A superyacht is a privately or commercially operated luxury yacht (motor or sail powered), which is professionally crewed and has a load line length of 24 meters and above. Some yachts are either used exclusively by their owners or are available part-time for commercial charter, while others are operated all year round as charter businesses. The number of very large yachts has grown rapidly since the 1990s and increasingly only yachts above 65 meters (213ft) stand out among other luxury yachts. The average length of new builds is around 46 meters. The term superyacht began to appear at the beginning of the 20th century when wealthy individuals constructed large private yachts for personal pleasure like the Jemima F III, which was built in 1908 at 111 feet, the largest motor- powered yacht in the world back then. Between 1997 and 2008, there was a massive growth in the number, size, and popularity of large private or super-sized luxury yachts in the 24-to-70-metre (79 to 230 ft) size range. Luxury yachts, megayachts, or superyachts typically have no real homeport as such, although a yacht must be registered in a port of the country where its flag state is registered. While the demand for new luxury yachts has slowed somewhat since the year 2009, 2011 has seen a small rebound with launches from many of the top shipyards. The 163.5 meters (536 feet) Eclipse and the 180 meters (590 ft) Azzam launched in 2013 are the two largest private yachts in the world. More so, in 2015 the market has had a similar year to 2014 with some large deliveries such as the 125m Golden Odyssey or the 101m Symphony. Luxury boat building and yacht charter companies are predominantly based in Western Europe and the United States but are also increasingly found in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and the Eastern Europe. In Asia, the Middle East in particular, one manufacturer from the UAE has constantly increased the size of their superyachts. Currently, the Majesty 175 and in the near future the Majesty 200 will soon overpass their largest superyacht, the Majesty 155.
