Life on board Frank Binder’s luxury megayacht Ulyssia will start at $16m
Pharmaceuticals heir Frank Binder is the driving force behind 320m uber-luxury megayacht Ulyssia, which can sail anywhere from up the Amazon to under Sydney Harbour Bridge.
An heir to the Merck pharmaceuticals empire, Frank Binder, was in Sydney’s Darling Point this week spruiking his €1.2bn to €2bn Ulyssia, which will take on The World as the globe’s largest private residential yacht.
An architect by training, Binder is also a keen yachtie and one of the first things he assured the assorted press on Thursday was that unlike other international ships, the Ulyssia can even fit under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“It also has a shallow enough draft to go up the Amazon River,” Mr Binder said.
There is already much Australian interest in purchasing one of the suites on Ulyssia, which range in price from €10m to €100m ($16m to $160m), with construction on the ship to start at the Meyer Werft shipyards in northern Germany in March.
Management fees are 3 per cent extra a year based on the size of your suite, which range from 110 sqm to 953 sqm.
Completion is slated for 2029 with the Ulyssia to be launched from Monaco. The 320m long vessel is replete with two garaged helicopters, as well as submarines, six restaurants, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, beauty spas by Swiss company Chenot, pickle ball and padel courts, and a medical centre capable of surgery. It will be one of the biggest vessels on the sea, two thirds longer than the 22-year-old The World, which is a similar privately owned vessel, and its designers will include Kravitz Design, the creative studio founded by rock star Lenny Kravitz.
“There will definitely be people coming from The World, there has already been interest,” said Mr Binder, who has already secured a Ulyssia penthouse for himself.
Much of the Australian registrations of interest in the Ulyssia hail from the media, tech, travel, fast moving consumer goods, real estate and mining industries. But Mr Binder and his executives are not revealing names just yet.
He’s concentrating more on the look of the Ulyssia ahead of the start of construction.
“We wanted it to look smaller,” said Mr Binder, in a rare interview. “We don’t want it to look like a cruise ship.”
He has embarked on a world tour marketing Ulyssia, which he calls his “passion project”. He has already taken the ship’s plans to Monaco, London, Majorca, with the Middle East and Asia to follow.
“I decided instead of buying an apartment on The World, I would build a ship myself. I have a background in architecture and this is my passion project. The concept is very similar to a real estate project,” he said.
“We have almost finished the overall design of public spaces, the detailed design of residences is up to the owners,” he said. They have hired Lenny Kravitz’s design house as well as other high profile international designers to assist.
Designers have deliberately blackened some of the decks so at a distance the ice-class ship, which has 133 suites (including 10 penthouses) plus an extra 22 suites for owners’ staff or friends of guests, from typically crass looking cruise ships.
The ship was designed by the Monaco-based Norwegian yacht designer Espen Oeino, widely considered the industry’s best.
The ship’s itinerary takes in four distinct areas each year: cosmopolitan cities such as Sydney and New York; charming areas like Ibiza and Mykonos; paradises such as the Great Barrier Reef; and Expeditions such as the North West Passage or the Antarctic.
“We propose various itineraries and the community votes,” Mr Binder said.
English is the official language on board and staff to guest ratio is one to two. All staff must speak at least three languages.
While many members of the development team hail from The World, of which mining executive Gina Rinehart is an owner, other members of the development team hail from cruise ship and hospitality companies including Seabourn, SeaDream, Royal Viking Line, Cunard and the Ritz-Carlton.
Buyers will undergo a strict vetting process and security will be tight both on and off ship.
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