A luxury yacht sailing through.
Yachts are, I suppose, outstanding status symbols. Luxury yachts refer to very expensive, privately owned sailing vehicles that are professionally crewed. Also known as a Super Yacht, a luxury yacht may be either a sailing or motor yacht. And the good news is that lots of luxury yachts for sale are available on the shop nearest you.
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 typically have no real home port as such although they must be registered in a port of the country that they fly the flag of. Many times the Yacht will never have been to this port. They are particularly bountiful in the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas in season. There is winter in the Caribbean and summer in the Mediterranean.
Luxury inside as well as the outside.
These Yachts will base in a port of choosing while the crew does maintenance work and waits for Owners or Guests to arrive. The Yachts then will do short cruises with the Owners aboard. Yachts that go back and forth between the Caribbean and Mediterranean in the winter and summer are said to be doing the Milk Run. Typical Ports/Destinations in the French and Italian Rivieras are Cannes, Antibes, St Tropez, Monte-Carlo Porto Fino, Porto Cervo although increasingly luxury yachts are cruising in more remote areas of the world. Antigua is one of the main ports in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean and hosts a Charter Show at the beginning of the winter season.
With rising demand for luxury yachts there has been an increase of 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 Australia, Asia and Eastern Europe. European manufacturers such as Ferretti, Azimut, Azimut-Benetti, Feadship, Sunseeker and Lürssen dominate the very top end of the yacht building market.
Luxury redefined in a 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 the Cox & King yachts, 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.
Yachts from 24 metres (79 ft) and up qualify for design awards, but at the bottom end of that scale yachts will not necessarily be crewed and many set the minimum length for a super yacht considerably higher. A 45-to-50-metre (148 to 160 ft) yacht, the smallest with a generally accepted claim to super yacht status, will usually be a three-decker with cabins for 10-12 guests (that is a preferred number, more common than 14, and is found on yachts across quite a wide size range), and for a crew of a similar size. The accommodation on this type of yacht is typically as follows: Lower deck: exterior swimming platform at the stern; four (sometimes five) guest cabins with en-suite bath or shower rooms aft; engine room amidships; crew quarters forward. Main deck: sheltered exterior deck aft leading into the salon; dining room and galley; entrance amidships; owner’s suite forward, usually includes either a study or a second twin stateroom. Upper deck: exterior deck aft, often used for outdoor dining; second salon (often called the sky lounge); staffed bar inside or outside or both; sixth stateroom will be amidships if it is not on the lower deck or part of the owner’s suite; gym (may also be on the lower deck or part of the owner’s suite); captain’s cabin; bridge. Sun deck: on the roof of the upper deck, often features a Jacuzzi.
A 50-meter yacht will have one or more luxury yacht tenders for reaching shore and other “toys” which may include a speed boat or sailing boat, jet-skis, windsurfing and diving equipment and a Banana boat. Up to date yachts have multiple flat screen televisions and satellite communications.
Image credits: http://www.charterworld.com, http://www.luxury-yachtcharters.com, http://amansworldonline.com
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