Abramovich Launches his new Mega Yacht
Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich’s mega-yacht ‘Eclipse’ has finally made a preliminary launch at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany where it was built secretly for more than two years. Estimated to have cost around $500 million, the vessel is nearly 170 meters long. It has room for 24 guests, with a crew of 70. It is 13,000 tonnes, and can achieve a top speed of 33 knots. Its cruising speed is 22 knots. There are two pools on board the yacht, a movie theater and a dance floor and it will cost up to 30 million EUR a year to maintain the yacht, Deutsche Welle reported with reference to Bild. An engineer who worked on it said: “Abramovich wanted everything top of the range, from the toilet roll holders to the sound system. It has all been custom-built for him with a multi-million dollar defence system. Attackers don’t stand a chance.”
The body of the yacht is made of the bullet-proof steel; armored glass was used for the windows. The vessel is equipped with the German-made missile defense alarm system and has two helicopter sheds (with helicopters) on the deck. The yacht comes complete with three boats and a mini-submarine that can submerge at a depth of up to 50 meters. Civilian ships are not allowed to carry weapons and so have to limit themselves to defense systems, but Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz gets around this by having his 482-ft. yacht registered as a Royal Saudi Navy vessel, said to be equipped with French-made Exocet missiles.The Eclipse will literally eclipse the recently-debuted $350 million, 531-ft. Dubai owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai. L’Eclipse was built in Germany at Blohm Voss Shipyard in Hamburg. The company made the renowned Bismarck warship, which the British Navy sent to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in 1941. The 42-year-old owner of Chelsea intends to board his new boat to travel to the next World Football Championship, which take place in South African Republic in the summer of 2010. Abramovich already owns several other superyachts, including the 377-ft. Pelorus, the 282 ft. Ecstasea and the 160 ft. Sussurro, which cost him $25 million a year to maintain, and apparently plans to keep them all.
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