The 'Sailing Yacht A', a 143-meter sailing yacht with three 100-meter masts, is valued at 522 million euros. It has been confiscated in Italy since 2022.
The Sailing Yacht A, also known as SY A, is the largest private sailing yacht in the world. With 143 meters in length and 25 meters in height, its current estimated price is 600 million dollars, approximately 522 million euros at the current exchange rate, according to information published by Diario Sur. The vessel, which combines sailing with a diesel-electric propulsion system, has been confiscated in Italy since 2022.
The boat was commissioned by Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko from designer Philippe Starck. Built by the German shipyard Nobiskrug in 2017, it is a hybrid vessel featuring two diesel generators of 3,600 kW and two electric motors of 4,300 kW. Its three masts, each 100 meters tall and made of carbon fibre, carry large sails crafted by Doyle Sailmakers.
The exterior design, created by Starck, is characterised by a superstructure sloping down from the stern, with no protruding elements except for the masts. “The SY A is a floating sculpture emerging from a mental space,” the design studio notes in its portfolio. The firm describes it as the “largest private sailing yacht in history: 145 meters in length, 12,700 tonnes, and masts measuring 100 meters high.”
Few details are known about the interior. It is known to have eight decks and internal elevators to connect its floors. Various specialised sources cite capacity for 54 crew members and 20 guests. There are no public images of its internal layout. What is confirmed is that it includes at least one oval outdoor pool on its upper deck and a glass underwater observation area in the keel.
The German company GL Yachtverglasung (GLY) detailed in a press release that the yacht uses 420 square meters of glass for its oval windows. “The GL-MarineCobond glass, specially developed by us for these applications, has a relatively low total weight of less than 35 tonnes,” the company explains. Furthermore, GLY confirmed that the underwater windows in the keel offer “a unique view of Jules Verne's world” and that this is the “longest curved glazing ever produced,” with an underwater window of over 15 meters in a single piece.
The naval architecture of the SY A is signed by the Dutch firm Dykstra Naval Architects. The boat, which looks like a futuristic bunker despite being nearly a decade old, keeps all its elements hidden beneath hatches aligned with the decks or on the sides. The project remains one of the highlights in Starck's portfolio.
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