Saddam Hussein’s luxury yacht

Yacht Saddam underway

Feel like owning Saddam Hussein’s luxury yacht?  Its up for auction with a starting price of 20 million dollars.

This yacht was built for and owned by former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein by a Denmark yacht building company back in 1981. The Middle East dictator was exectuted some years ago.

The Luxury Yacht Saloon

Gold, marble and other expensive materials along with mahogany furniture were used in the decoration of the luxury motor yacht.

Saddams Luxury Yacht

The yacht also has a secret passage to allow the owner to access a second motor boat.  This can be used as an escape in case of emergency. The yacht is also outfitted with two surgery rooms and a special operation room. The luxury yacht was once equipped with a ground-to-air missile system.  This system is not going to be auctioned.

Saddam Hussein Bedroom

Legally, the yacht now belongs to the incumbent government of Iraq. Organizers of the auction say that it would be naïve for them to think that the auction market has not been affected with the global credit crisis / crunch.

The interior

The yacht is currently laying in Nice, France.

Amy Winehouse On A Yacht

Amy and Blake on a Yacht

 

Here is an image of Amy Winehouse the music singer enjoying a spot of boatting with her boyfriend.  Don’t they look happy.  Amy has also been seen on a motor boat called Moby Dick.

Anne Hathaway and Raffaello Follieri Yachting

Actress Anne Hathaway seen here having fun on her luxury yacht

 

Hathaway and boyfriend Raffaello Follieri are seen here having fun on a luxury yacht.

Anne Hathaway pondering the water on the aft of a motor yacht

 

 

Here the famous couple are ‘coupling up’ on the sundeck of the yacht.

 

The yachts Sundeck

 

Tigers Woods Wants Luxury Yacht PRIVACY

Tiger Woods

Well its probably not surprising that famous pro golfer Tiger Woods owns a luxury motor yacht being a leading world sportsman.  Tiger named the superyacht PRIVACY because he and family and wife can enjoy the ultimate privacy onboard when they sail away from the media and fans.  Giving him valuable time away from the media buzz, PRIVACY may be one of Tiger’s most important pieces of golf equipment – even more than his putter.

Tiger Woods owns this luxury yacht

Yacht PRIVACY was built by Christensen Yachts. She is 155 ft long with stabilizers, a Jacuzzi pool and is made from composite material.

The Main Saloon on the Yacht

However, when you put down $20 million for a luxury yacht and call it “Privacy,”  you probably expect a little discretion from the company that sold it to you. So you can imagine why Tiger Woods was less than impressed at the Vancouver Shipyard Company for allegedly breaching a confidentiality agreement and braging to the world about the golfer’s purchase of the swanky megayacht.

The Owner Cabin

Anyway, all is well now and Tiger and family enjoy cruising the world in privacy and safety.  Interestingly, another famous golfer Greg Norman also built and owned a large luxury motor yacht which is now called FLORIDIAN. It seems both legendary sportsmen have a little more than just golf in common.

Tiger Woods Relaxing and Cruising Out To His Main Yacht.

Tigers Woods is a professional golfer who has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer.  His amazing achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he earned an estimated $122 million from winnings and endorsements in 2007 making him the highest paid athlete in 2007. Woods has actually won more pro major golf championships than any other male, and with 65 PGA Tour events he is the third all time in that respect.

Bono’s New Luxury Yacht.

Bono owns this motor yacht

The Italian media have reported that Bono has shelled out millions of euros on a luxury yacht. Management at U2 have declined to comment on the reports.

Bono, a 48 year old famous rock singer for superband U2, one of the world’s best-known humanitarians and leading charity activists, is understood to have bought the superyacht Cyan. The luxury motor yacht was built by the respected Codecasa firm of central Italy.

Until recently, luxury yacht Cyan had a weekly charter price of between €140,000 and €175,000. It had an estimated asking price of over €15m.

“We don’t comment on the private lives of band members,” a spokesperson for the band said in replies to queries about the yacht yesterday.

Bono, his wife Ali Hewson, and their children were on holiday on the yacht last year, and were photographed disembarking when it docked in Naples in August 2007.

The 140 foot motor yacht has six cabins and room for 12 guests to sleep comfortably. Among its features are a large deck space, a Jacuzzi dip pool, a large swimming platform and a garage for holding “watersport toys”.

The interior is constructed with mahogany and limed oak, with each of the rooms fitted with plasma screen tvs, satellite TV, and dvd players.

According to the reports in the Italian media, Bono has repainted the yacht in blue and has an expensive new stereo system fitted. The sale price, however, is not known, with some speculation that it might top €20m.

Even that would be unlikely to put too much pressure on the Dubliner’s bank account, however, as he has an estimated personal wealth approaching €200m.

U2 has sold more than 140 million albums worldwide and will release a new album early next year.

Codecasa, who were founded in 1825 and started out making wooden boats, built the yacht in 1997 for a group of European ship owners and it was extensively refitted in 1999.

The Italian yacht builder has sold yachts in the past to famous names such as fashion designers Giorgio Armani, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.

Giorgio Armani’s yacht, the Mariu, is 210-feet long and when not in use he rents it out with a price tag of €180,000 per week.

Photographer fined for Princess Diana and Dodi luxury yacht photos

AFP:- A Paris appeals court has convicted British celebrity photographer Jason Fraser of invasion of privacy by snapping photos of Princess Diana kissing her boyfriend Dodi Fayed on a luxury yacht.

It overturned on Thursday the not guilty verdict made by another court in 2006 and fined Fraser, as well as the publisher of the France Dimanche weekly which published the pictures in 1997, 3,000 euros (2,400 pounds) each.

Fraser, 41, was also ordered to pay Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s father, 5,000 euros (3,900 pounds) in damages. The convicted men were also told to pay him 3,000 euros towards his legal fees.

It was Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian-born billionaire owner of London’s upscale Harrods department store and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, who took the case to court.

They showed Diana and Fayed kissing on a yacht off the Italian Riviera village of Portofino shortly before the crash, and reportedly earned Fraser more than two million euros in sales to British tabloids and abroad.

He was taken to court in France because those British newspapers were available in France, and because the photos were also reprinted in the French publications Paris Match and France Dimanche.

The court in 2006 had found Fraser not guilty because it accepted arguments that the privacy of Diana and Fayed had not been breached because they had not tried to hide from photographers as they relaxed on the yacht.

But the appeals court on Thursday took a diametrically opposed view, ruling that not hiding from photographers “could not in any way be interpreted as an implicit acceptance that their pictures be taken.”

It noted that this argument was all the stronger because of the great lengths to which photographers went to take such pictures, using powerful zoom lenses, helicopters, and boats to snap celebrities.

The court said that France Dimanche for its part had published pictures “showing the couple in a moment of intimacy (in photos) taken by means which invaded their privacy.”

But Fraser’s lawyer William Bourdon said “the ruling is extremely questionable legally … we have high hopes that the supreme court will overturn this strange ruling.”

London-born Fraser, who speaks fluent French, was said to have been in close contact with Diana in the weeks before her death, but he was not in Paris the night of the crash that killed her and Fayed.

He told the BBC in 2002: “I was the person who revealed her relationship, I don’t know whether that feels good or not, but I will be remembered for it.”

John McCain seen on luxury yacht – with a smiling Follieri

 

McCain Boarding a Luxury Yacht

Presidential candidate, Senator John Mc Cain has been reported to have been on a luxury yacht in Montenegro near Kotor, Croatia last year. In fact reports are that Mc Cain went aboard no other than Raffaello Follieri’s yacht charter the very day after Follieri plead guilty to multimillion dollar fraud.  The super yacht involved is a beautiful 1979 Feadship luxury motor yacht called Celine Ashley.  More detailed pictures of the yacht are below.

THE NATION (nation.com), considered the oldest US weekly, and which considers itself as a “forerunner of the leftist policies”, ran the McCain Story and photograph.  Here’s what they said:

“In the photograph, taken in Montenegro at the end of August, McCain is shown boarding the yacht ramp towards the smiling Follieri and Hathaway. Just ahead of McCain and shaking hands with Follieri appears to be Rick Davis—McCain’s top aide and now co-manager of his campaign, who accompanied him on the trip and advised the government of Montenegro. A few months after McCain’s yacht party, Follieri strengthened his ties to McCain’s orbit by retaining Rick Davis’s well-connected Washington lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, and offering Davis both an investment deal and help in securing the Catholic vote for McCain’s presidential bid.”

It is also reported that this photograph showing McCain in late August, 2006, celebrating his 70th birthday aboard the luxury yacht.  The megayacht had been chartered by Raffaello Follieri and his a list movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway.

In the current edition of Vanity Fair, Michael Schnayerson reportes that Follieri rented the charter yacht Celine Ashley for the whole month of August 2006 in the Mediterranean.  Also, Montenegro’s leading daily newspaper, Vijesti, earlier said that during John McCain’s visit in 2006 he celebrated with birthday cocktails and sweets aboard the Celine Ashley luxury yacht.

Yacht CELENE ASHLEY

John McCain is the Republican candidate to become the President of the United States of America. He is running with Sarah Palin, Govenor of Alaska for the 2008 election for the USA Republican political party.  His rival is the Democrat candidate Senator Barak Obama.

Actor Johnny Depp’s Luxury Yacht!

Depp

Johnny Depp, star of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’,  was first seen vacationing on his yacht with Vanessa in the Mediterranean near the island of Elba.  Elba is Italian just of Sardinia  – between the French Island of Corsica and the Italian mainland near to Pisa, Tuscany.  Napoleon Bonaparte was famously was excelled there.

The Yacht Johnny Depp owns near Elba

Johnny Depp actually owns the luxury motor yacht and he called it Vajoliroja.  It was built by Proteksan Turquoise was built in turkey in 2001 and is a large modern classic luxury superyacht 47m (156ft)  long.

Superyacht vajoliroja

The name Vajoliroja is a combination of Johnny’s family’s names. Va for Vanessa, Jo for Johnny, LiRo for his 9 year old daughter Lily Rose and Ja for his son Jack. It sounds like ‘The Jolly Roger’ if you say it just right.

Johnny and Vanessa

Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp have been in a relationship since 1998. Vanessa Chantal Paradis is a French singer and actress who won the 2008 Victoire De La Musique Female Performer of the Year and Pop Album of the Year. 

Here is a recent photo of Johnny’s yacht the Vajoliroja docked in Florida, USA last week. Johnny was in Florida with his family for the Sheila Witkin Memorial Concert.

The Luxury Yacht In Florida

 You can even charter the superyacht if you like as yacht Vajoliroja is available for luxury yacht charters. The romantic motor yacht VAJOLIROJA evokes feelings of romance and glamour with hints of a pirate theme which would make it hard for the  lucky few that get to charter this special yacht not to think about the yachts owner Johnny Depp.

Johnny Depp is a versatile and gifted actor who has been nominated for 3 Oscars.  His list of work includes:  

Sin City 3 (2011)
The Rum Diary (2009)
Dark Shadows (2010) Barnabas Collins
Shantaram (2009) 
Public Enemies (2009) John Dillinger
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) …. Sweeney Todd
… aka Sweeney Todd
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007) …. Jack Sparrow
… aka Pirates 3 (USA: informal short title)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) …. Jack Sparrow
… aka Pirates 2 (USA: informal short title)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (2006) (VG) (voice) …. Jack Sparrow
Corpse Bride (2005) (voice)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) …. Willy Wonka
The Libertine (2004)
Finding Neverland (2004)(2004)And They Lived Happily Ever After
    – Hank’s Back (2004)
Secret Window (2004)
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) …. Sands
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) …. Jack Sparrow
From Hell (2001)
Blow (2001)
Chocolat (2000)
The Man Who Cried (2000)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
The Astronaut’s Wife (1999)
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) ….
The Brave (1997)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Nick of Time (1995)
Dead Man (1995)
Don Juan DeMarco (1995)
Ed Wood (1994)
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Benny & Joon (1993)
Arizona Dream (1993)
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
“21 Jump Street”
Cry-Baby (1990)
Platoon (1986)
Slow Burn (1986) (TV)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Naomi Campbell Yachting in the Mediterranean

Naomi Campbell

The famous supermodel Naomi Campbell is seen here on the back of a luxury yacht in a bikini, fresh from a Mediterranean swim.

The man she is kissing is her billionaire boyfriend Vladislav Doronin, a property developer, AKA Moscow’s Donald Trump.  What a way to spend the day on vacation.The rich and fabulous couple took a romantic cruise near Saint Tropez aboard the amazing luxury yacht Lady in Blue.

St Tropez, is definitely the 2008 summer hotspot for celebrities and superyachts are the best place to be.Naomi is also below on a tender to a yacht, reportedly in Ibiza, Spain.

Penelope Cruz Spends a Day on a Luxury Yacht

Penelope Cruz Spends a Day looking beautiful on the Luxury Yacht the Distar Princess on August 17, 2006 – Ibiza, Spain.  Yes this is (very) old news, but the yacht company that makes Princess Yachts has been in the news recently also.  What has Penelope Cruz been up to more recently?  She has a new film ‘Elegy’ with actors Sir Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson.

The movie star has also been busy with Woody Allen’s new film, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” which opens Friday, as well as her fashion collection for Mango which has flown off the shelves. She will also be featuring in September’s edition of Glamour magazine.

Princess is an English company that was recently bought by a French company hand has been earmarked for expansion. The £200 million deal has just been completed this week – so now the firm is officially in the hands of French firm L Capital 2 FCPR.  This means the luxury motor yacht manufacturing business has become part of the Louis Vuitton empire.  Princess Yachts said: “The exchange of contracts has been completed and the workforce at Princess Yachts is positive”.

Following the recent announcement of the Princess V62, due for launch at Southampton Boat Show in September of this year, Princess Yachts has announced the development of two additional new V Class sports yachts; the Princess V78 and V42, scheduled for launch in early 2009 which are honed for long-range cruising to put the most exclusive locations within easy reach, while her high-speed capabilities ensure an intoxicating blend of excitement and precision control.