"Eclipse" Leaves The Fincantieri Shipyard

The massive Superyacht "Eclipse" has just left the Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste San Marco to conduct sea trials after a four week drydock maintenance project. This relatively short but very large project took 70 workers the whole four weeks to complete, quite staggering when you think about it.

Fincantieri has now made a stand in the world of Superyachts with this project of the worlds largest Superyacht and also the launch of their 134m (439ft) Serene which took place in 2011. Serene is one of the top 10 privately owned Superyachts in the world and was a winner at the wold Superyacht awards.

In addition to construction, repair and refitting, Fincantieri activities also include the development of innovative concepts. Three concept projects, which are being developed on platforms engineered by Fincantieri, have been recently introduced. They have received great interest among the experts and are the 88m (288ft) "Virage88", designed by Andrew Winch, the 145m (475ft) "Fortissimo", a "gas turbine yacht" designed by Ken Freivoch, with an innovative design and a propulsion system capable of a speed of over 35kts, while minimizing environmental impact and the 142m (466ft) "Armonia", styled by Andrea Vallicelli and engineered by Fincantieri Yachts.

Too Big or Not Too Big That is The Question?

Roman Abramovich's Yacht "Eclipse" 557ft it is currently the largest privately owned yacht in the world, but is it too big? Antibes port authority think so when she was refused entry into the port due to the fact that the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Alsaud's yacht "Kingdom 5KR" 265ft was docked there.
The port authority were asked by the crew of Eclipse if it could dock beside Kingdom 5KR but they were told that there was not enough space for the two yachts and that they were too big. The space where Kingdom 5KR was docked was the only space in the harbour big enough to dock Roman Abramovich's giant yacht.

A source at the port said that " He is always welcome to dock his yachts here so he can go to his villa on the sea front, but a yacht of this size its just not possible."


So Eclipse had to anchor just off shore as seen in the above picture and Roman Abramovich and his guests had to go ashore by a tender. Is this yacht to big? Below is a picture of the Princes yacht Kingdom 5KR.

The Worlds Biggest

Eclipse 557ft and built by the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany.Is currently the largest privately owned yacht in the world. This yacht is owned by Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich who is currently worth around 13.4 billion which makes him the 53rd richest man in
the world according to the Forbes 2011 rich list. Eclipse took the top spot in being the largest privately owned yacht away from another monster of a yacht "Dubai" 531ft built by the Lurrsen shipyard. the difference between the two yacht is 36ft. Dubai is owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum the head of state of Dubai.
Eclipse can accommodate her guests in 11 staterooms, not too many rooms for a yacht of this size. some of the features that she has include 2 swimming pools, 2 heli pads, multiple hot tube situated around the decks, 3 tenders, a submarine that can reach depths of 165ft, a gym, and a disco room for the late night parties that this yacht will definitely see. If that wasn't enough she is rumored to have a missile detection system.
She has a crew of 50 and has a cruising speed of 22kts and a max speed of 25kts. Quite a staggering speed for a yacht of this size. Her stylish and smooth lines makes her look very sleek and compliments her sheer volume. What will be the yacht that knocks Eclipse of the Number 1 spot? how big can these MegaYachts get? can we even call them MegaYachts? maybe GigaYacht is a better fit. Well how big they will get and who will be the next owner of the worlds largest privately owned Yacht is anyone's guess.