New York, Jan. 2: Ocean views, private beaches and 14 bathrooms are fine for some people, but what good is a house in the Hamptons if it doesn?t come with a superlative?

Stewart Rahr, a pharmaceutical distributor, got one this week when he paid more than $45 million for an 18,000-square-foot waterfront estate in Wainscott, East Hampton. Real estate brokers in the Hamptons and Manhattan called it the most expensive home ever sold in New York State.

The sale eclipses Rupert Murdoch?s purchase this month of a $44-million penthouse on Fifth Avenue once owned by Laurance S. Rockefeller, who died in July.

Rahr said he had simply fallen in love with the place. ?I had no intention of competing in a price war or setting a record,? Rahr said in a telephone interview from Florida. ?I just found that out today.?

The estate, named Burnt Point, comes with a private dock and a sailboat. It sits on 25 acres, has a half-mile of waterfront, and overlooks Georgica Pond, a jackknife-shaped body of water whose shores are home to Calvin Klein, Steven Spielberg and flocks of endangered birds.

?I don?t covet, but I covet this place,? said Dolly Lenz, the broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman who sold the house. ?It definitely is a Northeast record. They bought it with everything. They?re going to walk in with a toothbrush.?

Rahr is president and chief executive of Kinray, a drug wholesaler, which is based in Queens and distributes vitamins, medical supplies and generic and brand-name drugs to pharmacies across the Northeast.

He bought the house from David Campbell, a commodities trader who built and decorated the house about five years ago. The furnishings are included in the deal. And the best part?

?I don?t even have a mortgage on that property,? Rahr said. ?I?m able to write a cheque.?