Force Blue

Force Blue (formerly Big Roi) is a trawler-expedition style luxury yacht built by Royal Denship in 2002. She is the world's 78th-largest superyacht

Force Blue
Force Blue
History
Name: Force Blue
Owner: Flavio Briatore
Builder: Royal Denship
Launched: 2002
Sponsored by: Roy Speer
Homeport: Cayman Islands
Identification:
Status: operational, for hire
General characteristics
Class and type: Lloyds Register
Type: Yacht
Length: 63.23 m (207.4 ft)
Beam: 11.38 m (37.3 ft)
Draft: 2.95 m (9.7 ft)
Installed power: 4,000 hp (3,000 kW)
Propulsion: 2 × 2000 hp Caterpillar Inc.
Speed:
  • Max:17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
  • Cruise:14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Crew: 17

Design

Built in 2002 by Royal Denship, she was designed by Ole Steen Knudsen and Tom Fexas as part of Royal Denship's "expedition" series, that included Turmoil and Big Aron. She was commissioned by Roy Speer, the founder and owner of the Home Shopping Network.

Briatore

Purchased from Speer by Italian motorsports entrepreneur Flavio Briatore for £68.2m,[1] she was given a refitted interior designed by Celeste Dell'Anna, and given a blue exterior.

Available for hire at a rate of $250,000 per week,[2] in 2009 at the Monaco Grand Prix, she became the location of a meeting between the FIA and Formula One Teams Association to resolve proposed regulation changes for the 2010 Formula One season.

Force Blue was seized by Italian Customs in May 2010 in La Spezia, near Genoa. On the authority of a local prosecutor, the state claims that the vessel's owners, Autumn Sailing Ltd, that there is outstanding Value Added Tax owing which should have been paid on the fuel used by the yacht. The amount evaded is estimated to be around five million euros.[3]

See also

References
  1. "La Dolce Vita: What really drives Flavio Briatore?". The Independent. 23 September 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
  2. "Big Blue". ypigroup.com. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
  3. "F1's Flavio Briatore to face trial over super yacht tax evasion". Telegraph. Retrieved 14 February 2014.


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