The world's most outrageous yachts

THESE floating palaces are super-sized, stunning and packed with over-the-top amenities such as stingray wallpaper and crystal tables.

Eclipse yacht

IF a yacht is the ultimate status symbol, then the owners of these are at the top of the heap.

These floating palaces are super-sized, stunning and packed with a whole new world of over-the-top amenities.

In pictures: Outrageous yachts

Forbes: Frequent flyer tips

Explore: The gateway of India

Hotel: A Machu Picchu wonder

Spa day: New trends to sample

Wild: How to party like a rock star in Rio

To have a swimming pool, helicopter pad - that’s de rigeur,” Jill Bobrow, author of the book Outrageous Yachts and editor-at-large for Yachts International Magazine, said.

To be truly outrageous these days, she says, “A lot falls on the interior design - it’s whether you have gold-leaf faucets or not. Plus, there is a lot of innovative technology.”

You’ll find $37,000 bath knobs on Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko’s 120 metre Av-valong with Baccarat crystal tables and a room wallpapered with white-stingray hides.

And technology rules on the 60m Solemates (recently chartered by Sean “P. Diddy” Combs for $790,000 a week), on which passengers use an iPad to control most everything but the steering wheel.

Then there’s the 88m Maltese Falcon, owned by hedge-fund superstar Elena Ambrosiadou. One of the world’s largest sailboats, it boasts a revolutionary, computer-controlled rigging system with sails that deploy at the touch of a button from three free-standing masts that rotate to tack the ship.

Inside, a striking circular stairway zips through a light-filled atrium to unite three decks with transparent floors.

Other finishing touches include a full gym, massive works of art, staterooms for up to a dozen guests and a black leather-floored dining room. Plus, there’s an onboard collection of water toys that includes four small sailboats and six sets of dive gear.

Spaces to carry sailboats, snazzy tenders and personal submarines - as well as more than one helicopter at a time, so friends can drop in for visits - are among the currently in-demand amenities for mega-yachts, notes Boat International editor Marilyn Mower.

Also increasingly popular: DJ consoles, fancy water features such as infinity pools or waterfalls, and spas.

“Elaborate spas with steam rooms, Finish saunas and cold plunge pools - plus beauty-salon spaces and massage rooms - are becoming standard,” Mower said.

At least one super-yacht that’s got it all is the 170m Eclipse, the largest and most expensive private yacht in the world, belonging to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

It has a 464 square metre armour-plated master suite, two helipads, a 16m pool that transforms into a disco, a cinema, salon-spa, restaurant - and an anti-paparazzi device that ferrets out nearby cameras and shoots them with a paralysing beam of light. Don’t say we didn’t warn you, curiosity-seekers.

Not all tycoons are aiming solely for an ostentatious aquatic display of wealth. Ice, owned by Russian billionaire investor Suleiman Kerimov, is the first “green” mega-yacht. In addition to being stocked with plenty of over-the-top amenities, the 90m yacht has reduced noise, vibration and pollution thanks to an alternative propulsion technology called Azipod.

The system is powered by eight electric generators that replace the two large main engines typically found on a yacht of this size. Any exhaust that is produced by the boat passes through a soot-removal filter before expulsion, and there is a wastewater management system onboard.

In pictures: Outrageous yachts

Impressive: World's best cruise ships

Top 10: Lonely Planet's best boat journeys

'Floating city': $1bn Streets of Monaco yacht

Luxury at sea: Floating island

'Emporer of the seas': $200m Beluga yacht

The Voronoi: Not your average super-yacht

Up in the air: Super-yacht 'will fly'