Tycoon Roman Abramovitch’s record-size luxury yacht – a floating palace with swimming pools, a dance floor, and even an anti-missile shield – has set off from Hamburg.

The construction of motor yacht Eclipse started in 2006 and she underwent sea trials in May 2010 after years of design, development and construction. Due to some delays the megayacht Eclipse has only now left the Blohm + Voss shipyard based in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday 9th of December 2010.

The yacht is 170 m (560 ft) long. This makes Eclipse the world’s largest private yacht, 11 metres (36 ft) longer than the world’s previous biggest yacht Dubai, which belongs to Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai. The yacht’s initial cost was estimated at € 340 million (circa $485 million US), but a September 2009 report indicated that final costs could approach € 800 million ($1.2 billion US).

Her interior design was conceived by London-based Terence Disdale Design / Greenline Yacht Interiors.

Eclipse has two helicopter pads, 24 guest cabins, two swimming pools (One 16m swimming pool on deck), several hot tubs and a disco hall. It also comes equipped with three launch boats, and a mini-submarine that is capable of submerging to 50 meters. Approximately 80 crew members are needed to operate the yacht.

For security, Eclipse is fitted with intruder detection systems and a German-built missile defense system. The windows in Abramovich’s master suite and the yacht’s bridge are also fitted with bullet-proof glass and both are armor plated.The yacht is also reportedly equipped with an anti-paparazzi shield in the form of lasers that sweep the surroundings, and when they detect a CCD, they shine a light right at the camera to prevent the photograph. According to The Times, these don’t run all the time, so friends and guests should still be able to take pictures. Instead, they will be activated when guards spot likely professional photographers nearby.

Eclipse cruise speed is 22 nautical miles per hour and top speed reaches 25 knots. According to a Norweigan Journalist for Fvn.no, once Eclipse had to refuel, the bill came to 4.5mill Norweigan Kroner, approximately €600.000.

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Roman Abramovich has become so frustrated over delays to the completion of his new £310 million superyacht Eclipse that he has allegedly threatened to withhold the final payment for the vessel.

The Eclipse, the biggest and most luxurious private yacht ever built, was due to be delivered on December 22 this year.

But four years after it was originally commissioned, the 548ft (167m) yacht is months behind schedule, stretching the Russian billionaire’s patience to breaking point.

The oligarch’s representatives have held a series of anxious meetings with the managers of the German shipyard which has built the superyacht, at which it has become clear that it is unlikely to be ready until some time in 2010. Mr Abramovich, 43, is now said to be concerned that the yacht might not be ready in time to sail him to next summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

Mr Abramovich’s new plaything is aptly named, as it will eclipse every luxury yacht previously built. It will be more than 20ft longer than the biggest yacht currently in existence, the Dubai, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and is two-thirds the length of the German battleship Bismarck, which was built in the same shipyard, Blohm & Voss in Hamburg.

The Eclipse is so big that it would not even fit inside Stamford Bridge, the home of Mr Abramovich’s football club Chelsea FC, where the pitch is a mere 337ft (103m) long.

It has two helipads, two swimming pools, 24 guest suites, each of which has its own 6ft cinema screen, and will need a crew of around 60.

The master bedroom is even reported to have a sliding roof, so that Mr Abramovich and his 26-year-old girlfriend, Daria Zhukova, can sleep under the stars.

It also has glass walls on the sides of some cabins, overlooking the sea, with glass thick enough to stop bullets, though some of the more far-fetched claims about the yacht’s security equipment, including reports that it has a missile defence system, a submarine and armour plating, have been denied by sources close to Mr Abramovich, who is worth an estimated £8.5 billion.

Although the boat was launched in September, work on fitting out the interior will take months.

Stewart Lansley, co-author of a book on oligarchs called Londongrad: From Russia with Cash, said: “I’m told Roman Abramovich is, understandably, concerned about the successive delays, particularly in view of the fact that he has started to unload other yachts in his fleet. His patience has inevitably been tested and he is no doubt worried that his plans for the World Cup will be interrupted. »

Mr Abramovich is also having to contend with delays to the building schedule of a second, smaller yacht he has ordered, the 374ft (114m) Luna, which is under construction in Bremerhaven, Germany. It has space for 14 guests and is also expected to be completed in 2010.

Meanwhile, Mr Abramovich, who once owned four yachts, is having to make do with just one, the 163ft (50m) Sussurro, though he still occasionally uses the 377ft (115m) Pelorus, which was handed over to his ex-wife Irina as part of their multi-million pound divorce settlement in 2007.

A third boat, Ecstasea, was sold in June in expectation of the Eclipse being ready to replace it, and the fourth, Le Grand Bleu, was gifted to his business partner Evgeny Shvidler, three years ago.

A spokesman for Mr Abramovich declined to comment on whether the yacht was behind schedule or whether any of the money might be withheld, but penalty clauses for late completion are not uncommon in contracts for boat building.

ThyssenKrupp, the owners of the Blohm & Voss shipyard, would not discuss the Eclipse, citing client confidentiality.

Source

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A lack of orders had almost sunk the shipbuilding subsidiaries of German steelmaking giant ThyssenKrupp. Now, an investor from Abu Dhabi is buying a large chunk of the operation. German commentators praise the move, but note how the financial crisis has forced Germany to be less picky about foreign investors.

Germany’s shipping industry has taken a pounding in recent years. And shipbuilding hasn’t been doing much better. Shipyards belonging to ThyssenKrupp, Germany’s largest steelmaker, haven’t seen a new foreign contracts for 11 years, with orders instead going to cheaper foreign competitors. And until recently, its books had been filled with orders for luxury yachts — but almost all of them have been cancelled. The time to act — or jump ship, as some would have it — has arrived.On Thursday, the company announced it was selling off a large chunk of its Blohm + Voss shipbuilding operations to the Abu Dhabi-based MAR Group. In addition to creating a new joint venture for the manufacture of military vessels, MAR Group will also take over 80 percent of the ThyssenKrupp subsidiaries Blohm + Voss Shipyards, Blohm + Voss Repair and Blohm + Voss Industries. MAR Group already acquired a 90 percent share in Nobiskrug Shipyard in Rendsburg, Germany, in July.

Just as the US erupted in umbrage when Dubai Ports World sought to acquire a number of ports on America’s East Coast in 2006, Germans have, in the past, been wary of Arab investment into its key industries. Indeed, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government passed a law during her first term intending to protect important German companies from being sold to investors outside the European Union, particularly those based in Russia, China or the Arab world.

Under that law, the ThyssenKrupp deal is subject to government approval. But so far, the loudest protests have come from the labor union IG Metall, which fears a loss of shipbuilding jobs. There is little indication that Berlin might put the kibosh on the significant Arab investment.

And that has German commentators scratching their heads on Friday.

The center-left Sà¼ddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“It’s hardly been two years since Angela Merkel and her government erected a defensive wall around Germany’s companies. The government … wanted to use a law to prevent sovereign wealth funds and state-owned companies from Russia, Asia and the Arab world from snapping up the best companies in the country and allowing ‘Made in Germany’ technology to be copied in China, Siberia or the Persian Gulf. Merkel was encouraged by business lobbyists, who were warning her in the strongest of terms about hostile foreign investors.”

“Two years and a financial crisis later, no one cares about this law anymore. Government leaders in Berlin allowed Arab investors to invest in the industrial services company MAN Ferrostaal and a state-owned Russian bank to take over Opel. Now the country’s most storied shipbuilder, Blohm + Voss, looks set to be sold to an Arab investor.”

“This won’t be the last of such transactions. At the moment, Arab and Chinese and even some Russian investors are drowning in the very cash that so many companies here need. The financial crisis has swept away a lot of things in Germany. One is these is the protectionism established in an era when the economy could still afford it.”

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

“What a change in climate. Two years ago, German politicians and business lobbyists were fighting over the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act (AWG). … And now Abu Dhabi wants to team up with the Blohm + Voss shipyards to build warships — and the government’s alarm bells lie silent.”

“It would appear that the government is right to stay out of it. The construction of submarines, with their highly sensitive military technology, will remain entirely under the control of Thyssenkrupp. The joint construction of standard frigates presents no security risk to either Germany or its NATO partners. Even if Abu Dhabi was insane enough to want to arm itself and attack Europeans, they could easily get their hands on warships somewhere else.”

“Shat have we learned about the amended AWG over the last two years? So far, it appears as if it were just as unnecessary as it was harmless…. Contrary to what critics feared, it has in no way deterred foreign investment, and it has not been used in the cause of protectionism. Germany, the world’s export leader, has realized that it needs the rest of the world not just as a place to sell its products. It has also realized that, without rescuers from the East, a number of companies in the banking, auto manufacturing and shipbuilding industries would have had to shut their doors.”

The business daily Handelsblatt writes:

“ThyssenKrupp’s executive board has succeeded in accomplishing what few thought possible — a coup that liberates it from its shipbuilding division…. It had no other choice.”

“Thanks to the ongoing economic crisis, the company has its back against the wall. Its losses are piling up, and both politicians and unions are reducing any wiggle room the company’s management might still have. In civil shipbuilding, the situation is hopeless … and things are hardly any better in the military branch. The only area in which Thyssen has remained competitive is in submarine construction, which will remain in German hands.”

“The partial sale of the shipbuilding division … shouldn’t be a source of anxiety to the government. Investors from the United Arab Emirates are dependable partners who will be very careful about making cuts in facilities or jobs.”

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

“For the global marine industry, the real potential for business does not lie with making attack and battle-ready ships more suited for national fleets. Instead, the real growth potential is to be found in vessels for guarding coasts. The real demands of the future are fighting weapons or drug smugglers and suppressing terrorist activities. For such tasks, the small, flexible ships made by Blohm + Voss are perfectly suited. At the same time, though, its shipbuilding operations have become one of the biggest millstones around ThyssenKrupp’s neck. Dozens of orders have been cancelled, and there are no new orders coming for ships for either civilian or military use. And the 6,000 employees working in Hamburg, Kiel and Emden are threatened with very severe job cuts.”

“This explains, in turn, why Germany’s federal government and the affected states have been able to accept the investors ThyssenKrupp has found with a smile. The emirate might just turn out to be able to open doors to others countries that want or need to invest in coast-guarding vessels. And the clientele for mega-yachts continues to be located primarily in this region.”

Source : Spiegel Online

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On the 12 of June 2009 Roman Abramovich’s motor yacht ECLIPSE underwent a preliminary launch at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The superyacht will undergo further construction and finishing before being delivered to her owner later in the year.

You can see a video of the yacht’s launching here: http://www.liveyachting.com/ambramovich-super-yacht-eclipse-launch

The massive displacement superyacht ECLIPSE was designed by Hermidas Atabeyki with interior designs by the very well know designer Terrence Disdale. The mega yacht, which after her launch is now the largest private yacht in the world will have a gross tonnage of around 13,000 tonnes.

No public confirmation about the yacht’s size or specific features has been made, however she is understood (but as yet to be confirmed) to measure 170 metres, which indeed makes her the world’s largest yacht in length by around eight meters. She is larger than the UAE royal yacht DUBAI, now second largest, which is just over 162 meters long.

The Thyssenkrupp Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg, is a large industrial giant in Germany and the shipbuilder has been understandably tight-lipped about mega yacht ECLIPSE.

The yacht was expected to be delivered to her owner Roman Abramovich in late 2009, or accordingy to some reports, sometime in 2010. Abramovich’s is now the owner of four motor yachts: Pelorus, Sussurro and Ecstasea and Eclipse. Mr Abramovich used to own “Le Grand Bleu, » however that explorer style mega yacht was presented to his associate and friend, Eugene Shvidler in June of 2006.

The rest of his boats measure: the Pelorus (377ft), the Ecstasea ( 282ft) and the Sussurro (161ft). All of these yachts are huge by world terms, and in the top 100 largest yachts, however the Eclipse dwarfs them all.

M/Y Eclipse is reported to have at least two helicopter pads, several jacuzzis, a swimming pool, three larger tenders, and a private submarine. There have also been reports about the motor yacht’s various high tech security technology, such as motion sensors, armour plating, and escape sub and a special missile detection defense system.

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