Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko's long-awaited yacht is getting some pricey decoration. The wildly distinctive yacht, known simply as "A" named after Melnichenko's wife Aleksandra, was designed by Philippe Starck. The Times Online reports that the $400 million megayacht recently motored to Norway to pick up three Monet paintings. It is believed that Melnichenko chose Norway to avoid EU import taxes.

The 390-foot ship was built by Blohm & Voss and features details including a glass roof looking up into one of the two swimming pools. It has six guest cabins but room for 42 staff members.

Check out more pictures of this incredible yacht at Monaco Eye.

The second "Pinot Lovers' Cruise" is scheduled for May 31 - June 12, 2009, and combines the wines of August West with Freeman Vineyard & Winery. The 12-day trip on Oceania Cruises' Insignia makes stops in 12 cities, starting in Rome and ending in Istanbul. Oceania only carries 650 passengers and is known for its relaxed, no-tie policy, and gourmet cuisine, overseen by Executive Chef Jacques Pepin. The cruise includes a private winemakers' dinner, wine tastings and discussions, tours of top Italian wine-estates and plenty of Pinot parties.

Freeman has been named as one of the Magnificent 30 "Hottest Pinots" by the Wine Spectator, while the San Francisco Chronicle recognized August West as one of its top 10 wineries of 2005. Both wineries have received multiple 90+ scores from Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and the Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine.

Cruise prices range from $3,649 - $7,049 per person double, including free airfare from 20 major U.S. airports. Book by September 1 and receive prepaid gratuities, worth up to $300 per cabin.

In November, the Cunard line's famed QE2 will make its final voyage to a new home at the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai World, which paid $100 million to acquire the ship for a floating hotel, retail and entertainment annex. Carol Thatcher has compiled a beautiful book about the legendary oceanliner's colorful history, QE2: Forty Years Famous.

The QE2 was launched by (and named for) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 1967, and since then she has undertaken 25 world cruises, crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times and carried more than 2.5 million passengers, establishing a reputation as the world's greatest and most luxurious liner - a grande dame pre-dating and outclassing the modern cruise ship era. See the gallery for more.

Luxury showers should induce mood-altering effects, relieve the stress of your day, caress your skin and rejuvenate your spirit. Steaming, bathing, inhaling aromatherapy scents that soothe your mind and body all seem worthy features of a truly rich shower experience. Di Vapor's Victoria Shower has brought that package together with a practical addition -- built-in shelving separated by a sliding glass door in the shower space that allows for storage of fluffy towels, aprés-shower products, and music to conclude your time spent refreshing yourself. With an eight-inch rainfall shower head above, eight different massaging shower heads surrounding your body, a touch-sensitive digital control panel, and of course steam settings to suit your preference, its no wonder why this all-in-one design is worth the £2495.

Earlier this month we reported on the Royal Ascot races, one of the highlights of the English social season. This week ushers in another classic British sporting event-cum-society pageant, the Henley Royal Regatta. The five-day Regatta, held on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, takes place over the first weekend of every July and runs from Wednesday the 2nd through Sunday the 6th this year.

International crews compete in various races at the Regatta, which has been held every year since 1839 except during the two World Wars, the main event being the Grand Challenge Cup for Men's Eights. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's consort, became the Regatta's first Royal Patron in 1851, a tradition carried on by the reigning monarch ever since, though unlike Royal Ascot they don't always deign to attend.

Even more so than at Ascot, Henley provides an opportunity for aristocrats from the sporting and social sets to dress in that distinctively British style which has inspired so many fashion designers over the decades. The commercialization of Henley, unlike Ascot, Wimbledon and cricket at Lord's, has been slower to take hold, and as Godfrey Smith writes in The English Season, it is something of "an Edwardian time warp."

I've been a fan of the Earthrace boat since before I finally got to climb aboard back in 2006 so I'm particularly pleased that the biodiesel-powered trimaran and her crew set a record fastest circumnavigation of the globe by speedboat recently. The boat raced around the globe in just 60 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes which means they beat the old record by 13 days, 21 hours and 9 minutes. This was the second attempt by New Zealand skipper Pete Bethune who had to give up his first last year after a bunch of problems that included a pirate attack and a collision with a fishing boat. Congratulations to Bethune and his crew.

The latest limited edition from 20ltd is a perfect summer fantasy. They are selling a black fiberglass sailing canoe from Caillou, a company whose small but extremely well-made boats we recently profiled. The 20ltd Caillou boat can be used as a sailboat or as a kayak. It has a solid fiberglass deck and hull with mahogany trimming, two fiberglass seats with floatation cusions, two kayak paddles, a carbon fiber mast and a Dacron sail rig with carbon fiber batons. The boat weighs around 100 pounds and can be transported on the roof of your car using a Thule or Yakima rack. The boat is 17.5 feet with a 41-inch beam. There are just five of the special edition boats being made and they sell for $10,740 each.

[via Acquire]

The New York Times periodically picks a price and then does a "What You Get for ... $xxx,xxx" piece in its Real Estate section, comparing homes in three cities. I've never seen a "What You Get for ... $35,000,000," article so here it is, at least in one city: This estate in Montauk (no direct link, so go here, and enter Web ID H34007) is set on 35.5 acres between the Atlantic Ocean, a freshwater pond and fields and meadows, with 400 feet of ocean frontage. The house is 7,000 square feet and has a tiled roof, plus there's 50% more living space than the house itself, thanks to the 3,500 square feet of mahogany decking. Built in 1994, there are three levels, comprising five bedrooms, five baths, living and dining rooms with 16-foot ceilings and walls of glass that overlook the ocean and grounds. For cooking (or, more likely, where your staff will be doing the cooking), there's a chef's kitchen. Also: a breakfast room, an office, a screening room with a state-of-the-art JBL system, and a garage. A path leads through private gates to the beach.

Renowned French champagne house Veuve Clicquot has teamed up with luxury Italian motoryacht maker Riva to produce an amazing new Grande Dame Cruise Collection of coolers and accessories for discerning yachtsmen. It's nothing short of a match made in style heaven of two very chic European marques. The top offering from the collaboration is an $80,000 made-to-order cruising trunk that resembles a small boat in itself and harks back to the golden age of traveling in style which we reminisced about recently. For something done on such a grand scale it's rather refined, a luxurious design without resorting to odious "bling" to attract those with more money than sense.

The trunk comes packed with four bottles (1988) and two magnums (1998) of Clicquot's coveted La Grande Dame champagne, six Riedel crystal champagne flutes and elegant table settings for six people. A smaller limited edition Cruiser Bag comes with a single bottle of Grande Dame and two flutes for more intimate occasions, and a matching ice bucket is crafted with marine flair to spare. All pieces feature the same lacquer work, mahogany inlay, chrome detailing and leather trim found on Riva's beautiful boats.

Riva, which dates from the 1800s, is an icon of the Italian Riviera's Dolce Vita style. The company first captured the attention of movie stars and the international jet set in the '50s. Its classic wooden craft, which inspired the Cruise Collection, have been owned by the likes of Brigitte Bardot, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Aristotle Onassis and Prince Ranier of Monaco. Their yachts, including more modern designs, can be seen at the chic European seaside resorts where the bon ton gather, and they have their own line of elegant nautical-inspired clothing as well.

We've covered bottled water for dogs before and apparently the trend is really taking off because now we're doing it again. Aqua Pure Breed is bottled mountain water for dogs that not only provides hydration but is also available in 4 different formulas to more personally meet your dog's healthy drinking needs. And Aqua Pure Breed promotes not only healthy drinking water for your pet but an overall healthy and active lifestyle by offering "Active Dog Guides" for major cities and they started the No Dog Left Behind program which encourages people to include their pet dogs into more areas of their lives. You can order online and get about a month's supply of water for $59.95.

Earlier this week we mentioned a yacht that President John F. Kennedy has used. Now the 62-foot Sparkman & Stephens yacht Manitou that he sailed while in office, is for sale for $1.95 million. The boat was built in Maryland in 1936 and Kennedy used it for both official and personal cruising. Kennedy sailed with both family and dignitaries on the vintage yawl. The yacht includes a fireplace and a single diesel engine. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the boat was sold to the Harry Lundeberg School of Seamanship. The boat underwent a renovation several years back. I'm sure this piece of American history won't be for sale for long.

Situated on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Reef Encounter, Australia's exclusive floating luxury boutique hotel, offers "the ultimate reef experience." Its Top Deck Club offers a relaxed ambiance and is designed for discerning of guests: Guests are cared for by a crew and stay in modern, spacious staterooms with A/C, a private ensuite and plenty of space for clothes and luggage. Sleep on crisp Australian bed linen, silk doona, cotton sheets and feather down pillows. Naturellement, soft fluffy robes, plush bath sheets and Australian beauty products are replenished daily. All gourmet meals are freshly prepared onboard with local Australian and exotic ingredients accompanied by Australian wines and beers.

Calling itself a "reef resort" (and sounding suspiciously like what I would call a cruise, but with a smaller ship and fewer passengers), Reef Encounter takes place on a 35-meter luxury catamaran that has A/C throughout, spacious decks, roomy dining and recreation areas, and a heated spa. Off the ship, scuba divers can interact with a Green Sea Turtle colony at Breaking Patches or the friendly resident giant Maori Wrasse, "Frank." Transfers to the ship, on the new luxury vessel Reef Experience, are available via a 1-hour boat ride from Hastings Point and a 1.5-hour ride from Norman. Or, use the Reef Encounter's heli pad. Prices vary by length of trip. Get more info here.

A beauty of an old yacht is taking to the water once again. The wooden yacht Innisfail used to be owned the by the U.S. Government and was used by Presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy and played host to many world dignitaries. Frank Lynch, the owner of six Cactus Car Wash locations bought the yacht for $1.5 million and spent another $1.5 million bringing the 92-foot yacht back to her former glory adding a new deck and roof and antiques. The yacht, which was built in 1939, is berthed at the Charleston City Marina in Charleston, South Carolina and is available for charter for up to 65 guests for day cruises and events. Rates start at around $800 an hour.

[via Charleston Post and Courier]

The Grand Mauritian, a Luxury Collection resort and spa from Starwood Hotels & Resorts, "invites you to experience the magic of Mauritian hospitality in a truly luxurious setting." (I accept!) Located on the northwest coast of the island of Mauritius on Turtle Bay, on the Indian Ocean, the resort is set to open on July 1 and is the the Luxury Collection's first foray into the Indian Ocean and Africa.

The resort will offer 193 guest rooms and suites, all of which offer ocean views (some have private terraces and tropical outdoor showers); a kids' club; a 1,500 sqm Mandara spa with 11 treatment rooms; and a selection of upscale restaurants and bars. Spread over 10 hectares, the resort is bordered by the reef and ocean nature park on the coast with sugar cane fields behind. You'll find water sports and diving in the two swimming pools and on the natural sandy beach.

For business travelers, the resort has plug-and-play high-speed Internet access in the guest rooms; wireless high-speed Internet access in public areas; a business center; and venues for conferences, meetings and social events.

Check rates and availability here.

There are many several sites online that help yachts find crewpeople but the latest Hands Om Crew, fills a very specific niche, they find seaworthy yoga teachers and massage therapists. The new company was founded by Denise Dobbs who served for ten years as a stewardess/massage therapist on yachts. The yoga crew agency is building a database of qualified massage therapists and yoga instructors from around the world who are available to serve on charters or private yacht vacations. Each candidate undergoes a three-step interviewing process including giving a massage or yoga class to asses their talents. The company also offers advice on organic/ayurvedic food provisioning for health-minded cruisers.