The Wally Esense Yacht

The wind threw her to a swallow part of the harbour and the keel hit the bottom. The Esense’s keel is 4 meters when folded and 6 meters when open out.

The yacht had fo be towed with a 2×300 HP pneumatic boat, and it seems she has had no serious damages. 

The Esense was built in 2006 by Wally Europe and costs around €15 mill. The owner is a holding of Montenegro and the captain is Mr. Ricardo de Magistris.  The yacht is designed to be both classic and modern and to be used by a reduced crew. The deck layout offers a space much like a converted loft apartment giving a huge open cockpit. The stern has the Terrace on the Sea configuration, a large area set at sea level, which can be reached from the main salon. The salon can also be enlarged by incorporating the two guest cabins. The interior design uses paduk wood and metallic white, with exposed matte carbon for the hanging cabinets and a splash of red on some of the joinery.

Maddoff's chained yacht

Bull's chained propellors of Bernard Madoff

As said yesterday, Bernard Madoff’s yacht has been chained at France. The yacht, a 27 m Leopard from Arno Shipyard, is registered in George Town and is currently lying in Antibes near a pristine Sunseeker. Italian design, freench mooring, George Town flag, american owner. Cosmopolitan at least.
The specifications of the yacht are

Length overall: 27 meters
Beam: 6,05
Engines: 2 x MTU 16V 2000 M92
Max Speed: 40 Knots

For more info and specs visit Cantieri Navale Arno
Pictures via Monaco Eye

Another of Bernard Madoff’s trophy assets has been seized, this time in the south of France.

French authorities on the Cote d’Azur have chained up his yacht “Bull” at a marina in the exclusive Mediterranean enclave of Cap d’Antibes, between Cannes and Nice.

Bailiffs threw a heavy chain around the boat’s propeller on Friday after a court granted the reqest by French investment firm Meeschaert, one of the many former investors in one of Madoff’s funds that is now suing to get some of its clients’ money back.

The yacht is valued at $7 million.

In a statement Sunday, Meeschaert chairman Cedric Meeschaert said the firm “decided to act fast, so that the boat wouldn’t leave French waters.”

A warning posted by the bailiffs on the boat reads: “Important: Do not turn on the motors, considering that the propellers are chained.”

The chained yacht of Bernard Madoff

It cautions that “major judicial problems” will result if anyone attempts to remove the boat.

Last week a Palm Beach mansion owned by Madoff and two of his yachts were seized in the United States.

Madoff, 70, is in jail in New York awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to swindling billions from investors in what could be the biggest scam in Wall Street history. He faces up to 150 years behind bars.

Prosecutors in the United States are seizing as much as they can of Madoff’s personal fortune, and have begun demanding millions of dollars in payments from his relatives. Roughly 6,700 people have filed claims for a share of whatever is recovered.

The bull will no longer navigate with Madoff

Thousands more — some who lost in excess of $1 million — are expected to come forward.

Via: NPR

M/Y Eclipse Eclipse is under construction by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany. The construction is taking place on a dock hidden from public view and there are still no definitive statements about size as there is a ‘race against the meters’ betwwen some megayacht owners. It is said that there is another megayacht project awaiting to rise its size when Eclipse’s is known. 

Clic to enlarge

The yacht is expected to be delivered to Roman Abramovich in 2010 and will be not less than 160 meters, with all kind of eccentricities and some known features.

Eclipse will have at least three helicopter pads, several hot tubs, two pools, three launch boats, and a private submarine. 

But the most ‘strange’ extras will be the radar designed specifically to warn of incoming rockets. There will also be armored protection around the wheelhouse and the billionaire’s cabin – along with bullet proof windows.

There will also be a surveillance system, with movement sensors and infra-red cameras all around the perimeter of the boat, and in case that someone do breach the security cordon and climb on board the beautiful superyacht, Abramovich, 41, and his girlfriend, Daria Zhukova, 26, a former model, can escape through secret corridors to a submarine that is launchable underwater and can dive away to 160ft in depth.

 

She is designed to be run with 50 crew, and the total cost of the project will round the €300 million.  When Eclipse launches, Mr. Abramovich will own more than 1,100 feet of yacht — the approximate length of the Queen Mary 2. Exact prices for his boats aren’t known, but industry experts estimate they range from about €20 million for his smallest to more than €300 million for Eclipse. Annual overhead for the boats is more than €15 million, industry experts say, and it costs him €90,000 just to fill up the tanks of his current largest boat, Pelorus.

 
This will be the 5th yacht owned by Mr. Abramovich, as well as ‘Pelorus’ (114 m), ‘Le Grand Bleu’ (112 m), ‘Ecstasea’ (85 m) and the tiny one, the ‘Susurro’, which is only 45 meters long.

ROMAN ABRAMOVICH: born on 24 October 1966 in Saratov, Russian SFSR, USSR) is a Russian billionaire and the main owner of private investment company Millhouse LLC. According to Forbes magazine, as of 5 March 2008, he has had a net worth of US$23.5 billion. However, his wealth declined to $3 billion, so he hast lost most of his fortune due to the worldwide financial crisis.  In 2008 Forbes magazine ranked him as the fifteenth richest person in the world. He was also considered to be the second richest person currently living within the United Kingdom

Superyacht Maltese Falcon

It would seem that the driving force behind this flag change was the inability or unwillingness of the Cayman Islands to accept the new submarine installed on the yacht.

Superyacht Maltese Falcon by night

The Register will only accept and certify old steel pressure hulls submarines, and not the modern one made  of composites.

Let’s see how long it takes to Cayman authorities to say that they do cannot change their laws beacuse of the fussiness of a mega-yacht owner.