Cannes is the places to see yachts, big and small

One of the perks of being super-rich is that sooner or later you get to buy a yacht — and Indians, among them Lakshmi Mittal, are starting to do that.

The Hindujas, who are on their third yacht, are not new members of the club, though.

Srichand Hinduja tells me that he and his brothers have had a yacht for 20 years named after their parents, Parmanand Deepchand and Jamuna Hinduja. “We had Param Jamuna I, then Param Jamuna II and now we have Param Jamuna III.”

Not that I know a lot about sailing but SP’s younger brother, Gopi, is the best Indian yachtsman that I have encountered.

JLo leaving the Amevi; (below) Usha Mittal bids her goodbye

Once upon a time, when we were children and thought only very rich boys could afford bikes — “a private car” was beyond the wildest dreams of most Indians — we knew only the Queen had a yacht. She would hold receptions for heads of government on board the 412ft Britannia, which was sadly mothballed in the name of cost cutting and turned into a museum in Edinburgh in 1997.

Incidentally, that was the year that Princess Diana had a last holiday with Dodi Fayed on board the Jonikal, the yacht belonging to the Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of Harrods, who was doing his best to facilitate his son’s romance with Prince Charles’s ex-wife.

To be sure, one other person had a yacht, we had read. That was the Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, who used his, the Christina, to romance Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968, five years after the assassination of President Kennedy.

There was a third yacht that impinged itself on our consciousness. This was the Lady Ghislaine, a yacht belonging to Robert Maxwell, one time boss of the Mirror group of newspapers. It was cruising in the Canary Islands in 1991 when Maxwell, who had been stealing money from his company’s pension fund, threw himself off his yacht to forestall being named and shamed.

In the last decade or so, there has been a sharp increase in the number of luxury yachts acquired by private buyers. They have to pay not only for the cost of buying a yacht, which can run into hundreds of millions of pounds, but also for the upkeep of the crew round the year. Some owners choose to recoup their costs by hiring out their yachts when they are not being used.

Princess Diana on the Jonikal, Mohammed Al Fayed’s yacht

The place to see hundreds of yachts all at one time is Cannes during the film festival. And given the aura of wealth and glamour that surround yachts, they invariably attract pretty girls.

I remember when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was standing on the Majestic Beach in May this year, telling us about the joys of being cast for Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine, there was a sleek yacht providing a fitting backdrop.

It is usual for film companies to hire yachts for their meetings and parties and for senior executives to stay on board. Eros, the UK-based Bollywood company, hired a yacht on which Ajay Devgn and Vivek Oberoi held a press conference to promote their then unreleased movie, Omkara, inspired by Shakespeare’s Othello. Devgn got a bit carried away, I recall, and declared: “The script is better than the original.”

The construction magnate H.S. Narula and his wife Surina — they sponsor the Jaipur Literary Festival — have started coming to Cannes in their boat, the Surina.

The Hollywood producer, Ashok Amritraj, invariably hires a yacht to help him network in Cannes. I remember Preity Zinta and Karan Johar frolicking on board.

Among the very rich, size does matter. The Eclipse, which belongs to Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea Football Club, is 538 ft, 7ft longer than the Dubai, which is owned by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Cannes in May with a yacht in the background

These days the Queen cannot afford a yacht of her own but among the new generation of Indian Maharajas, Vijay Mallya can — he owns the 312ft Indian Empress.

So can Lakshmi Mittal, at whose expense The Sunday Times recently had a little fun.

“Lost billions? Go to Greece,” was the title of a little diary item on the great man which appeared in the paper’s business pages.

The gist of the item was that Mittal was all at sea — literally. To accompany the piece there was a photograph of Mittal’s 262ft “superyacht”, Amevi, and another of the man himself emerging from the sea looking fit and every inch like an Indian version of James Bond.

The text was less flattering, though.

“The joys of being stupendously wealthy,” it began. “Look at Lakshmi Mittal bobbing about the Med earlier this month with not a care in the world.”

It continued: “At the time ArcelorMittal, his steel company, was getting hammered in the stock market turbulence. In six months his stake lost £2.1 billion, but Mittal didn’t let that impinge on his romp round the Greek islands. (Perhaps when you have a £12 billion fortune you stop counting).”

What’s a few billion between friends but another Rich List earlier this year estimated the Mittal family wealth at £15.5 billion.

An important aspect of owning a yacht is that it cannot be hidden. Rather in the manner of trainspotters, yachts are followed by people who track them equally obsessively and know everything there is to know about their technical specifications.

Thus, it is known that Mittal’s £266m yacht, the Amevi, is 80m (262.47ft) long, was custom built in 2007 by Oceanco, its interior designed by Alberto Pinto and its exterior styling by Nuvolari & Lenard — all big names apparently in the yachting world.

The Amevi offers accommodation for up to 16 guests and is capable of carrying up to 22 crew on board to ensure a relaxed luxury yacht experience. “The yacht has eight suites, a movie theatre, a gym, a massage room, a salon and a heated pool. The master suite has all the usual trappings, including a study and a lobby; but the main attraction is the private jacuzzi.”

According to The Sunday Times, “if you fancy something a little more racy than Mittal’s swim over the side, there are jet skis, an underwater jet bike, water skis, wake boards and a banana boat.... You can charter Amevi for 700,000 euros (£620,215) a week.”

It is money well spent, of course. The other day, the Mittals had the Hollywood actress and singer, JLo (Jennifer Lopez) on board. There was a was a nice picture of Mittal’s wife, Usha, bidding goodbye to JLo as she departed.