Choosing the right Megayacht can be such a problem - Steel, Aluminium, GRP? Traditional Megayacht or an 'Explorere' style expedition vessel?

Fortunately, the team here at PortMac.News is ready to help you make the right choice.

So first lets define what a megayacht is.

A mega yacht is another name for a privately owned yacht that measures over 24 metres long and carries a professional crew.

There are currently more than 10,000 mega yachts in the world, with around 150 new yachts delivered each year.

Motor yachts are the most popular by far, with sailing yachts counting for less than 20% of all mega yachts in existence.

How big are mega yachts?

Mega yachts are most commonly 35 – 40 metres long. However they can be as big as cruise ships: Azzam, the biggest mega yacht in the world is 180 metres long – bigger than cruise ship Costa Voyager.

One of the oldest mega yachts in the world is Olympus, a 28.35 metre classic yacht that was commissioned by Wall Street investor George Callendine Heck to transport him from his Long Island estate to Wall Street.

Olympus is the oldest mega yacht currently for sale, and she has a colourful history: she was once conscripted by the U.S Navy; bought by the state of Washington, when she was refitted and named Olympus and became part of a political scandal; and has been used by a number of notable people including Harry Truman, Al Pacino and Robin Williams.

How popular are mega yachts?

There are over 700 mega yachts for sale right now. What’s interesting is that there is an even spread across all sizes but there are far more motor yachts for sale, with sailing yachts for sale making up just 12% of the mix.

There are 734 new mega yachts in construction or on order. The average size of these yachts is 41 metres.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Mega-Yachts (and Their Owners)

Yacht-setters, i.e. the maritime equivalent to jet-setters, circle the globe on mega yachts, the price tags of which can easily equal the yearly-budgets for a small nation.

We asked Sean Blue, Head of Global Watercraft for AIG Private Client Group (which represents the owners of more that 300 80-foot-plus super yachts worldwide), to tell us about Megayachts and their owners.

Who are the owners of super yachts?

Mega yacht owners include CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, captains of industry, entertainers, engineers, inventors, rulers, owners of manufacturing companies, billionaires, and generally people who are leaders in their fields.

Mega yachts are generally defined as yachts greater than 100 feet or longer, all the way up to the current largest yacht in the world—AZZAM, which is 180.6 meters long (594 feet).

Tell me about the distances these yachts can navigate.

This depends on the specifications of the yacht and what it was designed for.

Some are not designed to travel long distances and instead are built for speed, or for local cruising, or with maybe enough range to make a trans-Atlantic crossing safely.

But others are built with an incredible amount of range in mind and can travel some 8,000 nautical miles without refueling, while others are designed to explore arctic regions, or both.

Circumnavigations are not uncommon and large yachts regularly make ocean transits—whether cruising from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, or en route to Fiji across the Pacific.

The only real limitations are time and money. And for most mega yacht owners, it’s just time.

Are these really ships—how do you differentiate a yacht from a ship?

Some of them really are ships and are built that way, but the difference lies in how they are used.

A yacht is a vessel built for the pleasure of her owner.

The best yachts are built to commercial ship standards in terms of seaworthiness, safety, and technology; often times even a higher standard.

How about the price tag for these yachts?

$1,000,000 a meter is the rule of thumb, but this can vary depending on the design, builder, systems, interiors and a great many other things.

The largest yacht currently in the world, AZZAM, is reported to have cost over $700M to build. In addition to the yachts themselves are the interior décors and furnishings, wine collections, fine art collections, and its “toys” and tenders (support vessels).

What happens when a yacht breaks down on the other side of the globe?

Mega yachts are managed and run by highly trained professionals from the captains and crews to the yacht managers that are often hired to manage all the aspects of owning and running a yacht.

Not unlike the world of aviation, maintenance is ongoing, so an all-out breakdown on the water whereby you have a dead ship is a relatively rare occurrence.

Fire aboard a yacht is actually a little more common, which is the primary source of large losses on yachts that AIG has seen, and something to which we pay a lot of attention by providing shipboard fire training for crews and local firefighters in seaside communities.

Whether it’s a breakdown or a fire, after the initial response to save lives and property, the yacht may call for assistance from a neighboring ship or vessel and in some cases call a towing or salvage company for assistance to get the yacht back to the nearest safest port to evaluate damage and decide on next steps.

That is usually when specialty insurers are called to facilitate the logistics and repairs.

How does Australia fair in the worldwide Megayacht busness?

Very well actually. Australia currently has two major megayacht builders: Oceanfast & SilverYachts, both world leading builders of Aluminium vessels, and both are based in WA. In the 80's Lloyds Ships in Brisbane constructed luxury super yachts for people like Alan Bond.

Austral, the naval boat builder, is another example of Australia's excellence in ship building.

So, there  you have it. Big is beautiful, big is better. The biggest problem you'll have when you sail your new mega-yacht back to Port Macquarie will be getting it through the breakwater and down the channel!