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It has been reported that Saddam Hussein’s yacht Basra Breeze (Ocean Breeze) has been put on the market by the Iraqi government, which was awarded the yacht earlier this year. The Iraqi government is seeking offers in the range of $30 million.

Basra Breeze is a 269-ft. motor yacht, but its interior is outdated, according to the London Times. This means the buyer will have to invest millions more to get the 1981 yacht fully back in shape. Still, the interior is pure luxury:

The Mad Summer superyacht started sea trials in the Baltic Sea a few weeks ago in August 2008. Mad Summer is a 79m yacht built by Lürssen. It will be delivered to its owners late this year, and it will also be available for charter. Charter prices are not known as of today.

Lürssen is going to deliver a total of 5 superyachts in 2008. Inter alia: Martha Ann (70m), Bounty Hunter (60m), Bermuda (77m) and, of course, Mad Summer (79m). Lürssen is also planning to deliver a 150m yacht this year.

BMW Group’s DesignWorks will be launching its new Zeydon Z60 luxury sailing yacht at the Geneva Boat Show this week. The boat, which has been designed with Belgian boat maker Zeydon, is an elegant sailing yacht that shall not only have a sporty design inspired by some of BMW’s vehicles but also offer a minimalist luxurious interior amongst a bunch of other high-end features.

The Zeydon Z60 is a 60-ft. offshore yacht that combines the effectiveness of sports cruisers with some of the comfort of bigger luxury yachts.

BMW and Zeydon plan to build up to 10 Z60 yachts per year. Production is set to begin this fall.

Luxury corporation LMVH - Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest company for luxury products, has announced that it is going to get into the yacht business. The company is going to acquire Dutch luxury yacht designer and builder Royal van Lent.

Royal van Lent makes high-luxury yachts that sell for an average $44 million each. It is possible that, if the acquisition goes through, LMVH will provide some of the exclusive interior for the boats and yachts built by Royal van Lent.

The announcement by LMVH comes just a few days after Hermes has already gone into a joint-venture with yacht maker Wally, based in Monaco.

Looking at these two companies investing heavily in the yacht business, Hermes and LMVH - Louis Vuitton must believe that the market for yachts will not decline even in times of economic slowdowns. Quite the contrary: The market has always been relatively small compared to other markets and only targets a very specific group of customers. This group, however, has been growing for years as more people in countries like Russia and China have become very wealthy, and this trend is likely to continue.

James Packer, who is the son of the late billionaire Kerry Packer and the third-richest man in Australia, had to wait some time until his new $50 million yacht had been completed. But the waiting was worth it, as it seems.

The yacht is a 50-meter Mangusta 165, which is the largest open yacht in the world. Its name is Z Ellerston. It was built by the shipyard of Gerard Rodriguez. Only two Mangusta 165 yachts have been built so far.

As written earlier, the superyacht market is booming with many people in Russia and in Asian countries getting very rich, and new Asian yacht companies entering the market. I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots of other beautiful yachts in the near future!

Schöpfer Yachts has unveiled a new design concept for super-yachts that looks really impressive:

The concept called “Oculus” is the first design that newly-founded Schöpfer Yachts has made public. The 250-foot vessel was designed by company founder E. Kevin Schöpfer. It was designed to accommodate 12 guests at a speed higher than 25 knots.

Asia’s economy is growing quickly and some Asian companies are currently looking into ways of getting into the high-luxury-boat market big time. Especially China and Taiwan have been very active in this field in the recent years.

They’re really investing a lot of money in research and development, because it is still Europe where most of the expertise in the lucrative luxury yacht market can be found. If Asia wants to grow their market share it will have to learn and get better in terms of quality and exclusivity, and the Asian companies know that very well.

Though, it’s not only quality that should be a selling factor for Asian yacht builders. They’re trying to put their yachts on the market at very competitive prices: Yachts built in Taiwan are often about 30% cheaper than those built in the West, Chinese yachts are even priced at 50% of the price one would have to pay in Europe or in the USA for a comparable luxury boat.

Asia is still behind with yacht orders, but it is gaining on Europe and America: This year there have been about 100 orders for yachts in Taiwan and China, 400 orders in Italy alone and 100 in the United States. As comparison, in 2005 Taiwan and China had only about 50 orders combined.

And foreign companies are going to cash in on the growing Asian market, too. Many yacht manageing companies and additional service providers for the yacht industry have opened offices in Asian cities in order to provide value-added services to yacht builders as well as yacht owners.

The X-Yachts Gold Cup is Denmark’s largest regatta. The 11th X-Yachts Gold Cup, which will run July 16-19 this year, is sponsored by BMW as the cup’s official partner.

It is expected that more than 120 yachts will be taking part in the regatta near Copenhagen, and only yachts with the X-Yachts design are allowed to participate.

The Sydney Amateur Sailing Club (SASC) will once again be hosting the famous Gaffers Day this year on October 19th. The Gaffers Day is a popular rally for classic yachts and vessels. More information at Sail-World.com and on the official SASC website.

POWER & MOTORYACHT, the #1 enthusiast marine category publication, unveiled its 23rd annual list of the world’s 100 largest megayachts, a.k.a. “The POWER & MOTORYACHT 100.” A megayacht is defined as a privately owned yacht at least 80 feet long; there are nearly 4,000 yachts in this booming category today. Not only has the number of yachts in the category grown, but their size has increased as well in the 23 years since the list was first compiled. In 1985, the largest yacht on the POWER & MOTORYACHT 100 measured 123′. Today, the smallest of the 100 measures 206′.

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