NEW ORLEANS — Towering over the steamboats dotted along the Mississippi River in New Orleans this week sits the 122-meter superyacht Kismet.
That’s 400 feet — 40 more than a football field — for those of us who don’t easily process metric conversions.
The Kismet was purchased last year by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shan Khan for a reported $360 million, and costs $36 million per year to maintain.
Khan, 74, has a net worth of more than $13 billion — a fortune that originates from the car parts supplier Flex-N-Gate that he purchased in 1980. He purchased the Jaguars in 2012 for $770 million, and also owns Premier League club Fulham.
The yacht features nine cabins and can host up to 12 people, not including the captain and 36 crew members. It also includes four fireplaces, three pools, a helipad basketball court, cryotherapy chamber and Turkish bath, among other amenities.
The top of the six-deck Kismet towers above Woldenberg Park, where it is docked this week just blocks from the French Quarter. And it dwarfs that of Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, whose 90-meter yacht has also made its way to New Orleans ahead of Super Bowl LIV on Sunday.
The Marshall Islands flag that the superyacht flies under waves from the stern, and the vessel can be chartered for a cool $3 million per week — plus expenses.
–Derek Harper, Field Level Media