Luxury Yachts
The term luxury yacht refers to a very expensive
privately owned yacht which is professionally crewed. Also known
as a super-yacht, a luxury yacht may be either a sailing or motor
yacht.
This term began to appear at the beginning of the 20th century
when wealthy individuals constructed large private yachts for
personal pleasure. Examples of early luxury motor yachts include
M/Y (motor yacht) Christina O and M/Y Savarona. Early luxury sailing
yachts include Americas Cup classic J class racers like S/Y
(sailing yacht) Endeavour and Sir Thomas Lipton’s S/Y Shamrock.
The New York Yacht Club hosted many early luxury sailing yacht
events at Newport, Rhode Island, during the Gilded Age.
More recently, over the last decade or two, there has been an
increase in the number and popularity of large private luxury yachts.
Luxury yachts are particularly bountiful in the Mediterranean and
Caribbean Seas, although increasingly luxury yachts are cruising in
more remote areas of the world. With the increase in demand for luxury
yachts there has been an increase custom boat building companies and
yacht charter brokers. Luxury boat building and yacht charter companies
are predominantly based in the United States and Western Europe but are
also increasingly found in Australasia, Asia and Eastern Europe.
European manufacturers such as Azimut-Benetti and Lürssen dominate the
very top end of the yacht building market. Some yachts are used
exclusively by their private owners, others are operated all year round
as charter businesses, and a large number are privately owned but
available for charter part time. Weekly charter fees range from a few
tens of thousands of dollars a week to nearly a million dollars a week.
This covers the wages of the crew, but not fuel, food and drink, or other
incidental expenses.
...
The number of really large yachts has increased rapidly since the 1990s
and increasingly only yachts above around 65 metres (213 feet) stand out
among other luxury yachts. Yachts of this size are almost always built to
individual commissions and cost tens of millions of dollars (most
super-yachts cost far more than their owners' homes on land, even though
those homes are likely to be among the largest and most desirable). A yacht
of this size usually has four decks above the water line and one or two
below. It is likely to have a helicopter landing platform. Apart from
additional guest cabins, which are likely to include one of more "VIP
suites" besides the owner's suite, extra facilities compared to a 50 metre
yacht will include some or all of indoor jacuzzis, sauna and steam rooms, a
beauty salon, massage and other treatment rooms, a medical centre, a
discotheque, a cinema with a film library, plunge pool (possibly with a
wave-maker), a playroom, and additional living areas such as a separate bar,
secondary dining room, private sitting rooms or a library. There will be more
boats and "toys" than there are on a 50 metre yacht.
[...] yachts above 100 metres (328 feet) are still sufficiently rare that
many yacht enthusiasts can name them all. They typically have five decks above
the water line and two below. The very largest yachts have begun to incorporate
such features as helicopter hangars, indoor swimming pools and miniature
submarines. The burgeoning number of "small" super yachts has led to the
introduction of the hyperbolic terms mega-yacht and giga-yacht to demarcate the
elite among luxury yachts.
Excerpt from "Luxury yacht." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
24 Oct 2006, 23:06 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 31 Oct 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luxury_yacht&oldid=83522499
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