Camper & Nicholsons International, one of the oldest and most respected yacht brokers, sparked intrigue regarding the length of the world’s longest yacht Eclipse, owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich. In Camper & Nicholsons’ latest annual ranking of superyachts, the Russian oligarch’s yachtski is still in first place, but the gap between him and the former leader, the Dubai, is not as significant as it was previously thought. Eclipse is only 50 centimetres or 18 inches longer.

All information about Roman Abramovich’s Eclipse is strictly protected as if it was a military frigate. So there has never been confirmed information about the length of the yacht. Previously in the open sources numbers verified from 540 to 560 feet (respectively, 164.6 m to 170.9 m).

And now the latest ranking by Camper & Nicholsons says that Eclipse’s length is 162.5 m or 533.1 feet. The difference between two competitors for the title of world’s largest yacht is quite insignificant. The length of former leader yacht Dubai is 162 meters or 531 feet.

For many ship owners the length of their vessel is one of the most important parameters. They are paying millions just to be a line above in the world “table of ranks.” Providing that Dubai owner Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashi Al-Maktoum basically owns his own shipyard now — the U.A.E.’s Platinum Yachts, where the Dubai was built — he may easily reconstruct the yacht by adding extra few feet of metal to overtake the leader.

Although Abramovich is still far ahead of his country fellow men, the yacht A owned by another Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko is “only” 390 feet. The two oligarchs’ fleet is followed in the rating by 370-feet Le Grand Bleu yacht, owned by former head of Sibneft Co. Eugeniy Shvidler.

www.luxury-magazine.ru/lifestyle/in-motion/1337-malenkoe-preimushhestvo-abramovicha