Superyacht ‘VAVA II’ docked in Lake Union

Superyacht Marina

The 96-meter superyacht VAVA II, owned by billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli and his wife, former Miss UK Kirsty Roper, is in West Lake Union this afternoon.

The yacht is the 33^rd largest in the world. It reportedly cost $160 million and is the largest privately owned yacht to be built in the United Kingdom.

The yacht’s features include a helicopter landing pad, a swimming pool and a large fold-down beach club.

Bertarelli is a Swiss/Italian pharmaceutical entrepreneur who inherited the biotech company Serono after his father’s death in 1998. His net worth is $12.2 billion, according to Forbes. Roper was crowned Miss UK in 1988 and is one of Britain’s richest women.

VAVA II’s recent port calls were Honolulu and Port Townsend, according to Marine Traffic. The yacht went through the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks earlier this afternoon and almost hit the side of the chamber a few times, according to the Locks’ Facebook page.