Haute Boats ; the Son of a London Bus Driver Who Left School at 15 Is Now the Master Yacht Designer for the World's Richest Show-Offs. Terence Disdale Talks Helipads, Sun Decks and Why Abramovich Prefers His Yachts 'Beach House Not Penthouse'

Summary

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The term 'billionaire envy' never really figured in my life until I pitched up at Terence Disdale's Richmond office. There, encased behind glass, was a model of Eclipse, the world's biggest superyacht: 170m of pure, enviable luxury - the new pride and joy of Roman Abramovich. With nine levels, a helipad, a swimming pool that turns into a dancefloor, 14 cabins, a hairdresser's, several hot tubs and a disco hall, this is really a floating city. Eclipse also comes equipped with three tenders, a mini-submarine that is capable of submerging to 50m and an 80-man crew. The boat is, naturally, fitted with intruder detection systems, a German-built missile defence system and bulletproof windows. Oh, and it has an external fireplace. 'When the sun goes down, you can sit round the fire and chat on deck,' says its charming, laid-back designer.

For Pounds 200 million, the price experts reckon the yacht set Abramovich back, you can do a lot more than that.

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Haute Boats ; the Son of a London Bus Driver Who Left School at 15 Is Now the Master Yacht Designer for the World's Richest Show-Offs. Terence Disdale Talks Helipads, Sun Decks and Why Abramovich Prefers His Yachts 'Beach House Not Penthouse'

Gigayachts, as these larger superyachts are now called, which measure more than 137m, were a pre-recession trend. There are now thought to be at least 5,000 superyachts floating the seas, many of them owned by the new school of oligarchs. All other 'garchs must now be gnashing their teeth because Eclipse is 8m longer than the world's previous biggest yacht. 'Eclipse was as small as it can be to put what it has in,' says Disdale, defendin...

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