Plush yacht adds touch of luxury to harbour

The impressive Vive la Vie at Victoria Pier. Photo: Peter Johnson
The impressive Vive La Vie at Victoria Pier. Photo: Peter Johnson

The most interesting visitor to Ler­wick Harbour this week was the luxury yacht Vive La Vie owned by Swiss entrepreneur, and founder of the company Ypsomed, Willy Michel.

The gleaming 61m, 1277 gross tonne yacht was built in 2009 and arrived from Faroe on Wednesday. She is registered in the Cayman Islands. Ship’s crew were said to have been polishing the brass as soon as the vessel docked inside the outer arm of Victoria Pier.

Since her delivery Vive La Vie has been cruising around the world. Her dining room has an unusual feature as the dining table can be raised into the ceiling to allow the room to be used as a disco.

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Photos on the website superyachts.com reveal the vessel to be every bit as amazing inside as out.

Mr Michel and his family are said to still own 76 per cent off the Yp­somed shares. The Swiss magazine Bilanz estimates his net worth at CHF 700 million, which is more or less 700 million US dollars – the money largely made from the supply of medical equipment.

Altogether there were 27 yachts in harbour, most much smaller than the Vive La Vie.

Aside from the toys of the super-rich, the harbour was very busy with oil-related arrivals and departures.

The Norwegian reefer Framnes made an unscheduled stop at Gre­mista on Friday for repairs when she was en-route to Iceland.

Several cruise liners were in port including Azamara Journey, Hebri­dean Princess, Celebrity Infinity, Veendam and MSC Magnifica while the sail training ship Alba Explorer also arrived on Wednesday from Aalesund bound for Inverness.

The lighthouse boat Pole Star was in port servicing lights in the north entrance.

There was also a fairly steady supply of herring coming into Shet­land Catch notably from the North-east pelagic trawlers Quantus and Sunbeam.

The Serene was back after having work done in Scandinavia. The large French fishing boat San­dettie made a couple of calls to the south entrance to pick up and land a technician.

The Knab also had a couple of runs to the shuttle tanker Stena Aleksita anchored at the south entrance.

ONE COMMENT

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  • Neil Anderson

    • August 8th, 2014 17:43

    Just serves to show the huge gap in wealth that is so common in our society , nothing positive to take from it sitting in the harbour , just think of how many people need basic housing, clothing , food and water !

    REPLY

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