Whether you admire the exterior styling of the late Jon Bannenberg or find his cutting-edge yacht designs too, well, edgy, you have to admit that the profile he created for Rising Sun is extraordinary. While some of the largest megayachts in the world have superstructures so towering you wouldn’t be surprised if they caused a solar eclipse, that’s not the case with this new launch, thanks to her sleek stature. The photo here was taken this summer when the yacht first emerged from Lürssen’s build shed, shortly before sea trials; while her windows were covered and there was still some exterior work to do, she’s no less an impressive and indeed imposing sight. Confidentiality agreements have kept everything from details of her design and engineering to renderings of her interior features from being released to the media. Even Lürssen would only refer to her as LE120, her project name: “LE” for Larry Ellison, “120” for her original length in meters. Those of you who are math whizzes have probably figured out that the LOA above doesn’t equate to 120 meters; rather, it’s 138 meters. Why’d the length change? No one associated with the project is permitted to speak publicly, but that hasn’t stopped yacht-spotters worldwide from conjecturing that Ellison wanted to ensure that his yacht would be larger than Paul Allen’s (see no. 2), which was also being built by Lürssen around the same time. Whether or not that’s the reason, one thing we’re pretty certain of is that she’s the first yacht to feature 20-cylinder, 12,000-hp MTU Series 8000s. If she has the four powerplants that we’ve heard she does, then she boasts an astounding 48,000 hp. She also has three tenders in the 40-foot range that were custom-built in New Zealand, two being traditional monohulls to carry guests and crew, and the third being a twin-hulled landing craft to carry a four-wheel-drive vehicle. But our favorite factoid about her comes from Melanie Craft, the novelist who’s also Ellison’s wife. She was reported by Women’s Wear Daily as saying, “I tried to get Larry to call it Princess Melanie, but that got shot down pretty fast.”
If you have a close look you can see Mr. Larry Allisson shoot some hoop on his aft deck. It is the guy dressed in khaki pants and the blue or black shirt.
