In a game of who owns the biggest superyacht in the bay of Saint Tropez one afternoon in early May, there’s a pair of strong contenders: Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour with his 214-foot BenettiBut there’s no need to get out a measuring tape to calculate the winner.
Its delivery marked not only the inception of Ponant, the cruise company, but also the first French cruise ship to hit the water. It sailed the river Seine to join its inauguration in La Rochelle, on France’s Atlantic coast.was crossing back from Seychelles to the Mediterranean, the vessel was seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. There were no passengers on board, but all 30 crew were taken hostage. They were freed a week later, after French commando intervention.