Insiders still have no idea what's going to happen to Russian oligarchs' seized superyachts

26.03.2024 - 09:47 / insider.com / Julia Simpson

More than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the boating world still doesn't have many answers about what's going on with the very large, expensive elephants in the sea: oligarchs' superyachts.

The war prompted many governments to enact sanctions against Russia's richest, including seizing their superyachts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But it's unclear whether they can be sold or who'd buy them, leaving ports peppered with massive boats stuck in a floating limbo.

"The Russian problem, it's becoming a bigger and bigger and bigger problem," one luxury yacht broker told Business Insider at the Palm Beach International Boat Show last week. Like many others, he requested not to be named, given the sensitive nature of the matter at hand and the generally discreet nature of the industry.

Russia has been a massive player in the massive boat market for a long time. In August 2021 — about six months before Russia's Ukraine invasion — Russians owned the second-largest share of yachts over 40 meters in length, according to a report from the industry publication SuperYacht Times.

They were responsible for 16% of new build superyacht purchases in the decade preceding the report and are known for splashing out on extravagant interiors and unique features. (One builder BI spoke to recalled a mandate from an oligarch for a large safe in the owner's cabin in which he could keep his rifles. The builder later learned he'd use them to skeet shoot on deck.)

But those sales have now screeched to a halt as oligarchs get hit by international sanctions. At least a dozen superyachts — worth well over $1 billion combined — have been affected.

And no one is quite sure what will happen to them.

The first problem is that many of the yachts are "frozen" — not seized. That means that although the Russian owners can't operate or collect them, they don't technically belong to an overseas government, so they can't be sold without special permission.

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors petitioned a judge asking for consent to sell the Amadea, the 106-meter superyacht that has been docked in San Diego and costs the US as much as $922,000 a month to maintain.

"I've had some inquiries, but all you can tell them is we don't know the outcome yet" of the case, another superyacht broker told BI at the yacht show.

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And despite the broker's claim of interest in yachts like Amadea, most ultrarich — or at least their brokers — don't want to go near the vessels with a ten-foot pole, even if the government does get legal permission to sell them.

"How does it look if you bought a Russian boat?" Julia Simpson, a broker at Thompson of Monaco, said. "Even if it's completely legal and normal, there are too many things