Aussie John Symond was in the Netherlands with his family overnight and it wasn't to look at windmills or flowers.
Instead, the Point Piper clan were in the small village of Kaag to see his new 73-metre (239-foot) yacht launch at the Feadship yard. For the uninitiated, the rough rule of thumb with these beasts is a cost of €1 million per metre so you can pencil in €73 million ($109.8 million) for Aussie John's new toy. Thank you very much Ian Narev, who still has the final 20 per cent of Aussie Home Loans to mop up in the coming months, which would just about cover it.
The new vessel has been named Hasna, Arabic for "beautiful one". We doubt the big man thunk up the name while admiring himself in the shower one morning. After its sea trials, the dream boat should be docked off Monaco just in time for Symond's 70th birthday in August.
At 73 metres, she's just one metre shorter than Brett Blundy's CRN-built Cloud 9 (the second of its name). The next big launch will be James Packer's, though there's no certainty the divesting casino billionaire still has any appetite for a floating entertainment complex.
Hasna has six double cabins, room for 21 staff, a cinema, 25-metre sun deck and a butler's cabin just perfect for yours truly. But don't ever expect to see her in Sydney Harbour. There's no way "Aussie" John, soon to be a tax resident of elsewhere, will let the Commissioner sting him for GST on such a whopping purchase.
