Oligarch Buys £200 Million Super-Yacht,
Then Sails Off to Collect Monet Paintings

Built by German Company That Constructed 
Battleship Bismarck, the Pride of Nazi Fleet

LUCY COCKCROFT / The Telegraph (UK) 16jul2008

	photo sources: above / below 17jul2008

A £200 million super-yacht has set sail on its maiden voyage to Norway, where its Russian billionaire owner stopped off to collect three Claude Monet paintings.

The futuristic vessel, which has enough room to sleep 56, is even bigger and more expensive than the pride of Roman Abramovich's fleet, Pelorus, which cost only £100 million.

It was built for a fellow Russian oligarch, Andrey Melnichenko, 37, who is worth £4.6 billion and was ranked 172 on the Forbes list of the world's richest people.

The yacht, named "A" after his catwalk model wife Aleksandra Nikolic, docked in the Norwegian port of Kristiansand, where three paintings by the French Impressionist artist Monet were loaded on board, amid an impressive security operation.

The trip came just weeks after one of Monet's famous Water Lilies paintings 'Le bassin aux nympheas' sold at Christies auction house in London for £41 million, a record price for the artist at auction.

It was bought by an unnamed buyer and its whereabouts today are unknown, raising speculation Mr Melnichenko may have been the buyer.

Mr Melnichenko is understood to have travelled to the Scandinavian country on board his 400ft super yacht because it is outside the EU and exempt from import tax laws.

He took the trip on board his 400ft super yacht, which features a swimming pool, a large master suite, six luxury cabins for up to 14 guests and enough room for 42 crew members.

Other details of the interior have been kept strictly secret by its German builders Blohm and Voss, who constructed the battleship Bismarck, the pride of the Nazi fleet in World War Two.

But it is rumoured to have helicopter hanger and two 30ft long speed boats which are kept in hatches on both sides of the hull.

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich owns four super-yachts, the most impressive of which is the 377ft Pelorus, 23ft smaller than "A".

However, he has ordered a fifth boat, to be named Eclipse, from the same company as Mr Melnichenko. It is believed to be 482ft - the world's third largest yacht.

Mr Melnichenko was a founder of worldwide MDM Bank and went on to become its president from 1997 to 2001.

He also invested in a number of Russian industrial businesses, including Siberian coal company SUEK and mineral company Eurochem.

source: 17jul2008

Smooth Sailing Gets Ugly
With Russian Billionaire's New Yacht

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

ROBERT FRANK / Wall Street Journal 17jul2008

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.

While longer than a football field, A barely ranks among the 10 largest private yachts in the world, trailing just behind Octopus, the 416-footer owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The cost — at least $300 million — is also not a record. Eclipse, the unfinished yacht of fellow Russian Roman Abramovich, is more than 500 feet long and cost at least $100 million more. Mr. Melnichenko's boat, at cruising speed, burns about 691 gallons of diesel fuel per hour.

The reason A is stirring up the boat world is its radical design. Created by Philippe Starck, the superstar French designer of lemon squeezers and luxury hotels, A is a deliberate slap in the face to an industry known for its classic conformity.

Instead of a fat hull, supporting many levels of open-air dining areas, wet bars and sun decks, A is streamlined and largely enclosed — more like a space helmet than a floating palace. The bow slopes like a monster pontoon away from the boat instead of toward it. While common for warships of the early 20th century — and allowing A to create little or no splash at 24 knots — the design is unusual in modern megayachts.

"A is aggressive, like a giant finger pointing at you," says Donald Starkey, a leading British yacht designer. "It seems to have nothing to do with the whole idea of yachting, which is about cruising around at a leisurely pace, and enjoying your friends and the sea."

Adds Jonathan Beckett, CEO of the yacht-brokerage firm Burgess: "A boat like this has never been done before, and it will probably never be done again."

A's interior breaks even more rules. According to people who worked on the boat, A's rooms are outfitted with cream-colored leather walls and stainless-steel fixtures — a departure from mahogany, gold and bronze. Its six guest suites can be transformed by movable walls to create four larger suites. Stainless-steel whirlpool baths are showcased at the center of several of the rooms.

Mr. Melnichenko's oversized bed, perched at the top of the tower, rotates on a giant turntable (with built-in entertainment systems) to give him better views out of the panoramic windows. Along with its two swimming pools — one in the front and one in back — A sports a helipad, a hovercraft and a garage for the owner's car. The ship, which has a crew of 35, has more than 100 audio speakers, and more than a dozen plasma TV screens, many of which are disguised as mirrors. Guests in any of the rooms can watch DVDs from a centralized library of more than 2,000 titles.

Tight Security

Security is tight. Doors are unlocked by electronic finger pads and guests can't gain access to the owner's suite or control rooms. The hull is outfitted with spotlights and motion sensors.

A spokesman for Mr. Melnichenko declined to comment on the boat. Mr. Starck also declined to comment, citing the owner's privacy. Speaking generally of the boat that would become A in an interview last year with Yachts magazine, he said: "Physically it is more a fish than a building...it is sort of a stealth yacht."

With A, Mr. Melnichenko wanted to redefine yachting from the inside out. The Belarus-born math whiz founded MDM Bank, one of Russia's largest banks. He has also invested in coal, chemicals and steel companies, and has a fortune estimated at more than $4 billion, according to people close to him.

In 2005, Mr. Melnichenko married Aleksandra Nikolic, a former supermodel who sang with a Yugoslavian pop group called Models. Mrs. Melnichenko describes herself on her Web site as a "passionate aficionado of haute couture."

Since Mr. Melnichenko started building A when he was still a bachelor, the boat was planned to be an eye-catching party boat. A 480-square-yard disco was slated for the back of the boat, along with a bar made of Baccarat crystal and a water-resistant karaoke platform.

Pet Project

After the marriage, Mrs. Melnichenko turned A into one of her pet projects. Tossing out some of Mr. Starck's interiors, she remade the palate in neutral tones. She added the leather walls and ceilings in the guest suites, all done in "Panama Beige."

She downsized the disco and commissioned new, more practical furniture with the aim of turning Mr. Starck's "hotel into more of a home," according to someone close to the project.

The famously headstrong Mr. Starck didn't take kindly to some of the changes, say people involved. "He's not used to being second-guessed by supermodels," says one builder. Mrs. Melnichenko prevailed on most of the changes.

The boat's name comes from the first letter of both Mr. and Mrs. Melnichenko's first names. The same "A" design was used as a logo motif at their 2005 wedding in the Côte d'Azur. The boat was finally delivered to the Melnichenkos last month after repeated delays and is currently headed to the Mediterranean.

The boat is already attracting criticism on the Internet. Reacting to snapshots taken during the ship's sea trials in the Baltic, one yacht enthusiast on yachtspotter.com wrote: "Starck shouldn't design yachts. It's a monster." Several boat enthusiasts compared it to Northrop Grumman's Zumwalt-class of naval destroyers, while another posted a picture of an Imperial Star Destroyer and wrote that Mr. Starck had "ripped off" George Lucas.

It may be a little early to think of selling A, but megayacht owners frequently do put their boats on the market soon after launching them so they can build larger (or different) ones. "I think the buyers for A will be few and far between," says Mr. Beckett, the yacht broker. "But who knows, maybe the owners will just decide to enjoy it."

source: p.A1 17jul2008