Via Fraser
The mega-yacht once owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is on the market.
Featuring two helicopter pads, 13 guest rooms, and even a 10-person submarine, you won’t be surprised to learn that the 126-meter-long vessel — called Octopus — has a price tag of 295 million euros (about $332 million).
Allen, who died from cancer in 2018 aged 65, owned a number of yachts, but Octopus, built by German shipbuilder Lurssen, was the biggest of them all.
Listed for sale by Monaco-based Fraser Yachts after having completed a refit that took eight months, Octopus can accommodate up to 26 guests. Amenities include a large cinema and a recording studio with a specially designed floor to damp out the low-frequency noise and vibration, a private observation lounge above the owner’s deck, a beach club, pool, gym, and spa/sauna, as well as “an array of water toys.”
#breakingnews The iconic 126m / 414’ OCTOPUS is now for sale with Fraser. The Lurssen built superyacht sets the benchmark for luxury exploration and global cruising.
Learn more: https://t.co/kTgBxHErtU#oneofakind #bestofthebest #luxurylifestyle pic.twitter.com/1bjSttiALt
— Fraser Yachts (@FraserYachts) September 6, 2019
Allen used the vessel for occasional celebrity parties whose guests reportedly included Mick Jagger and U2, among others.
But the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist also lent it out for research and scientific expeditions in far-flung places.
In 2015, for example, an Octopus expedition succeeded in locating the Japanese World War II battleship Musashi — considered as one of the mightiest battleships ever constructed — at a depth of more than half a mile in the Sibuyan Sea off the coast of the Philippines.
At the time, Allen described the discovery as “an important milestone in the annals of World War II naval history.”
Octopus is currently anchored in Antibes in the south of France as it waits to see who, if anyone, has pockets deep enough to want to call it their own.
Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975 after the pair started marketing a BASIC programming language interpreter that Allen called Micro-Soft.
The company grew to transform the personal computing space, with Allen’s wealth increasing rapidly as the Microsoft expanded its business empire. Like Gates, he became a billionaire in his early 30s, giving him access to life’s luxuries that later included Octopus, a vessel that first took to the water in 2003.