Boat International, the luxury yachting magazine that has been an industry authority for over 30 years, has just published its new ranking of the world’s largest yachts, showing that American moguls are rapidly losing their status among top global owners. So many of the world’s most sizable vessels are now owned by royals and billionaires from the UAE that they dominate the list completely, leaving only two U.S. owners among the world’s top 20.
Of course the crown jewel is the 590.7-foot Azzam, built by Germany’s Lürssen Yachts in 2013 for a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family, and the world’s largest yacht. It bumped Roman Abramovich’s 533.2-foot Eclipse down to second place. In third is the 531.6-foot Dubai, owned by the country’s ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, while fourth is the 508.6-foot Al Saïd owned by the Sultan Qaboos bin Sa‘id Al Saïd of Oman. In fifth place is the 483.2-foot Topaz, which launched in 2012 for another oil rich sheikh.
In the sixth slot is the 482.4-foot Prince Abdulaziz, owned by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and due to soon be replaced, while the 478-foot Egyptian presidential yacht El Horriya clocks in at number seven. The eighth place is taken by another new vessel launched in 2013, the 462.7-foot Yas, whose owner is an unnamed UAE bigwig. Ninth place is occupied by the 457-foot Al Salamah, owned by Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. And barely scraping into the top ten is David Geffen’s 452.9-foot Rising Sun, which he bought from Larry Ellison in 2010.
Microsoft mogul Paul Allen’s 414-foot Octopus now languishes in 13th place and the next U.S. owner doesn’t crop up again until number 22, with Geffen again putting in an appearance with the 375.8-foot Pelorus (which he bought from Abramovich). With some impressive new builds slated for this year, we predict the U.S. will be edged out of the top 10 altogether in the next year’s ranking.
