The latest must-have in the luxury ship market? An onboard missile defence system. It was probably Aristotle Onassis entertaining Marilyn Monroe on his legendary yacht Christina who made a luxury boat the must-have status symbol of the super-rich in the modern era. These days, Russian oligarchs and Arab sultans vie to own the biggest, brashest and best-equipped superyachts – while, for the rest of us, the nearest we’ll come to enjoying the billionaire lifestyle is by chartering a vessel or taking a luxury cruise. But if you’ve never been on a boat with its own swimming pool and spa, beach deck and cigar bar – not to mention personal submarines – we’ve done the work for you. Maritime luxury, it seems, comes in twos: two helipads, two pools, a missile defence system, a mini-submarine, even an “anti-paparazzi shield” that fires beams of light at camera lenses – the list of boys’ toys expected to feature on Eclipse, the latest yacht commissioned by the Chelsea FC owner, Roman Abramovich, makes quite an inventory. At 167 metres long and costing at least £300m (some say twice as much), she will be the world’s longest and most expensive yacht – eclipsing Dubai, the superyacht owned by the emir of the UAE state. Abramovich is expected to take delivery of his peerless craft this year.














