Pelorus Yacht

Pelorus Yacht

If there were beauty pageant for megayachts, Pelorus would win it. Pelorus (above) is such a pretty yacht that even before it was completed in 2003, the commissioning Saudi owner received no fewer than five offers to sell her.

The bidding war was won by Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who also owns the megayachts Eclipse and Luna. In 2005 and then again in 2007, Abramovich had Germany's Blohm & Voss, the original builder of Pelorus, refit the yacht with additional features, including zero-speed stabilizers and a second helipad so that his helicopter doesn't need to be moved whenever guests arrive in theirs.

Abramovich wasn't able to enjoy Pelorus for long. In 2007, he divorced his wife Irina, who in 2009 received Pelorus as part of her divorce settlement. In 2011, she sold the yacht for $300 million to David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul and owner of the 453 foot megayacht, Rising Sun. Later in 2011, Geffen sold Pelorus also for $300 million (214 million euros) to the United Arab Emirates' Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who in turn sold it to Samuel Tak Lee, a Hong Kong property developer, in 2017.

Who designed Pelorus?

Much of the credit for Pelorus' beauty goes to Tim Heywood Design of Rutland, United Kingdom and Terence Disdale Design of Surrey, also of the United Kingdom, who designed the yacht's exterior and interior, respectively.

Pelorus is 377 feet (115 meters) long, weighs over 5,000 tons, carries over a quarter million liters of diesel, and has two 5,000 horse power Wartsila 12v26 diesel engines that give it a maximum speed of 19 knots. It has nine cabins to accommodate up to eighteen guests, who are served by a crew of forty-six, who live aboard the yacht year-round.

The name, "Pelorus," by the way, comes from the Greek word, "pelorios," which means "vast." The fact that today, this vast ship that is longer than a football field only ranks as the 20th largest megayacht in the world attests to the acceleration of the ego fest that is leading to bigger and bigger yachts faster and faster.

When will this megayacht ego race end?

See Gigayacht.