Mediterranean superyachts: When the super-rich take to the sea

To signal status and wealth in the Renaissance, the rich would put churches in European piazzas. These days, the rich put superyachts in European ports.

They might rent one, like Kylie Jenner did recently for her 22nd birthday. In mid-August, the young billionaire chartered the 90-metre Tranquility, upon which a handful of her closest friends partied the Italian Riviera. The boat, if you can call it that, has a helipad, swimming pool, beauty salon, spa, steam room, Turkish bath, gym and massage room, in addition to 10 guest bedrooms. That's not the end of it. There's a cinema, among other necessities. The cost? Upward of $2.45 million a week "plus expenses".

Or they might own one, like Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, who had the biggest superyacht in the world, the 180-metre Azzam, worth a cool $885 million when it launched five years ago.

What is a superyacht, you ask? I asked the same question on my first Mediterranean cruise this northern summer, when I first became aware of them while lunching on the back deck of the Oceania Riviera. A superyacht is a really, really big and private seafaring playground with the kinds of bells and whistles only a large, full-time maintenance crew can tend to.

The first I spotted was the sleek black Main, when we were in Ibiza. A quick Google (thank you, good ship Wi-Fi) and I found out it was designer Giorgio Armani's "home on the water". He apparently likes to spend a chunk of the northern summer moored at the foot of Ibiza's old town. Or so it is alleged. There was neither sight nor sign of life on the 65-metre stunner.

But that's not the point, it seems. There's boaty brinkmanship going on and you only have to take a high-season jaunt down Spain's Balearic Islands, France's Cote d' Azur and its Italian counterpart on a cruise ship to see this in action.

According to Bloomberg, around 2000 high-net-worth individuals are driving the superyacht industry, worth $4.5 billion in 2018, when nearly 300 were sold. Consider also that there is a top tier for these things, and the tubs in it, such as the aforementioned Azzam, are called mega-yachts, which cost far more than the others.