It's been a good few weeks since we've heard from our friend Charl Van Rooy, correspondent for Super Yacht Times, the Robin Amadio of luxury yachting and the man whose job we openly covet.
So what a delight it was to check in with him to discover that Joe Lewis, multibillionaire founder of Tavistock and major shareholder of beef producer Australian Agricultural Company (AACo), is about to take delivery of his brand spanking new 98-metre super tub.
Rooy tells us the Abeking & Rasmussen vessel, Aviva, is moored on the Weser River in Germany and is expected to be launched soon. He cites an interview with Lewis in which he describes the tub as "more than an office; it's also my home for much of the year". Sounds awful.
Given he's arguably Australia's largest landowner, we're pleased to see Lewis now taking up a whole lot of space on the world's oceans as well.
Not to be outdone (at least never by the full length of a swimming pool), Italian shipbuilder CRN launched retail Rich Lister Brett Blundy's superyacht at its yard in Ancona on Saturday. As the 74-metre gin palace rolled off the dry dock into the Adriatic, CRN deployed enough confetti and dyed smoke for several Kardashian weddings and Donald Trump's 2021 inauguration.
Blundy's new toy – which makes Lil' Will Vicars' Serafina look like a trailer boat – is being named Cloud 9, the name transferring from his previous 60-metre yacht, since sold and rebadged Ice Angel. No idea who bought the thing. Maybe Vince Colosimo?
