On Wednesday, a private yacht sailed slowly and quietly up the Hudson River and docked near midtown Manhattan.
This wasn't just any yacht, however. It was Eclipse, the largest private yacht in the world.
Seeing Eclipse docked off the midtown piers is the boating world equivalent of seeing a blue whale swim up the Hudson in the dead of winter. It just doesn't happen -- or hasn't happened.
Eclipse has a crew of more than 60 people and a battalion of security cameras and sensors. It has two helicopter pads, two pools and a submarine.
Eclipse's owner, the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich (pictured above) is famously private and averse to publicity.
Eclipse is almost always kept in the rarified preserves of Monaco, Cannes, Portfino or St. Bart's, visible to other billionaires but rarely to “common people.”
Above Zhukova and Abramovich walk the streets of Manhattan.
Some speculate that Abramovich may be using the boat as a temporary residence, since it is more secure and can better accommodate his large security force than a New York hotel. Abramovich's partner, Dasha Zhukova, has announced that she is pregnant, and due in the Spring.
It is said that Dasha Zhukova and Roman Abramovich are in New York so Dasha can give birth to her expectant child in the United States.
Comments