Yacht Spotting: Rising Sun

I fell in love with the mega-yacht Rising Sun that we saw on the Yacht Haven Grande dock at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. I think it was the burnished-metal finish of her topside details that first caught my eye. I had plenty of time to admire it as we toodled by in our dinghy, since she takes up a huuuge amount of dockage. Someone actually told us that, when Rising Sun is docked, boats needing fuel have to go maneuver to the inside of the fuel dock, since the mega-yacht takes up so much room on the outside of the fuel dock. You’ll notice that I had to take two photos just to get her all in. Also notice in the stern shot, the long rectangular outline on her hull (just forward [to the right] of the dinghy behind the rails. This is actually a door that opens, and inside are a couple of full-sized tenders (boats). Originally owned by Larry Ellison (Oracle Corp.), she now belongs to David Geffen, music and movie producer, philanthropist and, obviously, lover of the large and luxurious. At 454 feet long (61-foot beam), she was cited as being the sixth largest luxury yacht in the world, reportedly costing over $200 million to build (launched in 2005).  She’s got 82 room on five stories, including spa, sauna, and cinema, as well as an outdoor basketball court that can sub as a helipad. For another perspective on her size, look closely at the photo below. This is a picture of Rising Sun passing by Norwegian Gem, an enormous cruise ship that regularly visits St. Thomas. Rising Sun is nearly half of the cruise ship’s length, so she’s actually more like a small cruise ship than just a mega-yacht. And compare their stats:

Rising Sun: 454’ long, 61’ wide, 16 guests, 45 crew

Norwegian Gem: 965’ long, 105’ wide, 2,394 guests, 1,101 crew

A couple of quick calculations gives us about 28’ length and nearly three crew per guest for Rising Sun, versus 0.4’ length and less than half a crew member (think about that one!) per guest for Norwegian Gem. I know those comparisons are rather useless, but I think they’re interesting.