Shazzam! It's Azzam

by Des Ryan on 14 Dec 2013 Of course, she has no sails, but measuring 180m she's the longest yacht in the world. She has a power of 94,00hp, a top speed of over 30 knots and was built in a superyacht nanosecond of just four years. She's Azzam and she is now delivered to her somewhat mysterious owner!

It was the end of October when Azzam, the largest yacht in the world, was actually delivered to her proud owner. She came from the Lürssen shipyard in Bremen. Her 180m is just 590'. Just to put that into perspective, Azzam is longer than a British Type 45 destroyer and half the length of a Nimitz class carrier. She has a beam of 20.8 m (68'4') and an unusually shallow draft of 4.3 m (14'1').

She was designed by Nauta Yachts with her interior design by Christophe Leoni. Following a year of engineering, the yacht was built in the amazingly short construction time of three years.

While we have so far been unable to access photos of her interior, among many other features, the yacht has a main salon with a length of 29 m and a beam of 18 m with an open plan and no pillars. She is powered by a combination of two gas turbines and two diesel engines with a total power output of 70 MW (94,000 hp) through four pump-jets, two of which are non-movable round water outlets in the middle of the stern, and two with thrust vectoring capabilities using moveable duct water outlets positioned on either side of the non-movable ones.

Additionally, the yacht reportedly has a bulletproof master suite, a missile defense system, two helipads, an on board movie theater, two pools, and its own miniature submarine. At an estimated cost of $605M, she is more than twice as expensive as the second largest motor yacht, the Eclipse.

According to still unconfirmed reports, the Azzam was commissioned by 'an undisclosed Middle Eastern billionaire', and is currently listed as available to charter with no price set. With an annual operating cost estimated at $60M, and twice the initial cost, it is sure to be even more expensive than the $2.6M per week price tag of the Eclipse.

There's a nice Christmas present for your spouse.

Nauta Yachts say their styling and exterior design of this leviathan was inspired by previous projects.

'All our efforts were concentrated to achieve a design defined by a strong character, but dressed by a timeless elegance, with the elements of a contemporary, modern architecture, able to represent a milestone in the superyacht fleet for decades' says Mario Pedol, C.E.O. of Nauta Yachts.