Larry Ellison owns 5th largest yacht

Larry Ellison - Motor Yacht RISING SUN

Larry Ellison owns a private luxury yacht – The fifth largest in the world, in fact.  She has a length of almost 138 meters (453 ft) and reportedly she cost over US$200 million to build.

Rising Sun

Despite RISING SUN’s huge size she is actually sleek in profile and doesn’t blot out the sun like many luxury yachts this size.

Larry Ellison is the ninth richest man in the world and founder and CEO of Oracle. He’s worth around $18 billion, so he can afford to have a boat of this magnitude, even if it costs millions each year to just maintain it…

Larry Ellison

The yacht provides a gymnasium/spa and sauna, an extensive wine cellar, a private cinema with a giant plasma screen, a basketball court (like Paul Allen’s yacht) on the main deck which can be used as a helicopter pad if necessary.

Rising Sun

Larry Ellison is a great patron of yachts and yacht racing.  He owns an America’s Cup sailing team called BMW Oracle. BMW Oracle is currently battling Team Alinghi in the courts over the fairness of Alinghi’s organisation of the next event.

Mike Sanderson

Mike Sanderson when talking about the failed 2008 Transatlantic Record attempt on virgin Money: “Next time I tell you I’m going to take a 100ft sloop into 30-40 knots in the North Atlantic, I want you to push me in a room and lock the door.”

 

 

Mike Sanderson is well known by insiders as one of the most experienced and successful ocean racers around at the moment.  In between transatlantic sailing record attempts aboard Sir Richard Branson’s yacht VIRGIN MONEY Mike has been skippering on the Volvo Ocean race.  The Kiwi (New Zealander) has a long and impressive sailing resume to long to list here but it includes skippering the last Volvo race winner and being skipper of British entry to the Americas Cup Team Origin.

The Superstars of Yacht Racing

Yacht racing as a sport has produced its own superstars.  In this section I would like to cover sailing sportspersons, famous racing yachts and the sponsors that make the great yacht races possible.

 

Alfa Romeo at the Superyacht Cup 2007

 

 

Lewis Hamilton in Sailing Yacht Crash

Lewis Hamilton the British Formula One Grand Prix (F1) superstar was onboard racing sailing yacht HUGO BOSS when it crashed into another competing yacht before the start of the Round the Island Race.  Hamilton was on board a yacht being guided by Alex Thomson, the youngest skipper ever to win a round-the-world race, and Ben Ainslie, from America’s Cup fame and the British Olympian chasing a third successive gold medal in Beijing this summer.

Hamilton was one of the 18 crew members on board the Hugo Boss yacht, competing in the Open 60 class at the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race.  The yacht was involved in a collision before the cannon had set them on their way with another racing yacht, a smaller Farr 45 footer called ATOMIC.  ATOMIC lost its mast and after a protest when their race was over, the Hugo Boss team was duly disqualified. By the time the disqualification decision was made, Lewis Hamilton had long left the Isle of Wight by helicopter for his next appointment. But he will be back….

 “He (Lewis Hamilton) made quite an impression. He had the natural feel,” said Ben Ainslie. “For most people who have not sailed before, they get on the helm of a boat and are extremely wobbly and all over the place. Alex and I talked him through it and after a while, he was fine on his own and that focus and concentration that he uses so well in F1, it is a similar technique for sailing these boats around.”

With the pre-start collision it was a race. Hamilton said: “We tried to avoid them but it took the front of the boat off. I am gutted. It is a beautiful boat.” Ainslie was similarly frustrated, adding: “It is disappointing because we felt we had the right of way. There is nothing we can do about it but regardless, we still had a great day.”

Better luck next time!