Sailing Yacht A: The Groundbreaking $600M Megayacht That Became a Leech on Taxpayers

It could have been a modern kind of poetic justice in the context of the ongoing international sanctions against Russian oligarchs, an "eat the rich" moment with a dash of rebellion against a warmongering dictator. It should have been all this, but it's not. Sailing Yacht A, the crown jewel of German shipyard Nobiskrug, is now a pariah, a leech on the taxpayers' money, and seemingly the most famous vessel that no one wants right now. Sailing Yacht A is now a major Pain in the B.

Sailing Yacht A started as Project No. 787 at Nobiskrug, commissioned in 2015 as a very special build. It was "born from the desire of the owner to push the boundaries of engineering and challenge the status quo of the industry," the shipyard said at the time, a mission they were more than eager to get onboard with. It's not every day you get asked to write naval history, and this was back in the day, when Russian oligarchs were still everybody's friends.

With a naval design by Dykstra Naval Architects and exterior and interior design by Philippe Starck, Sailing Yacht A is unlike anything else done before, both in terms of design and technology. Even today, in 2023, it's considered the most groundbreaking and innovative vessel in the private sector, which makes sense if you consider the reported $600 million budget.

Despite its name, Sailing Yacht A is a sail-assisted yacht, not a proper sailing yacht. Its most distinctive feature is the three carbon-fiber freestanding masts, each towering at 100 meters (328 feet) above water and hoisting sails larger than a football field each, though they're rarely seen in action. Sailing Yacht A itself is somewhat of a mysterious presence on the superyacht scene and is rarely photographed in the wild, let alone from up close or inside.

The interior has never been shown to the public, and details about it remain scarce even today, when it's no longer with its original owner. That owner is none other than EuroChem Group billionaire founder Andrey Melnichenko, and the reason for the vessel's spectacular fall from grace. As a known Putin associate, he was included on sanctions lists in March 2022, which resulted in the arrest of the ship.

Sailing Yacht A offers a gigantic interior volume of 12,558 GT spread across 8 "invisible" decks, impressive and highly-efficient performance thanks to hybrid propulsion and an innovative design, and luxury amenities like three oversize pools and a helideck – all of them unlikely features to find on a sailing yacht.

From afar, Sailing Yacht A appears like a self-contained shiny capsule with a silhouette that's never been done before in this segment: lower to the water at the bow and rising towards the stern, it looks as if it's about to pounce without warning, menacing and muscular, yet futuristic in styling. At 143 meters (469 feet) in total length, it's massive, too, so it would cause serious damage if it ever did pounce.

The hull and superstructure are both steel, but the superstructure features composite fashion plates that Nobiskrug developed specifically for the project, giving it that spaceship-lost-on-water vibe. Power comes from twin MTU 20V 4000 M73L 3,600 kW lineshaft engines and twin Vacon 4,300 kW lineshaft motors, which take it to a top speed of 21 knots (24.2 mph/38.9 kph). No word on the kind of performance possible with the sails deployed or if they've been used regularly since delivery.

For all its achievements, this megayacht has been mired in controversy since day one, first for being either the ugliest yacht ever (or arguably the most beautiful) and then for allegedly being built with subsidies from the German government. Unconfirmed reports claimed that Melnichenko, a multi-billionaire and one of the world's wealthiest men, took almost $500 million from the state to build his megayacht on account of it being a highly-innovative hybrid vessel. How's that for irony?

It doesn't stop here, either. Since its arrest in March 2022, Sailing Yacht A has proved an even bigger pain in the neck, just not for the intended recipient, Melnichenko. Frozen in the port of Trieste, Italy, it remains in full working order and impeccable condition, which is standard practice for seized property, with the Italian government footing the bill. Sanctions have "punished" Melnichenko by depriving him of the use of his boat while forcing maintenance and assorted costs onto Italy's taxpayers.

The costs are not negligible: reports in the local media claim that Sailing Yacht A has cost taxpayers over €9 million ($9.9 million) so far. Even the Mayor of Trieste, Roberto Dipiazza, finds it ridiculous, saying earlier this year that the seizure was "a waste of public money" and a "shame." Assuming Melnichenko claims ownership of the vessel at some point, there's no chance he'll pay back the debt incurred, Dipiazza said. If he doesn't, which is the more probable scenario, who on earth would want a vessel like this, even without this kind of debt hanging over it?

Who, indeed? Sailing Yacht A, once considered the most striking and revolutionary vessel in the world, is now the cool, highly experimental kid no one wants to hang out with anymore, the very definition of a pariah.