Roman Abramovich arrived in the French port of Antibes this week aboard his boat, Eclipse, which is the largest yacht in the world at more than 530 feet, and couldn’t find suitable parking.
The Russian billionaire and his girlfriend were apparently planning to stay at Mr. Ambramovich’s villa in town. (Apparently the boat’s 30 cabins, two swimming pools and disco hall proved a bit confining.)
Yet when they pulled up to the Antibes dock, they encountered a problem: no parking space.
Antibes is the largest yachting harbor in Europe, but there is only one berth big enough for the Eclipse. That space was already taken by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal and his 265-foot yacht Kingdom 5KR. (5KR was featured in the James Bond film “Never Say Never Again.”)
According to a report in the Daily Mail, a port official said that Abramovich and his family were welcome to disembark, but “with a yacht this size it was not possible.”
Abramovich ended up docking offshore and taking one of the boat’s tenders in to shore.
With so many super-yachts now in the water, Antibes has plans to build more extra-large berths. For now, however, the billionaire yacht owners of the world will have to fight for parking spaces.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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