Son of African President Obiang to buy £233m yacht

Rumors or news ?
The yacht consulting company Kusch Yachts had been asked to build a 390ft vessel in a secret project codenamed Zen. The owner is Teodorin Obian, son of African President Obiang.

The planned delivery date is 2012, but construction has not yet started. The superyacht will include a cinema, restaurant, bar and swimming pool.

The Daily Mail on line reported that "Obiang, 41, is the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president Teodoro Obiang, who took power in a bloody 1979 coup and is reportedly grooming his son to succeed him."

Read more here

Madoff's yacht "Bull" to be auctioned

Madoff's "Bull" is Port Gallice - Antibes Juan les Pins

"Bull", the Bernard Madoff's Leopard 27m is on the market with Wyles Hardy & Co.
The yacht will be auctioned on behalf of Grant Thornton UK LLP - the Joint Liquidators of Madoff Securities Intenrational Ltd.

This 2007 yacht is currently lying in Gibraltar.

Check out the detail of the auction here

Yacht tax for the Chinese owner too ?

People's Daily Online reported that Owners of yachts - a luxury that is gaining popularity among China's newly rich - will have to pay an annual vessel tax based on the length of their craft if a draft law is passed by the top legislature.

Liu Dianfang, chairman of the yacht industry association in Xiamen, in East China's Fujian province, estimated there are 300 luxury yachts in China that each has a value of 3 million yuan or more.

Read the post here

Charter: French VAT exemption

If you are interested in knowing a little more about the recent change in the VAT regulation, read the latest Yachting VAT note published by Moore Stephens Monaco here.
Publication > Yachting Publicatiuon > Yachting VAT note

Ben Ali's nephew yacht theft

According to the French newspaper Nice Matin, Moaez and Imed Trabelsi, ordered the theft of three yachts in France (French Riviera and Corsica) in 2005.
A french captain who helped to sail the yachts to Tunisia was jailed for several months, but Ben Ali's nephews have never been prosecuted...

Read the article here: http://tinyurl.com/6x6rkgp

Picture of the day: San Lorenzo SL104

This superb San lorenzo SL 104 was spotted between the Lerins islands today.

Berezosky's yachts seized in France

French authorities have impounded two yachts believed to belong to fugitive Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said on Thursday.

Following the sale of the 360ft Darius in October 2008, Russian billionaire and former politician Boris Berezovsky was ordered by a British court yesterday to pay Edmiston Company a £6-million ($9.3-million) sales commission...

Read the article here

Russia: next charter destination to explore ?

The website Barentsobserver.com recently reported that the Russia aims at drawing more sailing tourists and opens up Russian waters for sailing boats and yachts under foreign flag.

Good to know: it normally takes about three months to get a permit to sail in Russian waters with a yacht or sailing boat under foreign flag...

Read the article here

You Think Houses Are a Slow Sell ? Try a Yacht

Interesting facts and figures: "300 new boats were sold annually worldwide from the mid-1990s until the 2008 collapse, when sales dropped to about 100 boats. "

Article published by the NYTimes here

Superyacht: more tax to come...

According to the Triton website "Seven megayachts docked more than half the year in Charleston, S.C., have been sent property tax bills for their vessels, according to a story yesterday in The Post and Courier newspaper."

To read the whole story, click here.