The holiday season has brought a remarkable surge in the number of superyachts visiting the Caribbean and the Maldives.
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Some online sources confirmed that the number of yachts in the Caribbean has more than doubled from the previous month, suggesting that wealthy people from all over the world have gathered there to celebrate the holidays and the new year.
Russian Billionaires’ Christmas
More than 200 luxury boats have gathered among the islands for the start of the yachting season, up from 81 at the end of November, as reported by some reputed sources. The Rising Sun, a 454-foot superyacht designed by David Geffen, is the largest in the area. She has dropped anchor near St. Barts at the moment. The British Virgin Islands 384-foot Infinity and St. Kitts’ newest resident, Canadian-Jamaican billionaire Michael Lee-Chin and his 378-foot Ahpo, follow suit.
St. Barth’s harbour is “a little less crowded” this year (2022) because fewer Russian superyachts are docked there than usual in 2023. Former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich also has massive courts, which he might use to host a New Year’s Eve celebration in an ordinary year. The yachts of Russian businessmen were being seized all over the world because of sanctions, but he was able to keep four of his own in Turkey.
The 290-foot Lauren L has been observed in the Maldives, where there has been a noticeable increase in the number of boats for the holidays. She is the largest of the seventeen megayachts that are anchored there. The 237-foot Cloudbreak, owned by Russian real estate tycoon Alexander Svetakov, is the island of Phuket’s most talked-about attraction. He stayed for two months in an off-the-beaten-path region of Indonesia before making a brief pit stop in Singapore.
Earlier this month, Boat International announced that 600 superyachts had been sold this year for a total of roughly $4 billion, despite a difficult 2022.