The largest private yacht in the world, The World, also known as the millionaire cruise, arrived on Wednesday at the pier of Los Mármoles in Arrecife, where it is expected to stay until next Friday.
The boat has on board some two hundred people who have paid, each, between one and six thousand euros per cabin. Some of the cabins reach up to 200 square meters.
The idea of this yacht came from the head of Knut Utstein Kloster, a Norwegian magnate from a family with a long marine tradition, grandson of the founder of Kloster Rederi, germ of what is now the Norwegian Cruise Line.
The Norwegian designers Petter Yran and Bjørn Storbraaten started designing the ship in 1997, and its construction began in 1999 in Sweden, where in the city of Landskrona the hull was built, which was later towed to the shipyard of Fosen Mekaniske Verksted in the city Norwegian Rissa, where the ship ended. With an estimated cost of 300 million euros, the ship was launched in 2002 and its residences sold to its millionaire owners in 2003.
The World
The cruise has 165 apartments occupied by 200 residents from 40 different countries. Some of them live all year on board the ship, although most use it as a holiday destination for three or four months a year. The vessel sails continuously, stopping at different destinations for longer than traditional cruises, allowing residents to explore these locations more closely. Living on board does not exempt residents from paying taxes, since all of them must have at least one second residence on the mainland.
The 165 apartments that The World has are divided into 40 studios (30 square meters), 19 one or two bedroom apartments (from 60 to 90 square meters) and 106 2 and 3 bedroom apartments (from 100 to 300). square meter). Prices range from 550,000 euros for the smallest apartments to 11 million for a three-bedroom apartment, although any buyer who proves to be the owner of a fortune above 4,5 million euros before the purchase. In addition, the owners must face a monthly fee, as any community of neighbors, for fuel costs, crew or maintenance of the ship, which ranges from 5 to 15 percent of the value of the apartment.
As they sail, residents can enjoy the kind of comforts typical of a cruise like this: from six different restaurants or a grocery store if they prefer to cook in their apartments, to a fitness center, billiard room, golf simulator, swimming pool , spa or an official size tennis court, the only one of these features on board a ship. A cinema, a library or musical performances complete the leisure offer, along with the classes they can attend on topics as varied as navigation, dance, languages, cooking, crafts, music, computers or photography.