'A' - What Yacht ?

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With many of the yachts looking same, this was bound to happen!


While most of the Internet has not spared a moment to look at it positively...Super Yacht 'A' could just be at the right place, but not at the right time.

Baltic Sea Boaters this past spring spotted a strange ship slicing through the waters off Kiel, Germany.

The 390-foot vessel, sheathed in white, had a knifelike hull and a three-story, bulbous watchtower. Some guessed it was a radar-deflecting warship, given its smooth lines and wraparound tinted windows. Others speculated that it was submersible.

The boat's only identifying marker was a single letter emblazoned on the stern: 'A' !

Motor Yacht A, its official name, is actually a private yacht built for Andrey Melnichenko, the 36-year-old Russian billionaire industrialist. While Mr. Melnichenko has done his best to keep the boat a secret, A is already making waves in the yachting world and becoming a public symbol of Russian wealth gone wild.


While longer than a football field, A barely ranks among the 10 largest private yachts in the world, trailing just behind Octopus, the 416-footer owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The cost -- at least $300 million -- is also not a record. Eclipse, the unfinished yacht of fellow Russian Roman Abramovich, is more than 500 feet long and cost at least $100 million more. Mr. Melnichenko's boat, at cruising speed, burns about 691 gallons of diesel fuel per hour.

The reason A is stirring up the boat world is its radical design. Created by Philippe Starck, the superstar French designer of lemon squeezers and luxury hotels, A is a deliberate slap in the face to an industry known for its classic conformity.

Instead of a fat hull, supporting many levels of open-air dining areas, wet bars and sun decks, A is streamlined and largely enclosed -- more like a space helmet than a floating palace. The bow slopes like a monster pontoon away from the boat instead of toward it. While common for warships of the early 20th century -- and allowing A to create little or no splash at 24 knots -- the design is unusual in modern megayachts.

"A is aggressive, like a giant finger pointing at you," says Donald Starkey, a leading British yacht designer. "It seems to have nothing to do with the whole idea of yachting, which is about cruising around at a leisurely pace, and enjoying your friends and the sea."

Adds Jonathan Beckett, CEO of the yacht-brokerage firm Burgess: "A boat like this has never been done before, and it will probably never be done again."

A's interior breaks even more rules. According to people who worked on the boat, A's rooms are outfitted with cream-colored leather walls and stainless-steel fixtures -- a departure from mahogany, gold and bronze. Its six guest suites can be transformed by movable walls to create four larger suites. Stainless-steel whirlpool baths are showcased at the center of several of the rooms.

Mr. Melnichenko's oversized bed, perched at the top of the tower, rotates on a giant turntable (with built-in entertainment systems) to give him better views out of the panoramic windows. Along with its two swimming pools -- one in the front and one in back -- A sports a helipad, a hovercraft and a garage for the owner's car. The ship, which has a crew of 35, has more than 100 audio speakers, and more than a dozen plasma TV screens, many of which are disguised as mirrors. Guests in any of the rooms can watch DVDs from a centralized library of more than 2,000 titles.


TIGHT SECURITY

Security is tight. Doors are unlocked by electronic finger pads and guests can't gain access to the owner's suite or control rooms. The hull is outfitted with spotlights and motion sensors.

With A, Mr. Melnichenko wanted to redefine yachting from the inside out. The Belarus-born math whiz founded MDM Bank, one of Russia's largest banks. He has also invested in coal, chemicals and steel companies, and has a fortune estimated at more than $4 billion, according to people close to him.

In 2005, Mr. Melnichenko married Aleksandra Nikolic, a former supermodel who sang with a Yugoslavian pop group called Models. Mrs. Melnichenko describes herself on her Web site as a "passionate aficionado of haute couture."

Since Mr. Melnichenko started building A when he was still a bachelor, the boat was planned to be an eye-catching party boat. A 480-square-yard disco was slated for the back of the boat, along with a bar made of Baccarat crystal and a water-resistant karaoke platform.

This is the second time we have spoken about A. We feel that 'A' deserves more than all the brickbats it has gotten...maybe it should be given a chance before being written-off completely!