During a recent state visit to the Caribbean, Prince Charles and his wife travelled from island to island aboard Leander, a chartered 246ft motor-yacht with a suitably English country home interior. The fact that Leander is owned by a man who made his fortune building and operating car parks probably says more about the market for superyachts than it does about the British royal family.
No longer the preserve of European royals, American industrialists or Arab princes, superyachts have replaced the private jet as the dominant emblem of entrepreneurial fortune. They are defined as anything longer than 85ft, but the latest, lengthiest incarnations far outstrip this, prompting the new monikers “mega-” or “gigayacht”.
