Russian Billionaire Splashes Out On £292 Million Superyacht That He Designed Himself

Daily Mail: What do you do when you have £6 billion to spend? Russian billionaire splashes out on £292 million superyacht he designed himself to enjoy with his supermodel wife

* Mr Melnichenko spent €400 million (£292 million/$450million) on the luxury ship which will be named the 'Sailing Yacht A'
* It boasts eight decks, a glass observation area, measures a roomy 468 feet and weighs 14,224 tons
* The ship will have a crew of around 54 people and will be the largest privately owned sailing yacht in the world
* The masts are taller than Big Ben's tower and its sails are bigger than a football field when all are flying

It's not a dilemma that most people will ever have to worry about but what does a man worth £6billion ($9billion) do to spend his money?

Russian businessman Andrey Melnichenko has answered the billion-dollar question after building the world's largest sailing yacht - at a cost of £292 million ($450 million).

The multi-billionaire already has one luxury home on the seas - the Motor Yacht A - but has this time turned his attention to sailing power.

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Editor: He does have the money .... and he loves his yachts .... but I guess sailing is his new love.

On Board The Pelican Of London, A Diamond Jubilee Thames Pageant Tall Ship

Exclusive: On Board The Pelican Of London, A Diamond Jubilee Thames Pageant Tall Ship -- The Telegraph

The Telegraph gets exclusive access onboard one of the Tall Ships that will form part of the Avenue of Sail during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee pageant down the river Thames.

On Sunday, June 3 the Jubilee weekend will come to a climax with a seven-mile flotilla of 1,000 boats making up the biggest gathering on the Thames in 350 years.

Ships which are too tall to pass under the 14 bridges on the route will be moored downstream of Tower Bridge on an Avenue of Sail. Among them will be the Pelican of London.

The ship was originally built in France in 1946 and her conversion from Arctic trawler to tall ship was completed in 2007.

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My Comment: Impressive.

The Cutty Sark Reopens To The Public After £50m Renovation

The Cutty Sark has now finished a long restoration process, and is now welcoming visitors aboard its historic decks

Sails Set For Bright Future: The Cutty Sark Reopens To The Public After £50m Renovation -- Daily Mail

After five years and a cost of £50 million, the first visitors to the newly renovated Cutty Sark stepped aboard the world's last remaining tea-clipper in Greenwich, South London today.

Lucky members of the press got the chance to explore the rejuvenated 143-year-old vessel, which was almost destroyed by fire in 2007.

Tomorrow will see The Queen and Prince Philip officially re-open the Cutty Sark, with the general public getting their first view on April 26. Individual tickets to keen history-buffs have already been on sale for weeks.

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My Comment: They have done a fine restoration job.

Fast Sailing: Pirates Of The Caribbean (Video)

Hat Tip: John Duk from The Boathouse

Maserati's Nautical Speedster Will Try To Break The Trans-Atlantic Record

Maserati's Nautical Speedster Prepares For Atlantic Record -- Forbes

With his sunburned, deeply creased face and callus-encrusted hands, Giovanni Soldini looks distinctly out of place in downtown Manhattan as he waits in the shadows of the Battery Park skyscrapers for the weather patterns that will allow him to shove off in the 70-foot racing sailboat Maserati on a trans-Atlantic record attempt.

Soldini, 46, is leading the effort to put Maserati in the record books, not on the asphalt tracks where the Italian car maker once dominated top-level racing, but in the ocean. This week he and the rest of the boat’s eight-man crew were anxiously scanning marine weather forecasts to see if a cold front in the Atlantic would produce winds strong enough for them to shove off, perhaps Friday night, in search of a world record for distance covered in 24 hours.

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My Comment: 6 days and 17 hours is the record. I wish them luck.