A Russian oligarch's superyacht is finally on the move
Roman Abramovich's boat is on the move, according to Vessel Finder, and is scheduled to reach a port near Istanbul on Thursday, August 21. It's a long time coming for the $700 million boat, which has been docked in the Marmaris, Turkey, district for almost two and a half years, according to local news outlet Turkiye Today.
At 533 feet long, The Eclipse was once the biggest yacht in the world, but it's notable for more than its impressive size. In March of 2023 and shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the UK government sanctioned Abramovich for his alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many of the billionaire's assets were sold or frozen, according to Bloomberg, but he quickly moved his yachts to friendlier waters.
The Eclipse arrived in Marmaris shortly after Abramovich was sanctioned, along with another one of his million-dollar vessels. According to Turkiye Today, the superyacht is headed to Istanbul for likely pricey repairs.
Superyachts are wildly expensive to maintain, and experts previously told Business Insider that owners should expect to shell out about 10% of a yacht's new-build price every year.
Business Insider snapped some pictures of The Eclipse in 2013 when it was docked at Manhattan's Pier 90. Take a look inside the controversial vessel.
The yacht is 533 feet long and styled after military vessels.
The superyacht was designed by British designer Terence Disdale, and it took four and a half years to build. Disdale previously spoke to the charter company ADA Yacht 10 years after it was delivered about his work on the vessel.
"For me, it's more of a clean piece of architecture than a piece of style," he told ADA Yacht.
It was the world's largest yacht when it was built in 2010.
"While the yacht was still on the drawing board, there was a rumor that someone was building a larger boat, and the owner was asked if he knew about it. He said he didn't, and he didn't care. Breaking the record was the furthest thing on his mind," Disdale said.
The Eclipse has two helipads.
It was designed with its helipads in mind.
"Having a helipad at the front brings the superstructure to spring size. If it wasn't there, you wouldn't have this length," Disdale said.
It has 17 VIP cabins.
With 24 guest cabins on board, visitors have access to a gym, a spa with a sauna, and a massage room. The boat can accommodate 70 crew members.
There's a 15-foot pool on the main deck.
Other amenities include a second pool, several jacuzzis, and a disco lounge. There's also a beauty salon on board.
The Eclipse has three launch boats.
They looked to be stocked with medical supplies and a variety of handheld radios. There's also a mini-submarine that can dive to 50 meters.
A large yacht like the Eclipse can hold over 100,000 gallons of fuel.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Nikki Haley: Trump Needs To Rebuild U.S.-India Relationship
In July 1982, President Ronald Reagan welcomed Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to a state dinner at the White House. Toasting the friendship between our "two proud, free peoples," he said: "although our countries may travel separate paths from time to time, our destination remains the same." Four decades later, the U.S.-India relationship is at a troubling inflection point. To achieve the Trump administration's foreign policy goals—outcompeting China and achieving peace through strength—few objectives are more critical than getting U.S.-India relations back on track. The last few weeks have seen an explosive series of events. The Trump administration has threatened India with 25 percent tariffs for purchasing Russian oil, on top of the 25 percent President Donald Trump already slapped on Indian goods. These developments followed months of rising tension, including over the U.S. role in India-Pakistan ceasefire negotiations. Trump is right to target India's massive Russian oil purchases, which are helping to fund Vladimir Putin's brutal war against Ukraine. India has also traditionally been among the most protectionist economies in the world, with an average tariff rate more than five times the U.S. average in 2023. But India must be treated like the prized free and democratic partner that it is—not an adversary like China, which has thus far avoided sanctions for its Russian oil purchases, despite being one of Moscow's largest customers. If that disparity does not demand a closer look at U.S.-India relations, the realities of hard power should. Scuttling 25 years of momentum with the only country that can serve as a counterweight to Chinese dominance in Asia would be a strategic disaster. WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that she would vote for former President Donald Trump during an event at the Hudson Institute on May 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 22: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced that she would vote for former President Donald Trump during an event at the Hudson Institute on May 22, 2024 in Washington, the short term, India is essential in helping the United States move its critical supply chains away from China. While the Trump administration works to bring manufacturing back to our shores, India stands alone in its potential to manufacture at China-like scale for products that can't be quickly or efficiently produced here, like textiles, inexpensive phones, and solar panels. When it comes to defense, India's expanding military ties with the United States, Israel, and other American allies make it a crucial asset to the free world's security, and a rapidly growing market for U.S. defense equipment and cooperation. India's growing clout and security involvement in the Middle East could prove essential in helping to stabilize the region as America seeks to send fewer troops and dollars there. And India's location at the center of China's vital trade and energy flows could complicate Beijing's options in the case of a major conflict. In the longer term, India's significance is even more profound. Home to more than a sixth of humanity, India surpassed China as the world's most populous country in 2023, with a young workforce that contrasts with China's aging one. It is the world's fastest-growing major economy—soon to eclipse Japan as the world's fourth largest. India's rise represents the most significant geopolitical event since China's, and is among the greatest obstacles to China's goal of reshaping the global order. Simply put, China's ambitions will have to shrink as India's power grows. Yet, unlike Communist-controlled China, the rise of a democratic India does not threaten the free world. Partnership between the U.S. and India to counter China should be a no-brainer. India and China are unfriendly neighbors that have conflicting economic interests and ongoing territorial disputes, including a lethal skirmish over contested borders as recently as 2020. It would serve America's interests to help India stand up to its increasingly aggressive northern neighbor, both economically and militarily. And it would be a massive—and preventable—mistake to balloon a trade spat between the United States and India into an enduring rupture. If that were to happen, the Chinese Communist Party would be quick to play India and the United States against one another. For its part, India must take Trump's point over Russian oil seriously, and work with the White House to find a solution. As for the United States, the most urgent priority should be to reverse the downward spiral, which will require direct talks between President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sooner the better. The administration should focus on mending the rift with India and giving the relationship more high-level attention and resources—approaching what the U.S. devotes to China or Israel. Decades of friendship and good will between the world's two largest democracies provide a solid basis to move past the current turbulence. Navigating challenging issues like trade disagreements and Russian oil imports demand hard dialogue, but difficult conversations are often the sign of a deepening partnership. The United States should not lose sight of what matters most: our shared goals. To face China, the United States must have a friend in India. Nikki Haley, the Walter P. Stern Chair at the Hudson Institute, was US ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina. Bill Drexel is a fellow at the Hudson Institute. The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Russia Sees Its Oil Discount Big Enough to Keep India Customer
(Bloomberg) -- Russia expects India to continue buying its oil, a senior official said, even as the South Asian nation faces higher US tariffs and harsh criticism from Trump administration officials for the trade. India's imports of Russian crude are likely to stay at current levels, Evgeny Griva, the deputy trade representative of Russia in India, told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday. Why New York City Has a Fleet of New EVs From a Dead Carmaker Chicago Schools Seeks $1 Billion of Short-Term Debt as Cash Gone Trump Takes Second Swing at Cutting Housing Assistance for Immigrants A Photographer's Pipe Dream: Capturing New York's Vast Water System A London Apartment Tower With Echoes of Victorian Rail and Ancient Rome The remarks come amid rising tariff tensions between the US and India. President Donald Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on Indian goods and threatened to double it to 50% on Aug. 27 — a rate that would make India's $85 billion in annual US exports uncompetitive. Half of that penalty is for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil, which the US sees as helping fund Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. India has defended its right to buy from the cheapest source, calling the tariffs 'unreasonable.' Russia sells oil to India at about a 5% discount, leaving Asia's third-largest economy with few alternatives, Griva said. He projected bilateral trade to grow by about 10% a year. For India, the advantage of Russian oil is that it can trade at a lower cost, making it a key tool for keeping domestic inflation in check. India has edged away from the US in the face of tariff threats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Putin as a 'friend' after a call with the Russian leader this week and New Delhi has moved to bolster relations with China. Modi is set to visit China in late August — his first trip to the country in seven years — to meet President Xi Jinping. India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is on a three-day visit to Russia to co-chair bilateral talks on trade, science and other issues. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday repeated Washington's threat to raise import duties on Indian goods, saying it was 'secondary tariffs for buying the sanctioned Russian oil.' He said India was 'profiteering' from the oil purchases, and 'some of the richest families in India' were benefiting. India historically relied more on the Middle East for oil, importing little from Russia. That changed in 2022, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a $60-per-barrel price cap imposed by the Group of Seven nations that aimed to limit the Kremlin's oil revenues while keeping supplies flowing globally. India's imports from Russia amounted to about 1.7 million barrels a day, or nearly 37% of the nation's overseas purchases, in mid-2025. After a brief pause earlier this month, India's state-run refiners have returned to buying Russian oil, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The US is India's top trading partner, while Russia ranks fourth. Roman Babushkin, a senior Russian diplomat in India, said Moscow is ready to take more of India's tariff-hit goods and help India manufacture jet engines domestically. --With assistance from Anup Roy. Foreigners Are Buying US Homes Again While Americans Get Sidelined What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Women's Earnings Never Really Recover After They Have Children Survived Bankruptcy. Next Up: Cultural Relevance? Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
A CPA couple who invest in real estate on the side shares the investment mistake that cost them about six-figures worth of 401(k) money
CPAs Amanda Han and Matthew MacFarland worked alongside real estate investors for years, helping them save on taxes. However, working with investors and actually investing are very different, as the accountants learned the hard way. The California-based couple has built an impressive real estate portfolio that includes rentals and syndication deals outside their CPA day jobs. But, early in their real estate investment careers, a mistake cost them about $100,000 worth of retirement savings. "I think each of us lost like $50,000 in our 401(k)," MacFarland told Business Insider of the failed deal they invested in back in 2008. "We were very prevalent in the industry of people talking about self-directed IRAs and using your retirement accounts, and so we happened to use our retirement accounts to invest in a syndicated real estate deal," he explained. "In retrospect, the timing was horrible." It wasn't just bad timing. Han and MacFarland forewent a critical step: due diligence. Real-estate syndication is a way for a group of investors to pool their capital together and purchase a single property managed by a "syndicator." Once the investor contributes capital, their role in the deal becomes completely passive, as the syndicator is responsible for finding the deal, executing the transaction, and, ultimately, delivering returns to the investors. The hands-off nature of these deals is great for investors with more money than time, but you're putting a lot of trust in the syndicator and depending on their competence. You're investing in both the deal and the person running it. And while a good syndicator can turn a mediocre property into a success, a bad one can ruin a great opportunity — or, drain your retirement savings, in the case of Han and MacFarland. They met the syndicator through a colleague and, "we trusted that he knew what he was doing," said MacFarland. Looking back, they would have spent a lot more time on the vetting process. An easy first step when vetting syndicators is to type their first and last names into Google along with keywords like "fraud," "complaints," or "SEC." You can also talk to investors who have worked with them in the past and ask about their experience. "You might find a lot of things that you didn't know about someone," said Han. Using syndication deals to build wealth passively Han and MacFarland are invested in multiple syndications, which allow them to own a portion of larger properties they wouldn't be able to purchase individually. Between their 16 passive syndication deals, they own condos, apartments, and mobile home parks. Another perk is the distributions, which are payments that investors receive from the income generated by the property. Investors typically get paid quarterly or monthly during the life of the deal, but it all depends on how the deal is structured. "It kind of runs the gamut. You see a lot of different things," explained MacFarland. "But, a typical cash flow deal, you'd expect to start getting quarterly distributions probably after the first year. But some are set up in such a way that they're value-adds, and that it's going to take two to three years to stabilize the property." Having experience with both active and passive real estate investments, "I don't think there's one that's necessarily better than the other," said Han. "It just comes down to your resources: Do you have more time, or do you have more money?" It also depends on your strengths and weaknesses. "We have clients who do their own rentals, and they do super well. They generate much higher returns than any syndication could provide," she said. At Han and MacFarland's current phase in life, passive real estate investments make more sense. "When we first started out, we were cash poor and really looked for properties where we could add forced appreciation by doing things to rehab and improve them," said Han. "But now, we're at a phase where we have young kids and it's just more time-consuming." If the right deal on a rental property came around, they'd still jump on it, but "more of our resources are now for passive investments in larger deals," she added. "Because now, for us, the limitation is not as much funding. It's more so just the time." Plus, they recognize that their main strength is still tax strategy. "We're really good at being tax strategists — that's our specialty — and we know there are people who do real estate investing that are a lot better at it than we are, so it makes sense to leverage their expertise," said MacFarland, adding: "We do our due diligence now."