American Drivers Fund New Fleet of Megayachts

COSTA SMERALDA, Italy, Aug. 1, 2006 — -- Spend time this summer in any of Europe's elite cruising grounds -- Sardinia, Saint-Tropez, Monaco -- and you can't miss the massive floating palaces littering the coastline.

Called "inch-fever," it's a curious ailment suffered exclusively by the megawealthy.

The cure? Build a bigger megayacht than the next sheik or oligarch. And, yes, a few Americans measure up.

Buyers, however, who want to compete on this circuit need upward of $100 million to make a splash, although these days that's entry level in the world of deca-dulgence.

It's a massive price tag, and increasingly the people who can pay it have one thing in common -- oil. Life is good at $70 a barrel.

"The megayacht industry was virtually invented for the Arabs," said Dirk Johnson, managing partner for Churchill Yacht Partners in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "They're the ones who funded almost all the big yachts; [in the '90s] ships were built for Arab sheiks and oil money."

The superyacht industry was really born in the 1980s, with Power and Motoryacht Magazine, a listing of the world's largest yachts. Since then, both the number and size of boats have grown beyond anyone's expectations.

Once colossal, a 200-foot private yacht no longer warrants a head turn.

There are thousands of newer vessels that dwarf the flagships of the past.

In the 1980s, arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi was famous for his 285-footer Nabila. Today, he'd be middle of the pack.

A new and even bigger generation is currently under construction at boatyards across the world, raising the stakes yet again.

"There has been the most amazing escalation in boat-building," said Alev Karagulle, director of marketing and communications at the Nigel Burgess Group, an international yacht brokerage. "It's tied in with the fact that the economy has been buoyant for many industries."

Buoyant, particularly, for those who have trouble finding ways to spend the windfalls of record energy prices.

It's only logical that the top end of Power and Motoryacht's current ranking of the world's 100 largest yachts is dominated by rulers from the oil-rich Gulf monarchies.