By international convention, a superyacht is any private vessel more than 30 metres (98ft) in length. A few years ago, there were only a handful but today, there are thousands of them and, amazingly, demand is on the up.

After a few years, the owner of a 30-metre yacht wants 40 or 50 metres of yacht and, right now, there are not enough quality shipyards in the world to cope with the demand.

Every year, buyers and sellers congregate in Monaco, and this year was busier than ever. At the Monaco Yacht Show this past weekend in Monte Carlo, there was an estimated $4.5 billion worth of yachts on display, and none of the 98 craft on exhibit were under 100 ft. !

The biggest of them all was the multistory, $200 million Anastasia (picture above) at 248 ft., recently completed by leading Dutch shipyard Oceanco for a Russian billionaire.

The Anastasia features six decks, luxe quarters for 12 passengers and 20 crew members including a duplex master suite, a ten seat cinema, a discotheque with a laser light display and smoke machine, an artificial coral reef and 800-gallon fish tank, a swimming pool with a transparent wall, a sunbathing platform which converts into a stage for live music, a library upholstered in crocodile skin, and a hanger full of speedboats and jetskis.

Though the buyer’s identity hasn’t been confirmed, it’s rumored to be Vladimir Potanin, 47, the London Daily Mail reports. Ranked at 38 among the world’s richest people, he is a sports-mad father of three who has his own ski-run in Russia and a keen eye for fine art.

From what I see on the pictures taken in Monaco, my favourite yacht remains the Octopus (above) – currently the world’s eighth largest superyacht – which is owned by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.