It may be amusing to look at the massive delays and cost overruns on Roman Abramovich’s Eclipse, the world’s largest yacht, and chuckle over the oligarch’s sea trials and tribulations. But it looks like the Big Dog had the last laugh – according to Der Spiegel, the Eclipse’s German builders Blohm + Voss took a bath on the gigayacht to the tune of about $300 million thanks to the Russian billionaire’s airtight contract signed six years ago. Said contract, which B + V’s competitors seem to find highly amusing, specified that Abramovich would pay only €340 million (about $485 million) for the Eclipse, change orders be damned.
Following all the overages the paper estimates the final cost of the Eclipse was closer to €570 million, or about $785 million, leaving Blohm + Voss stuck with the $300 million deficit. “Blohm & Voss paid dearly for that order,” Michael Breman or archrival Lürssen tells the paper with more than a hint of understatement (and a heaping helping of schadenfreude). Adding insult to injury, Peter Hülsemann, head of furnishings at Blohm & Voss during the 164-metre Eclipse’s construction, says it wasn’t even worth it, sniffing, “It’s really no more than an over-inflated 60-metre yacht.” Meanwhile Lürssen has already begun building an even bigger one, the 180 metre Topaz, for an Arab sheikh.
