- St. Barts has long been a preferred holiday spot for the rich and famous, and a number of billionaires just arrived on the ritzy island via superyacht to celebrate New Year’s Eve, according to Forbes.
- MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking website, shows other notable superyachts docked at nearby Sint Maarten, the Dutch half of Saint Marten, as well as the island of Antigua.
- The billionaires cruising the Caribbean include LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and media mogul David Geffen.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Superyachts start congregating along the Caribbean islands come New Year’s Eve.
Bloomberg previously reported that the superyacht count in Sint Maarten, the Dutch side Saint Martin, swelled to 52 in December. The count in November, for comparison, was 16. Even still, that’s not where the greatest number of billionaires will ring in the new decade: Saint-Barthélemy, or St. Barts, is known for that, according to Forbes.
MarineTraffic, a real-time ship-tracking website, charts where notable vessels are docked. And currently, the interactive map shows that a number of superyachts are anchored in St. Barts, St. Maarten, Antigua, and Nassau.
Keep reading for a look at the popular ritzy Caribbean destinations for New Year’s. We also included a look at the boats and the notable boaters celebrating in each.
Superyachts belonging to billionaires all over the world pop up in a few Caribbean hot spots during the holiday season. Nassau is just 315 miles off the coast of Florida but Saint-Barthélemy, the most popular island, is 1,000 miles past that.
Source: Google Maps
Saint-Barthélemy, also known as St. Barths or St. Barts, is the Caribbean island where the vast majority of superyachters anchor to ring in the new year.
Source: Forbes
Last year, Nikki Beach, a luxurious St. Barts beach club, hosted a New Year's party that included a Mariah Carey performance.
While many resorts and restaurants will host New Year's Eve parties on the island this year, one of the most iconic is the annual Nikki Beach party.
This year, the evening will include DJing by Kygo. Fortune reports that a table at the party costs upwards of $10,000.
St. Barts New Year's Eve parties of yesteryear have enjoyed performances by Prince and Beyonce.
St. Barts, which is roughly nine square miles, boasts fireworks at midnight while "all the magnificent superyachts moored off the island sound their foghorns in unison," according to the island's official website.
Superyachts currently docked in St. Barts include Rising Sun, the 454-foot vessel owned by media mogul David Geffen, and Symphony, the 331-foot yacht owned by Bernard Arnault, the third-richest man in the world.
Source: MarineTraffic, Business Insider, Business Insider
Eos, the 350-foot sailing superyacht owned by billionaire Barry Diller and his designer wife, Diane von Furstenberg, is also in St. Barts.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and girlfriend Lauren Sanchez were also spotted boarding a yacht in St. Barts last week, according to Page Six. As Business Insider previously reported, the pair enjoyed time on both Eos and Geffen's Rising Sun this past summer.
Aside from St. Barts, another popular destination is neighboring Sint Maarten.
St. Barts and the island of Saint Martin are only separated by 17 nautical miles.
Sint Maarten, the bottom Dutch half of the island, is the more popular vacation destination over the top French half of the island, Saint-Martin, according to Vanity Fair.
Bloomberg previously reported that the superyacht count in Sint Maarten swelled to 52 in December - the count in November was 16.
Eclipse, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's superyacht, was recorded as one of the 52 yachts passing through St. Maarten this month.
Abramovich, a Russian steel magnate and owner of the English Premier League's Chelsea FC, bought the vessel in 2009. At 533 feet long, Eclipse was once the largest superyacht in the world, until it was overtaken by Azzam in 2013.
The ship was recorded by MarineTraffic as docked in St. Maarten earlier this week, but is now docked in St. Barts. Abramovich reportedly owns 70 acres on the south side of the island, according to the New York Times.
Also in St. Maarten? Ecstasea, a 282-foot superyacht previously owned by Abramovich. Bloomberg reported that the yacht, now owned by a Pakistani billionaire, crashed while docking in the St. Maarten marina on Sunday, December 29, knocking down an operator's booth.
A third key Caribbean destination for the 1% during the holidays is Antigua.
Antigua is 75 miles southwest of St. Barts. The island saw 37 superyachts in December, according to Bloomberg.
Maltese Falcon, the 289-foot sailing yacht owned by Greek hedge fund manager Elena Ambrosiadou, is docked in Antigua.
Source: MarineTraffic, Business Insider
Here Comes the Sun, a 272-foot vessel owned by Russian drilling billionaire Alexander Dzhaparidze, is also in Antigua.
Source: MarineTraffic, Business Insider, Forbes
Other spots with a spike in superyacht activity include Bahamian islands like Nassau. Still, when it comes to New Year's Eve, St. Barts is king.
Tiger Woods' 155-foot superyacht, Privacy, is en route to Nassau, according to MarineTraffic. The total number of vessels, including superyachts, at port in Nassau is 140.
Meanwhile, there are 160 total vessels at port in both St. Maarten and Antigua.
St. Barts, however, still reigns supreme: It has 170 vessels at port.
