KEY POINTS:
It's the season for superyachts.
The sumptuous, $146 million yacht Boadicea, reportedly owned by Australian television game show producer Reg Grundy, was yesterday sitting grandly in Omaha Bay, near Wellsford.
Meanwhile, a more modest $21m America's Cup party yacht owned by entrepreneur Eric Watson is to be officially launched next week.
The 37m Bacchus was described by its builder as "a real party boat".
"There's lots of room for enter-taining. It will be a fun yacht - there's no two ways about it. It's decked out with the mod-cons," said Bill Lloyd of Sovereign Yachts.
The luxury vessel has three bars and four large guest cabins, each with its own en-suite, individual air-conditioning and the latest electronics. The master cabin is big enough for a king-sized bed, while the others have queen-sized beds. There's also a captain's cabin, an engineer's suite and two cabins for crew.
Marble, mahogany and granite line much of the ship, with the hull made of fibreglass and carbon fibre with teak decking. Instead of a dining room and lounge area, the owners asked for one giant room to host parties. "There's a lot of room in it - it's a huge salon," said Lloyd.
While the average Kiwi would hardly say no to Bacchus as a summer toy, Grundy's Boadicea is in a different league. The five-deck, 70m Dutch-built vessel is the 40th largest superyacht in the world. It has a cinema, piano, gym, swimming pool, 8m jetboat and jet-skis on board - and costs $710,000 a week to hire.
Bacchus has three owners with a third share each. Watson and business partner Mark Hotchin own one share, with the other owners from Britain and New Zealand. Lloyd said, where possible, New Zealand materials and products were used.
Lloyd told the Herald on Sunday the yacht would be taken by ship to Valencia for the America's Cup tournament on about January 23. It won't travel under its own steam but Lloyd said it would be more than capable of it. Its 2000hp engines and 34,000-litre fuel capacity could handle the oceans, he said.
Bacchus took more than two years to build and has been operational since mid-September.
It is registered to George Town in the Cayman Islands.
