Launched late last year, the 590-foot-long yacht Azzam is a quantum leap in length, cost, splendor, and Chutzpah

There’s nothing the residents of the tri-state area have earned more this year than a little time on the water. Fresh fish, a ready bar, a sober captain, and a small gathering of friends are all one needs, besides an able and willing vessel.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of United Arab Emirates, is a fellow water enthusiast, though of a slightly different order of magnitude. Delivered late last year, the sheik’s 590-foot-long yacht Azzam, is currently both the most expensive and the largest such luxury vessel in the world, built at a price of $627 million. In the ongoing competition among the mega-wealthy to own the biggest and best, the Azzam simply makes a floating jest of its nearest competitor, the comparatively puny 536-footlong Eclipse, owned by Russian billionaire Roman
Abramovich. With exterior design courtesy of Mario Pedol at Nauta Yachts, and a turn-of-the-century Empire style interior from Christophe Leoni, we have wonder on an almost indescribable scale here. Built in a mere three years by Lürssen Yachts in Bremen, Germany (a record for superyacht construction), the ship boasts a main salon nearly 100 feet long, and interior appointments that, while a guarded secret at press time, are rumored to match, if not better the Eclipse’s two swimming pools, nightclub, mini submarine, and helipads (note the plural), along with bulletproof glass and armor plating around the master bedroom area. Better yet for those with an interest in security, Azzam is rumored to sport its own missile defense system.

“In addition to being the largest yacht in the world and with a top speed of over 30 knots, she adds that record in terms of building time,” a representative from Lürssen Yachts offered. “[The mission was to] build a luxury yacht with an innovative and timeless design that would be able to travel at high speed in warm and shallow waters, whilst providing luxurious and sophisticated accommodation to its guests…[this] is, without doubt, the most complex and challenging yacht which has ever been built.” •