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Whether you admire the exterior styling of the late Jon Bannenberg or find his cutting-edge
yacht designs too, well, edgy, you have to admit that the profile he created for Rising Sun is
extraordinary. While some of the largest megayachts in the world have superstructures so
towering you wouldn't be surprised if they caused a solar eclipse, that's not the case with this
new launch, thanks to her sleek stature. The photo here was taken this summer when the yacht
first emerged from Lürssen's build shed, shortly before sea trials; while her windows were
covered and there was still some exterior work to do, she's no less an impressive and indeed
imposing sight. Confidentiality agreements have kept everything from details of her design and
engineering to renderings of her interior features from being released to the media. Even
Lürssen would only refer to her as LE120, her project name: "LE" for Larry Ellison, "120" for her
original length in meters. Those of you who are math whizzes have probably figured out that the
LOA above doesn't equate to 120 meters; rather, it's 138 meters. Why'd the length change?
No one associated with the project is permitted to speak publicly, but that hasn't stopped
yacht-spotters worldwide from conjecturing that Ellison wanted to ensure that his yacht would be
larger than Paul Allen's which was also being built by Lürssen around the same time. Whether
or not that's the reason, one thing we're pretty certain of is that she's the first yacht to feature
20-cylinder, 12,000-hp MTU Series 8000s. If she has the four powerplants that we've heard she
does, then she boasts an astounding 48,000 hp. She also has three tenders in the 40-foot range
that were custom-built in New Zealand, two being traditional monohulls to carry guests and crew,
and the third being a twin-hulled landing craft to carry a four-wheel-drive vehicle. But our favorite
factoid about her comes from Melanie Craft, the novelist who's also Ellison's wife. She was
reported by Women's Wear Daily as saying, "I tried to get Larry to call it Princess Melanie,
but that got shot down pretty fast."
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