THE PIONEERS SET SAIL

Halfway through the 1880s, the American industrialist Rufus T Bush issued a public challenge. An ocean race was to take place, east across the Atlantic, from New York to the coast of Ireland. Any yacht could take on his new vessel, Coronet. The winner would receive a prize of $10,000.

Even then the sum was not sufficiently large to count for much with the owners of very large yachts (the term “superyacht” was coined a little later, during the First decade of the 20th century). The widespread glory and renown sure to ensue, though, certainly did.

At that time there were suddenly many more such yachts. It would be wrong to imagine that what is now called a “superyacht” is purely a recent phenomenon. In fact, large private craft, above around 25 metres in length, appeared in rapidly increasing numbers during the second half of the 19th century.

As soaring wealth in the then-industrial nations combined with the desire to show it off, large yachts made an excellent, and reasonably safe, means of doing so. At the same time, evolving boat technology put more emphasis upon speed; yachts became longer in relation to their beam so as to maximise space for sails. As burgeoning numbers of wealthy Americans