1. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – Dubai, 525ft, was originally commissioned by the Prince of Brunei but construction stopped when his funds ran out. Sheikh Mohammed took over construction, and created the largest existing yacht.

2. Roman Abramovich – Pelorus, 377ft, Ecstasea, 282ft, Le Grand Bleu, 370ft. Eclipse is under construction at the moment, and at 550ft will replace the Dubai as the largest yacht in the world.

3. Larry Ellison – After having Rising Sun, 453ft, for only ten days, Ellison considered selling it: “I do still think it’s excessive. It is absolutely excessive. No question about it. But it’s amazing what you can get used to.”

4. Paul Allen – Octopus 417ft, Tatoosh 302ft. When completed, the Octopus had no berth, so Allen bought another yacht, Hanse, 162ft, in order to acquire a parking spot in the much coveted Yacht Club Marina in Antibes.

5. Tom Perkins – Maltese Falcon, 289ft. Unlike most superyacht owners, Perkins, former husband of author Danielle Steel, has been sailing all his life and the Maltese Falcon was designed by him to be the fastest sailing superyacht in the world.

6. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal – Kingdom 5KR, 282ft, was formerly owned by Donald Trump and was bought by the Prince for $18 million. After a complete refurbishment it is now rumoured to be worth $100 million.

7. Philip Green – Lionheart 206ft. A yacht twice as big is under construction and his friends have apparently nicknamed the giant cruiser-to-be “Billion Dollar Baby”.

8. Bill Joy – Ethereal, 190ft, under construction (computer rendering left). Joy is the co-founder of Sun Microsystem, and has been dubbed “the Edison of the internet”. The Ethereal is his first yacht and set to be the most ecologically sound boat in history, as designed by Ron Holland.

9. Valentino – TM Blue One, 152ft. The initials TM stand for his parents’ names, Theresa and Mauro.

10. Lakshmi Mittal – Approached by Larry Ellison when the latter was considering selling the Rising Sun, as he was one of the few people who could afford it, but Mittal opted to build his own, which is now under construction, shrouded in mystery and rumoured to be bigger than any of the others on this list.

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