Owned by US Walmart heiress, Nancy Walton Laurie, the £241m (€300m) vessel weighs 4,523 tonnes and boasts various luxurious features, including 16 cabins, a gym, steam room, indoor beach club, cinema, sauna, spa, swimming pool and helipad.
It has space for 30 guests and 45 crew, and the top deck even has a jacuzzi for those on board to relax in.
The 110-metre yacht was also spotted earlier in the week, moored in Scotsman’s Bay, off the coastal town of Dún Laoghaire in Dublin.
A super Yacht docks off the coast of Bangor on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Picture by Peter Morrison
Before that, it was recently seen in London and Cornwall, where it travelled to after a mammoth transatlantic passage from Miami.
Named Kaos, the impressive boat was formerly known as Jubilee, and was launched in 2017, as the largest yacht ever built in the Netherlands, according to Superyacht Times.
“The exterior features a combination of curved lines and glass panels in the bulwarks is visually stunning to create an illusion of extra decks and a trompe l’oeil effect where the yacht appears long and lean. Metallic paint enhances reflected sunlight on these curved lines,” the publication stated.
Nancy Walton Laurie is an American billionaire and is the youngest daughter of Walmart co-founder, James ‘Bud’ Walton, who built the brand with his brother.
She inherited a stake in the US retail giant when her father died in 1995.
A super Yacht docks off the coast of Bangor on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Picture by Peter Morrison
The first-ever Walmart store opened in July 1962 in Arkansas, and the heiresses – Nancy and her sister – own around 50% of the stock collectively.
Nancy is also a successful businesswoman and philanthropist, and is thought to have an estimated net worth of up to $9bn.
She runs several ventures with the help of her husband Bill Laurie, a former basketball player.
The couple even owned the St. Louise Blues Hockey team until the year 2005.
Her superyacht has also won multiple awards and was built by Oceanco – the same company that built Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ $500m mega yacht.
Kaos was initially built for the late Emir of Qatar.
It is thought to be named after ‘khaos’, the Greek word meaning the ‘gap’ or ‘chasm’, with specific reference to the space between heaven and earth.
As reported by Boat International Magazine, the colossal cruiser was bought by its new owners in 2018.
Northern Ireland often plays host to passing luxury yachts.
Last year, one worth $60m – with an Italian name that literally translates to ‘good life’ – docked in Belfast.
Bella Vita, owned by American businessman and homebuilding mogul Dwight Schar, who has a net worth of $1.9bn, showed up in April and caught the attention of many on land and sea.
A few months later, the £50m Slipstream Superyacht was spotted heading from Belfast too.
It’s fair to say that both boats seem like a mere drop in the water compared to the enormous Kaos though.
