Another hundred-million-dollar superyacht, owned by a billionaire businessman, has shown up in the waters off Bar Harbor.
The $120 million superyacht belongs to billionaire auto retailer Herb Chambers, who once controlled 60 car dealerships around New England. The yacht has been anchored off the coast of Bar Harbor since Thursday, according to Vessel Finder, a live boat tracking database.
The award-winning superyacht, which has a deck pool with a swim-up bar, outdoor jacuzzi and home cinema, can be chartered weekly for roughly $1.2 million during the summer, according to Yacht Charter Fleet, a luxury yacht charter guide. The vessel’s charter rate drops by $50,000 during the winter.
It’s the latest sighting this season of a billionaire’s superyacht around Mount Desert Island, a summer hotspot that, along with regular tourists, draws the ultra-wealthy and their luxury pleasure crafts.
In early July, the world’s largest single-mast sailing yacht, owned by Texas billionaire oil tycoon Rodney Lewis, was anchored in Frenchman Bay off Bar Harbor. Later that month a $90 million superyacht owned by Carnival Cruise Line chairman Mickey Arison, who also owns the NBA’s Miami Heat basketball team, was spotted off Bar Harbor. In early May, billionaire James Ratcliffe, co-owner of the Premier League’s Manchester United, anchored his 233-foot megayacht off the northern edge of Bar Island, close to MDI’s largest town.
Excellence, the 263-foot vessel that Chambers often runs as a charter business, was built in 2019 by German shipbuilder Abeking & Rasmussen and can accommodate 12 guests and 20 crew members.
The yacht is sometimes compared to a spaceship given its sleek exterior design and inverted bow, according to the charting guide.
Chambers — who grew up in a working class neighborhood of Boston, dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy and began his first company with a $500 loan from his mother — now has a net worth of $2.8 billion. He sold all but one of his car dealerships to Asbury Automotive last year, according to Forbes.
Just over a year after selling his auto dealership group, Chambers is still in litigation in Suffolk Superior Court in Massachusetts against parts and service workers requesting overtime pay, according to the Boston Globe.
Excellence was sighted in Boston Harbor on July 20 and in Cape Cod on July 25, according to several social media posts.
One local Facebook user spotted the yacht on Thursday as it passed Winter Harbor headed for Bar Harbor, according to a video he posted of the vessel.