Friday, 5th September 2008

 

17 July 2008 - By ROBERT FRANK, The Wall Street Journal

Smooth Sailing Gets Ugly With Russian Billionaire's New Yacht

Designer Philippe Starck Takes Some Hits For Boat Resembling Warship; 'Stealth' Look

Boaters in the Baltic Sea this past spring spotted a strange ship slicing through the waters off Kiel, Germany.

The 390-foot vessel, sheathed in white, had a knifelike hull and a three-story, bulbous watchtower. Some guessed it was a radar-deflecting warship, given its smooth lines and wraparound tinted windows. Others speculated that it was submersible.

The boat's only identifying marker was a single letter emblazoned on the stern: "A."

Motor Yacht A, its official name, is actually a private yacht built for Andrey Melnichenko, the 36-year-old Russian billionaire industrialist. While Mr. Melnichenko has done his best to keep the boat a secret, A is already making waves in the yachting world and becoming a public symbol of Russian wealth gone wild.

READ THE FULL STORY BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW

Read the full article

Most Read

  1. HSBC Private Bank takes a knock in Switzerland
  2. Credit Suisse hires Citigroup bankers for regional wealth unit
  3. UBS Head Of Private Banking: No Bank Units For Sale
  4. Billionaire's pearl necklace halves in value
  5. Swiss private bank sees surge in new money with reorganisation

Brummel

Headline

Doing the Continental

Frank Sinatra had it about right: “It's very subtle, the Continental, because it does what you want it to do.” I had spent the morning driving down relatively busy A roads behind a Ferrari 599 but was perfectly happy that I had got the better of the deal. It’s no hardship being cocooned in the plush cockpit of a Bentley Continental GT Speed listening to John Humphrys detailing the latest travails of our benighted government.

Rich Monitor

Headline

Russia’s richest man increases his property interests

Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska has raised his stake in the managing company of the emerging business district of Moscow City to 84% after buying out fellow oligarchs Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin.

More from Rich Monitor

  1. Russia’s richest man increases his property interests
  2. Hendrix guitar torch to sell for half a million
  3. Rich get even richer, report
  4. Divorce is too pricey for the wealthy
  5. Wealthy Europeans set to pledge €1 trillion to save the planet

2nd Floor, Stapleton House, 29-33 Scrutton Street, London, EC2A 4HU

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7309 7788

Company No 3089347