Spending lots of time yachting around the crystal blue Balearic Sea as we do here at Boats Ibiza, we can’t help but notice the yachts that dot the coastline each summer become bigger and bling-er. Seems that while most of us mere mortals are content to bask in the kudos of the size of our house / car / wad / intellect / chest measurement, in billionaire land it’s all about the size of your yacht.

Many of the world’s most rudely wealthy individuals are passionate yacht aficionados, with a good chunk of those featuring in Forbes’ Billionaires List also appearing on the ownership papers of the world’s largest yachts, not to mention in the more exclusive establishments of Ibiza and Formentera. And there seems to be considerable competition amongst the super wealthy to ensure that theirs is the absolute biggest. Ahem.

It was big news back in 2013 when Chelsea FC’s owner, Roman Abramovich’s 163.5m superyacht Eclipse was knocked off the top spot by UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayan’s huge 180m long mega yacht, Azzam.

Then in February this year, it was announced (no doubt to widespread yet politely suppressed seething envy) that there will soon be a newer, bigger, badder boy in town: a brand new yacht that at 222m will quite literally, blow everything else out of the water. It’s even longer than a typical 220m long cruise ship. The Triple Deuce is expected to cost in the region of £800 million to build and around £30 million per year to run and maintain. The costs of the build itself have been said in a report by CNN to exceed the annual GDP of the British Virgin Islands, Western Sahara and Micronesia.

‘It’s just like the competition to build the world’s tallest building’ admitted Craig Tim, broker of the size-busting build. ‘Our client was concerned that if we built the yacht to 220m, then someone would come along like Roman Abramovich when he built Eclipse at 163.5m, and outdid Sheikh Maktoum’s yacht, the 162m Dubai, by only 1.5m. By building the yacht to 222m, the owner wants to make it difficult, if not impossible, to be “eclipsed” himself.’

Feast your eyes dear reader, on the current most expensive yachts in the world, assumedly until 2018, when the Triple Deuce is expected to be unveiled. In the meantime, keep dreamin,’ keep savin’ and keep buying those lottery tickets!

Thanks to AlbaCiC for the header image.

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