meters in lenght do not say at all to be 'unique', when appeared wherever seas you are.

When you cannot put your passarelle onto the quay in St Tropez or Portofino, you are already too big.

But for all of us that they keep employed, God bless 'em and God bless trickle-down economics.

The yachts I find the most interesting are in the 50-70 meter range. The more I look at picture of Eclipse the more I think about many of the points that have emerged in this thread. To each his own and if you can afford it and want to build something that large then more power to you. It just seems to me that you might lose some of the joys of a boat you can reasonably get "all around on". I often wonder how much time the owners actually spend on board and how a yacht of this size is utilized the majority of the time. It seems weird to have something of this size sailing around if only occupied by crew most the time.

I've seen stories of two people recently who are building 200'++ yachts who don't intend to ever even see the boats much less spend a day on them. They're getting them just to show off that they can afford to. Not exactly what I'd call yachtsmen. Just greedy showoffs.

I consider excesses like these to be a monument to the man's ego. No more, no less.

i can't imagine myself buying a $200m yacht and never spend a day on it
i'd prefer to buy an explorer yacht and cruise the world - oh - and be ON that yacht crossing oceans and not fly to the next destination....

We should remember that there is a practical element to all of this. Those who live in the stratosphere of extreme wealth, often have several large houses and a sizable staff to run them. Each house will have its resident skeleton staff but the rest, anything between say twenty and eighty people, will move from house to house with their bosses. They will also accompany the owners on board their yacht and obviously need to be accommodated. These same owners are used to entertaining on a grand scale and will need cabins for their many guests – and as the size of the vessel increases, so does its full time crew and the need to house them. Thus the size of the yacht is exponential to the needs of its owners.

It’s all about ‘horses for courses’. You buy what you need to sustain your particular lifestyle. Just because we are not used to that kind of living, does not mean that we should condemn or ridicule them as Capt. B has, but instead, we should (as Stan points out) be grateful for the financial and other benefits that they bring to our industry.

Thinking from inside out, it might be reasonable to suggest that an owner would require the following:
Owner's stateroom, his and hers heads, his and hers walk in closets, Office, private sitting room, and private sundeck. Assuming they have three children add 3 staterooms and one for a nanny or two. Also, the owners may travel with a personal maid, private secretary, and trainer. Thus, the owner's family would require an owner's deck + 5/6 staterooms depending on the staff's ability to share. Add a desire for 4 couples as guests and you are up to ten staterooms, a dining room to seat at least 12, a gym, playroom, salon, library/screening room,sundeck, deckspace for the occasional 200 person party, wine cellar. You would also need to carry 3/4 tenders, 1/2 helipads, enough crew and stores to take care of the yacht.
I don't have the knowledge to calculate the length required for such an enterprise, but it illustrates how you can quickly move above 150 ft without too many ridiculous request[with the possible exception of the visitors' helipad]

Best,
Maldwin

Wealth often reaches rediculous levels these days, and a degree of resentment from "normal" folk is normal. There is a perverse joy when they suffer travails and get their come-upances like Lindsey and Paris and an absolute thrill when those like Bernie fall. There is also the biblical quote about rich men, heaven and the eye of a needle. However they do create jobs and some (IMHO the better ones) do a lot of good with their wealth like O and B. & M. G. My position has always been that I wouldn't want to be them, but I'm glad they're there because they give me beautiful things to look at. It's all relative anyway. Right now I'm running a 42 footer down the Erie Canal. You wouldn't believe the looks and comments. Here it's like coming into Lauderdale on a 300 footer.

Still the problem this world: too much for the too fewest and too few for the too much’s.
At least we can see, but probably soon we have to pay to see & breath as well… in order the fewest get more too too much.

It is just sad to see all the money spent on bad designs. Compare with this beauty from 1946..

Looks like a U-boat. Given that yachts are eligable to be conscripted into military service it obvious this one was built specifically with that in mind subsequent to WW II. I wouldn't consider her pretty as much as useful, but I like her. Who is she?

I was have guessed it went the other way around.... converted military hull.

During Ronnie's reign, there were two yachts that were converted to Trojan Horses. One was equipped for recon and the other for DefCon.