Stunners from the harbour

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There are a few things that let the world know you have arrived in style. How about buying a house that shares a boundary with Ratan Tata’s retirement home, hiring Shah Rukh Khan to perform at your daughter’s wedding and taking your gleaming, gigantic yacht out into the ocean for a few hours just because you want a quiet, undisturbed night? The yacht is the ultimate symbol of opulence and luxury that India’s new elite are unafraid to flaunt.

“At present the trend of yachting is growing in India and considering the spending power we have, it will surely boom in time to come. Mumbai is currently the leading hub for yachting followed by Goa and Kochi,” says Meherzad Kajanwalla, director of Giira Yatchs. “At present the largest luxury yacht in India is Gautam Singhania’s My Ashena. She is a 150 feet yacht that was up for sale at `50 crore. But the largest yacht owned by an Indian is Vijay Mallya’s My Indian Empress which is currently in the Mediterranean.”
“I would categorise any boat with two or more bedrooms and costing upwards of `4.5 crores into the luxury category,” says Yateen Gawade, a consultant who advises buyers on the intricacies of purchasing a world class yacht. For Meherzad, it’s all about size and specs, “Luxury yachts range stars from 40ft upwards. These yachts have all the luxury and amenities on-board — bedrooms, fully equipped kitchen, top of the line music system, navigation and safety systems and much more.”
“In India, barely anyone uses a yacht for long sails. It’s bought merely for prestige value and is mostly let out on charter because an idle yacht spells plenty of maintenance issues,” mentions Yateen. “The design, number of rooms, fuel consumption, etc. are almost identical across competitively priced yachts of the same size across different brands. Interior design is what generally people play around with,” says Meherzad.
And if you are looking for that wow factor, you will get it all, because like they say, there is nothing that money can’t buy. “Add-ons like a jacuzzi, gold-plated bathroom fittings, water toys like jet ski, kayaks and speed boats are popular,” he adds.
Suchetha Potnis’ `4 crore, 42-feet yatch, Solita (little sun), sails along the Goan coast and is a luxury home unto itself. She is proud of it. “She is like a Bentley, not built for speed but for a calm, gracious cruising,” she says. And since speed is not a criterion, the engines don’t take up too much space, leaving enough room for you to get imaginative with the interiors. “Nothing in Solita was mass produced. It is all completely custom-built to our specifications,” says Suchetha. “Earlier, when our children were younger, we had bunk beds and had the bathrooms widened.” There is no end to how you can customise your boat, since it’s such a high end commodity, they are always happy to oblige. “I even know of someone who had a puja room installed on their boat,” says Suchetha.