Offshoreonly.com - 405' Gigayacht $$85M$$ hurry! Only 1hr left!

When it was on here last year someone said it was just adv. Plus just to set the e-bay record single item... but wait.. :D :D Did the Russians really buy it? :evilb:

Did a Russian Billionaire Buy the "Gigayacht?"

By Chris Noon, Forbes.com

(Feb. 8) - See if you can work this out. A press release appears today claiming Fort Lauderdale based 4Yacht has sold a 405-foot steel megayacht on eBay, believed to be the most expensive item ever sold on the Internet auction site.

In fact, the as-yet-unbuilt yacht is so big, it's actually a "Gigayacht", the press release adds, with a touch of gasconade--as though the author of the release said to himself "hang on old chap, megayacht sounds a bit runty", and went one bigger. Now, we love our Gigayachts--and all that sail in them--as much as the next man, but we don't expect them to be flogged on eBay along with tissues used by Paul McCartney and a ten-year-old grilled cheese sandwich that has been scorched into a silhouette of the Virgin Mary. So you can forgive us for investigating further.

Has the floating palace even been sold at all? We searched for the vessel on the auction site--sure enough, item 4611149242 popped up, a "405' stunning new Frank Mulder Design Gigayacht" with a "luxury office area, salon, cinema room, fitness room, and two person cabins for children, personal assistant, or bodyguards". So far, so good--though we'd convert the fitness room into a bar and never even contemplate taking the kids with us. Yet the item's been relisted--what happened the first time round?

The first auction ended on February 6 at 8:56 a.m., with only one bidder. That was from "markcook64", who offered ten bucks for the sumptuous harbor. We doubt Mark, if that is his name, expected to win the boat: His last purchase was a chintzy watercolor of some blue crustaceans entitled "Crabs Galore". Anyhow, maybe we and Mark are missing the point.

Below an artist's impression of the yacht, there is some bold, capitalized rubric: "This auction is for a deposit of 50% of the purchase price of $168,000,000.00 total. Custom build. Delivery in 2007." Back to Wednesday's press release, which claims the project was sold for the "Buy now" price of $85,000,000, "but 4Yacht has put the finished value at $170 million minimum".

The release then tosses Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's name into the mix, speculating the Chelsea owner could be a likely buyer--he's apparently on the hunt for a 100-meter plus yacht to add to his collection of the Pelorus, the Ecstasea and Le Grand Bleu especially as "the project's distinct resemblance to the Pelorus would be likely to have appealed" to the oligarch.

Hmm. Between the devil and the deep blue sea, there's something going on here. A call to 4Yacht was not immediately returned.

2/8/06