Shazzam! World's longest ever yacht launched- Azzam

by Lee Mylchreest on 7 Apr 2013 Shazzam! She's launched. The newest outsized yacht, the largest ever built in the world, is a staggering 590 ft (180m) - that's nearly two football fields long. It's longer than some cruise ships, and no less than 54ft longer than the next largest yacht - Roman Abramovich's Elipse. She's called Azzam.

Yes the oligarch’s 533 ft (162.5) vessel, Elipse, has been relegated to second place after boat builder Lürssen launched Azzam for the first time in Germany, at a reputed cost of $400million. But there are few clues so far as to who owns Azzam.

Azzam's beam measures 68.2ft (20.8m) while she draws just 15.8ft (4.3m).

Lürssen, which has been building boats since 1875, launched Azzam from its yard in Bremen this week

It was built under the guidance of engineer Mubarak Saad al Ahbabi and was designed by Nauta Yachts with Christophe Leoni creating the interior.

She is powered by two gas turbines and two diesel engines which develop a staggering 94,000 horsepower.

The boat has been described as the ‘??most complex and challenging yacht which has ever been built’, and will have a top speed in excess of 30 knots.

The full details surrounding the boats specification are shrouded in secrecy, but it is rumoured to have been built for a Middle-Eastern billionaire.

Its new owner gave the team behind the project the brief to build a 'large luxury yacht with an innovative and timeless design that would be able to travel at high speed in warm and shallow waters, whilst providing luxurious and sophisticated accommodation to its guests.'

Peter Lürssen, managing partner at the shipbuilder, said: 'When she will be delivered later this year, she will have been in build for only three years following one year of engineering. She truly represents another milestone in not only our history but yachting history as well.

'A lot of architects say we have come to a limit with length now, but who knows?'