Dunya Yachts

Truly a beautiful yacht.

Yacht crew member turned YouTube creator Jared Watney has a series of videos on Axioma on his channel documenting her refit period that was completed at the end of 2021, just before beginning the Caribbean season this winter. She's a popular charter yacht and the videos leaned heavily into that aspect by being as much infomercial as refit documentary...which is fine. Although, it doesn't look like she's going to be a popular charter yacht this year.

This will be a fascinating auction to watch. While it's not a vessel that has been seized by a nation state, it is a vessel that was repossessed directly because of the financial hardships created by EU and US sanctions. For any potential buyer, that's probably the best case scenario for buying these kinds of DEEPLY troubled assets. Still, it's the former property of a Russian oligarch who's best friends with a guy who will loves to poison dissidents and push adversaries out of windows. Is the sale price discount going to be enough juice to make it worth that kind of squeeze? Do you want to be the first person who tests how the Russian Kleptocracy is going to respond? I'm not so sure.

Yachts are like living organism in a way, at least this is my feeling. She seems she has a difficult life, as if she is cursed. She was born in Dunya Yachting, which was a difficult birth. The owner of the yard as one of the outstanding personalities of Turkish commercial shipping. Started as an officer at Zim (if I recall correctly) and built up a fleet of tankers with a head quarters in London, under the name of Gunmound. He owned a 31 meter Tecnomar built, one off, steel hull yacht for many years. He ventured into yacht building and established Dunya Yachting, which was one of the well organized and well funded start-ups in Turkish yacht building. Most probably started “Axioma” as a spec yacht, expecting to sell during the build, which did not materialized. It was a big burden on his main business as well and they went into financial difficulty. Then the elderly gentleman got cancer, as I remember, and passed away. The yard was taken over with new interests, who completed the build and finally found a buyer, so “Axioma” started her life. Actually, as a coincidence, I witnessed her initial photoshoot in Gocek/Turkey, right after she was commissioned.

So, the saga still goes on. She is he first yacht which is auctioned after confistication. I hope she has better days in her future…

Any news yet about the outcome of the auction?

63bids,finalised in between 10 to 14 days.

sold price $37,000,000.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...ian-oligarch-seized-superyacht-sold-gibraltar

kb6 47m. interior render

Axioma put for sale,too, at a price tag of 65.5million euros with same broker that lists Alfa Nero.