Το indian empress του 51χρωνον Ινδού δισεκατομμυριούχου Vijay Mallya, στην Σκόπελο σήμερα !

δείτε το Indian Empress του Vijay Mallya, το οποίο είναι το πιο πολυτελές στην Ινδία,

Q. What floats Petra Nemcova's boat?

A. Free passage into the eye-watering world of the gigayacht, the extraordinary new breed of uber luxurious billionaire plaything. Live set sail on the supermodel's favourite Monaco party boat...

Petra Nemcova at the Vijay Mallya party onboard the Indian Empress in Monaco.

To have a full nose around just one deck of the Indian Empress takes a good 20 minutes. It would be quicker if there were'nt so many beautiful people on board; they and the hundreds of other partygoers, variously wearing crushed Armani linen, Dior suits and Prada, make a full circuit heavy work.
It's the billionaire party of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, on the billionaire boat, and one of the best views of the £58 million superyacht is, in fact, from far below on the quayside.

But as there's a large crowd there, ogling the exclusive event, I conclude that my perspective is superior. I resolve to lounge on one of the bright red-and-gold sofas, sipping vintage Taittinger instead.

All four decks are thrumming to the vibrations of a billionaire's soirée.

House music booms from invisible speakers.

Black-clad waiters and waitresses pirouette across the teak decks with trays of margaritas.

Ten large security guards in black suits, shirts and ties back up the usual 30-man crew. But for all the glitz, there's no hiding from the real star of the show.

The Indian Empress is one of the world's biggest yachts. The 95m of white hull and blacked-out portholes stretch exquisitely from pert bow to macho, box-square stern. It's squeezed into the Port d'Hercule marina (possibly the most desirable mooring in the world, during Grand Prix weekend undeniably so) between mere upstarts – the newly built 82m Alpha Nero (USP: an infinity pool) on one side, and Topshop boss Sir Philip Green's 63m Lionheart on the other.

Both these boats are huge. The Empress is, quite literally, in a different class. It has its own marketing name: the gigayacht.

And despite everything you're being told about credit crunches and property collapses, the world's super-rich quite simply can't get enough of them.

This one is owned by Force India Formula 1 team boss Vijay Mallya.

It's not just the size, nor the beautifully appointed suites, nor fully equipped gym, sauna, lift, steam room, beauty salon and medical suite that betray his nation-sized wealth; it's the personal touches.

The antique baby-grand piano; the paintings by Dali, Renoir and Picasso; the garage for a brace of Mercedes; the engine upgrade – three 10,000hp monsters – that can propel it to 24 knots.

A young Dutchman plonks himself down next to me. He introduces himself as the nephew of Michiel Mol, Force India's co-owner. 'Superyachts?' he says unsteadily. 'Too slow. I'm happy with my Porsche.'

'If it's not fast, you're not losing control,' adds his friend, somewhat dazed and confused.

The conversation stalls, so I rescue it by talking money – on this boat, it's everyone's favourite subject.

While City bankers are mourning the loss of their bonuses, we conclude that the mega-wealthy are still doing just fine.

Super- and gigayacht owners – Roman Abramovich, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Sir Philip Green et al – are in a unique class of the wealthy.

Indian Empress superyacht

Unlike the super-rich of the Nineties, whose wealth came from valuable stakes in fast-growing companies, and who were, therefore, at the mercy of volatile stock markets, many of today's billionaires are cash rich. Very cash rich.

There are more of them, too. Billionaires' bible Forbes shows the number of billionaires reached four figures this year at 1,125. Their total net worth is £2.3 trillion, up £460 billion from last year.

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When I look next, Porsche boy is sprawled out on a sofa opposite, his friend is chatting to a young, long-limbed lovely, and – I check twice to make sure I've got this right – two cages with a disco-dancing bikini girl in each have been lowered into place above us.

'David Beckham could just about scrape in at the bottom,' says Jonathan Beckett, the 50-year-old boss of British yacht broker Nigel Burgess. 'Lewis Hamilton? Forget it. Most sportsmen, pop stars and the like just don't have the money.'

How much do you have to be worth, then?  'To buy into this world? You need to have a disposable income of at least £200 million.'

We are on the balcony of his Monaco head office.

Below us, Hamilton's McLaren hits the tight turn at Place Sainte Devote, accelerates up the straight towards Casino Square and disappears.

Looking the other way beneath us, there's a dazzling armada of huge boats forming their own Manhattan skyline along one side of the marina.

'As for those yachts down there… they're strictly billionaires' toys.'

During the Grand Prix, Port d'Hercule is like a car park for the super-rich.

As well as Sir Philip Green's Lionheart, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal's 80m Amevi, Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore's Force Blue, which is garlanded in pink roses, Mallya's Indian Empress and the Candy brothers' luxury yacht, Candyscape, are bumper to bumper.

'This is Knightsbridge for yachts,' says Beckett. 'If you want to come and look at the big ones, this is the place.' He says that 20 years ago he couldn't have imagined the market would become this strong.

'I came into the business in 1981.

If we sold a boat of more than 45m it was a big boat. If we did a deal that was £2 million, it was one of the major deals. In 1984, we sold a boat for £3.8 million, and that was the largest brokerage deal of the year. In 1987, we sold Nabila, which belonged to Adnan Khashoggi, to [Donald] Trump for £15 million, and that was probably £6 million more than any other deal in its day. Now the average deal is £20 to £30 million. And the big deals are mega.'

Built in 1980 by the Fratelli Benetti shipyard in Italy, at 86m Nabila was at the time reputedly the world's largest privately owned yacht and Saudi arms dealer Khashoggi was reputedly the world's richest man.

Art imitated life when Nabila doubled as Bond villain Maximilian Largo's HQ in Never Say Never Again.

Today Abramovich is the biggest beast.

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Port d'Hercule, Monaco: one of the world's most exclusive moorings

He's got what amounts to a private navy – the Pelorus (115m), Ecstasea (86m), Sussuro (50m) and soon the £100 million, 147m Eclipse. This has its own submarine, two £1 million Eurocopters and a Royal Navy-trained crew of 70.

The Dubai, owned by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice-President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, is the world's largest yacht.

It's 158m long, weighs 14,000 tons and has a squash court, a submarine and helipad for a Black Hawk chopper.

The Dubai started life in the late Nineties as the Golden Star, one of the disgraced Prince Jefri of Brunei's many vanity projects, until his brother the Sultan started chasing him for a few billion dollars that had disappeared. (Jefri also once owned a 50m yacht named Tits, complete with two tenders, Nipple One and Nipple Two.)

Close on its heels is the 147m Prince Abdul Aziz, built in 1984 and fitted out in Southampton, which has a fully equipped hospital, a mosque, a 65-strong crew and, supposedly, surface-to-air missiles and an underwater surveillance system.

The boats have become so vast that there's a new super-yacht accessory – the spare superyacht, which an owner can use as a supply vessel and dumping ground for all their boys' toys.

Neither boat is used to travel very far.

When their summer of fun ends, the superyacht crowd head to the Caribbean, but don't bother with bracing 60-knot Atlantic storms.

The boats are ferried to the marinas of St Barts and St Maarten in 'float on, float off' yacht carriers such as the 209m Yacht Express.

Travelling at 18 knots over eight to 15 days, the Yacht Express can transport several super-yachts to the Caribbean in half the time an individual boat would take to complete the voyage.

 The expenses appear to be endless.

Running costs are five to ten per cent of the boat's value. Moorings are prohibitively expensive – some on the Côte d'Azur have changed hands for as much as £4.8 million.

To park his 128m yacht Octopus (helicopter, 20m internal submarine dock, recording studio) at the International Yacht Marina in nearby Antibes, Paul Allen bought a 55.5m yacht complete with berth, sold the yacht to make room for Octopus and then parked his giga-yacht in its place.

Britain is one of the key beneficiaries of superyacht madness; in this realm we remain a global naval power.

We build them – lots of them – in tailor-made shipyards and then we sell them; our sales tact and diplomacy is a natural fit with the superyacht clientele.

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Guests at the Vijay Mallya party onboard the Indian Empress in Monaco

The biggest boat Beckett is currently handling is 133m, and he has another 96m yacht being built at Devonport in Plymouth, Western Europe's biggest shipyard. He is also in negotiations over another two boats worth nearly £500 million.

As a rule of thumb, the cost of building a gigayacht is roughly £800,000 per metre, and on a £50 million deal Beckett would be looking to earn around five per cent commission.

'It sounds like a lot of money,' he says. 'And it is… But we have very high overheads. It's not just the staff, it's the publicity, the advertising, the travel, the entertaining, maintaining the relationship; it's booking the helicopters to take clients out to look at boats.

'Some of the biggest deals are the quickest ones.

We sold one boat two years ago for £50 million. The buyer looked at it on a Friday and he said, "It's my birthday next Thursday. I want to own the boat by next Thursday". And we did it. But the average time it takes to sell a yacht is between one and two years.'

In 1993, there were fewer than 700 private owners with boats longer than 78m. Today, there are an estimated 7,000 yachts over that length.

British designers such as Terence Disdale and Donald Starkey are flying the flag when it comes to interior and exterior styling. Even architect Norman Foster has got in on the act, designing a space-age £8 million yacht due for delivery this year.

Since the millennium, an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 new superyachts have come on to the market, but demand is so high that you'd have to wait until 2012 to take delivery of a new build.

There is such demand for these yachts that the industry is praying that a few hard-up hedge funders will be forced to put their boats up for sale – not that there is any evidence of financial woes in Monaco.

'There's definitely an element of mine is bigger than yours,' says Beckett. 'In the past, boating was a form of glorified camping, but now you've got incredible facilities – spas, gymnasiums, cinemas, recording studios, you name it.

It's a great challenge to build one of these things. They [the super-rich] see it as creating a sculpture, a work of art. It's also a great business tool.'

The gigayacht owner tends to have a distinct character.

They crave privacy – all superyachts these days are equipped with CCTV, motion detectors and, depending on your cruising grounds and status, armed guards. And they are overwhelmingly self-made men, often from a humble background with a limited education; they are ambitious, very driven, big risk takers and possess an acute attention to detail.

'Our clients are very hands-on,' says Beckett. 'They take great interest in the way the logo looks, the way the magazines are stacked, the way the coffee is served. They care about every aspect of their business.'

Chartering is often an entrée to the world of super-yachting for the uninitiated rich keen to live out their dreams. A lot of punters dip their toes in the water having been a guest on a yacht. Others are tempted to reach for the chequebook at high-end events – and one of the most important is the Antibes Yacht Show.

In the marina in Antibes sits the 58.5m, £13 million Magna Grecia. Built in 1986 in Germany and refitted in 2006, with a new interior by Terence Disdale and exterior by Donald Starkey, it has luxurious accommodation for 12 guests, a presidential master suite and a built-in disco with an illuminated dancefloor.

Posing on the aft deck with some of her 14 equally immaculate crewmates is 31-year-old German chief stewardess Diana Kerkhoff, a tall, sultry brunette dressed in a figure-hugging naval uniform.

Strolling through the cream-and-beige interior of the Magna Grecia, with rose petals and buckets of champagne tastefully positioned, Kerkhoff uses a remote control to change the lighting scheme from crimson to turquoise to green.

Guests at the Vijay Mallya party onboard the Indian Empress in Monaco

'A boat like this is all about showing off,' she says. 'Generally, anything you want is possible. The only things we don't close our eyes to are drugs and guns.' There are exceptions, however. 'When you go through Suez you need to have armed guards because of the threat of kidnapping.'

Kerkhoff, whose fiancé is the captain, has worked in superyachting for more than seven years. In that time she's seen some strange behaviour from guests.

'I once had to get a golden Ferrari for the Prince of Abu Dhabi,' she says. 'Gulf Arabs will come on board with a suitcase full of Bulgari and just tip it onto the bed without even knowing what's in it.'

She says the Russians – the 'golden geese' of super-yachting – are at least easy to satisfy because their tastes are predictable.

'But they make short-term decisions, so it's hard to know if you're going to have a "Russian Season".

They think money can buy anything. They think by offering £40,000 to get 1,000 people on the boat they can have their way.' Strictly speaking, a commercially chartered yacht can only accommodate a maximum of 12 guests.

 To charter this floating boutique hotel, which can cover 4,000 miles without refuelling, will set you back £180,000 a week.

And that's just for the boat and the crew. Once she's moving, the Magna Grecia's two 1,550hp Caterpillar engines will eat up £400 of fuel per hour. Food will set you back a further ten per cent of the charter fee.

'We had one client who wanted £24,000 of wine and £3,200 of caviar for one week,' says Kerkhoff. But those who spend big are expected to tip big. Unless you want to look like the tightest billionaire on the block, the going rate is ten per cent of the charter fee.

This season, some of the biggest charter deals will amount to £80,000 a day, with high-rollers booking the most desirable boats for up to a month. And when a punter is paying that kind of money for a holiday, they can be extremely exacting.  

'These people aren't used to taking no for an answer,' one skipper tells me, keen to remain anonymous for fear of upsetting his celebrity boss.

He has worked for some very wealthy Arab clients and says life can be very 'challenging' when faced with a spoilt billionaire.

'When it's 4am and they've just come aboard half-cut from some nightclub and they're screaming that they want to go out on jet skis, you have to be very diplomatic. There's a fine line between giving the client what he wants and ensuring his safety.'

 Not everyone is in the game merely to pose. Wayne and Coleen Rooney hired the £40 million Alysia for their wedding reception, but weatherbeaten Kiwi paper-pulp magnate John Spencer frowns upon the use of superyachts as fashionable status symbols.

'I don't want to sit here and drink gin and tonic. I want to drive the thing,' he says.

 We are sitting on the rear deck of his pride and joy – T6, a bespoke 49m exploration yacht built in New Zealand and completed in 2007.

In a watertight hangar underneath its aft deck sits a £1 million Eurocopter AS 350 B3, enabling Spencer, who is retired, to rise Thunderbirds-style out of the deck and be airborne in minutes. The boat is currently up for sale.

During lunch Spencer's broker, James Clark, appears at the galley door with a colleague.

'This is Peter,' he says. 'I'm just going to show him round.' After a brief introduction the brokers disappear. A while later they return. 'So what do you think of her?' asks Spencer of his pride and joy.

Peter pauses. 'Lovely boat,' he says, 'but it won't be easy selling her.'

He explains that the market is more interested in the generic superyachts that pack the marinas of the Côte d'Azur.

Bespoke yachts tend to have the stamp of their owners to such an extent that the average multimillionaire or billionaire feels like they're buying someone else's dream. And when your bank account runneth over, it's your own fantasies you want to live out, not the next guy's.

'Bloody car salesmen,' Spencer says of his brokers once the pair have left. 'They'd sell anything for a buck.'

He invites his skipper, Nigel, to start up the motors. They're preparing to head off for the northern reaches of Norway. Along with a six-man crew, the pair sailed T6 to Monaco from New Zealand, via French Polynesia, the Panama Canal, the Caribbean and the Atlantic. I ask Spencer what his favourite cruising ground is. 'The world,' he says. 'And for me the world isn't big enough.

At 3am on the Indian Empress, the party's still in full swing. The two bikini-clad dancers continue to gyrate frantically in their cages on the upper deck. Superstar DJ David Morales is sending the crowd into a frenzy with pounding house music.

Out over the balcony, the grockles are now five deep at the quayside entrance, and still desperate to get in.

Another glass of champagne arrives on a tray. I have made a very good friend called Maria, a lithe Brazilian girl who has been extremely complimentary about me.

That's the thing about yachts – their aura of flash cash can make anyone look good.

We study the billions of dollars worth of superyachts festooned with pretty little lights and shimmering in the marina. We can see no glimmer of a credit crunch.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1029342/Forget-yachts--super-rich-settle-gigayachts.html#ixzz25d46BQAi