Blair Plays with Super Yachts


Photo: Frances Howorth

Former UK Premier joins superyacht Rising Sun

Tony Blair former prime minister of the UK is in Sardinia and was seen joining the superyacht Rising Sun in company with Larry Ellison her owner.

Named after the symbol on the Japanese flag, Rising Sun is one of several superyachts that have a name linked to a Japanese theme and this could be a clue to the fact that many of them have been built, or were at sometime in their life, owned by Larry Ellison who was the co founder and is now the CEO of the USA based software giant Oracle Corporation.

He has owned several yachts among them Katana which was renamed Eco and is now called Enigma along with what is now Ronin but was built for him as Izanami. He is a very keen yachtsman and his maxi sailing yacht Sayonara won the Sydney to Hobart race in 1998 despite the horrendous storm conditions that year.

Ellison was the money behind the BMW / Oracle challenge for the 2007 Americas Cup which failed to capture the trophy. At the time of the contest, Rising Sun could frequently be seen at anchor off Valencia.

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