SuperYachts in Sausalito and the Larry Ellison Yacht
You may love seeing them anchor in the Bay and dream of being invited on board as a guest at a SuperYacht party. You might even dream of winning the mega-lottery, owning your own megayacht and using it to escape the paparazzi who so relentlessly pursue you.
Or you may find them to be garish symbols of excess in an era where so many could receive necessities like scholarships for the cost of one flamboyant luxury, and you hope they sail away along with their materialistic inhabitants.
In fact, both of these thoughts may cross your mind at the same time!
Regardless of your feelings, the SuperYachts that anchor off Sausalito get lots of attention, whether they be standard cruisers or bizarre Bond Villain nightmares (though we are partial to the Sausalito Educational Tall Ship).
This page has links to our articles about some of our most dramatic (and expensive) visitors.
Insiders Tip: Some of these visitors are not traditional superyachts at all, but educational and research vessels that are working to help the oceans and the environment!
Sausalito’s MegaYachts
Kaisei The superyacht that everyone loves, because its mission in life is to do ocean research on pollution, its impact on wildlife habitats and what we need to do to correct it.
Galeocerdo A dark stealth superyacht, Galeocerdo’s top speed of 70mph (112 kph) makes it the fastest of its kind to have visited Sausalito.
Harmony This megayacht rolled into town… I mean sailed into the Bay… and raised eyebrows with noisy parties on board. It’s unclear whether it was rented for the week by a third party or under the command of its unnamed owner.
Just Cause In the wake of the 2008 financial debacle (whose architects, we note, were wont to engage in superyacht collecting) this brown-hulled yacht has had three different owners and three different names in its brief history.
Luna The largest “expedition yacht” in the world, a term that for me conjures up images of 19th century English railroad barons trying to hunt (or poach) big game from the decks of a superyacht.
Larry Ellison Yacht (Musashi) Software mogul Larry Ellison’s megayacht is named after the most famous of all samurai, and we dutifully noticed how well it slashed its way through the whitecaps on the Bay.
Tamsen Owned by executive Steve Firestone, we calculated that this yacht cost approximately $21,000 per inch of length. Yes, we said “inch.”
SSV Robert C. Seamans This magnificent sailing ship, which looks like it could be encased in a distressed veneer for a leading role in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, is used for sail training and education preparing professional mariners for their careers.
Larry Ellison Yacht (Zenji) A now-discarded older yacht once owned by Larry Ellison, with both traditional sails and powerful engines so it can travel either as a luxury yacht or as a very expensive sailboat. Looking out from our deck I couldn’t make out the unusual flag on her stern, and it turns out the Zenji is registered in the Isle of Man.
Vango People often say they’d give an arm and a leg for a superyacht, but for one called Vango it might only cost an ear. It was owned by midwestern auto dealership magnate Cecil van Tuyl.
“A” (Top image above) The Bond Villain vessel in the top photo on this page, “A” is one of the 20 largest yachts in the world and is owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko. As every good Bond Villain demands, a mega-hatch in the mega-yacht allows you to maneuver your zodiac tender right into an inner pool inside the hull.
Attessa (Image at upper left) Everyone in Sausalito was excited by the rumor that the yacht with its own helicopter was owned by Johnny Depp, but then we faced disappointment when we learned it’s actually owned by Montana billionaire industrialist Dennis Washington, who is a lot less interesting a visitor than Denzel Washington.
Maltese Falcon It’s worth clicking on the link at the left just to see artist Sabine Stetson’s incredible photo of this massive sailing ship.
Photo credits: Vari Buendia (top), Sabine Stetson (bottom), used by permission of the Artists.