Dilbar

• LOA: 156 m
• Builder: Lurssen
• Delivered: 2016
• Gross tonnage: 15,917 GT
• Exterior design: Espen Oeino
• Interior design: Winch Design
• Guests / Crew: 24 / up to 96
• Signature: 25 m indoor pool

The volume record that still stands

When Dilbar was delivered in 2016, she took the title of the largest yacht in the world by gross tonnage, a record she still holds. Her 15,917 GT give her more enclosed living space than any yacht before or since. For Lurssen, she was a demonstration that the yard could push volume as far as length. She sits alongside Azzam as one of the two vessels that define the modern Lurssen era. No yacht delivered since has come close to matching her enclosed space.

The build occupied the yard for years and drew on its deepest reserves of engineering and project management. Every system was scaled up to serve a vessel that houses close to a hundred crew and two dozen guests. The programme was run with the discretion Lurssen is known for, and few images appeared before delivery. Dilbar arrived as a fully formed statement of what enclosed volume at sea can be. She stands as a mature expression of the yard's craft at its most ambitious.

Espen Oeino's most muscular profile

Espen Oeino gave Dilbar a broad, powerful silhouette that carries her volume with authority. The superstructure rises through several full decks, topped by two helipads set fore and aft. Her beam is exceptional, which is part of how the yacht achieves such vast interior spaces without looking ungainly. The exterior reads as solid and purposeful from any angle. Her scale is best appreciated up close, where the height of each deck becomes clear.

That width also creates enormous areas of open deck for guests. There are terraces, lounging zones and a foredeck sized for helicopter operations. Oeino balanced the mass of the yacht with long horizontal lines that keep her looking resolved. The design manages to make almost 16,000 GT feel deliberate. The sheer breadth of her decks gives guests room that smaller yachts cannot offer.

By interior volume, the largest yacht the world has ever seen.

Winch Design and a pool without equal

Andrew Winch and his studio created interiors that use Dilbar's volume as their headline material. The signature space is a swimming pool of around 25 metres, holding roughly 180 cubic metres of water, the largest ever built into a yacht. Rooms open onto one another with the generosity of a grand residence. The finish level is what one expects of a top-tier Lurssen, applied across an area few interiors teams ever handle. The pool alone would be a centrepiece in a grand hotel ashore.

The layout accommodates 24 guests in twelve staterooms, supported by a crew approaching a hundred. Living spaces were arranged for both intimate family use and large-scale entertaining. Materials run to the richest available, chosen for durability under constant use. Every proportion reflects a client who wanted the definitive interior at sea. The result is a home at sea sized for a large family and its guests.

One of the most powerful plants at sea

Dilbar carries a diesel-electric propulsion system among the most powerful ever installed in a private yacht. The installation was sized to move an enormous hull efficiently and to power an interior with the demands of a small town. Top speed sits around 22 knots, strong for a vessel of this tonnage. Her range allows long ocean crossings without compromise. The plant was engineered to move her mass with an efficiency that belies her size.

The engineering brief prioritised reliability and quiet running above raw numbers. Redundancy runs through the critical systems so that the yacht can operate anywhere with confidence. Stabilisation keeps a hull of this mass steady at anchor and under way. Dilbar was built to go where her owner wishes and to stay comfortable throughout. Guests aboard rarely sense the scale of the machinery working beneath them.

For the owner who wants the most of everything

Dilbar suits an owner whose priority is space above every other measure. She offers more room, more amenity and more capacity than any rival, which makes her ideal for hosting on a residential scale. The vast interior and the record pool give life aboard a sense of abundance. This is a yacht for extended stays with large groups of family and guests. For those who host at the very highest level, no rival offers as much.

Her presence in any harbour is unmistakable, and her discretion below decks is total. Owners of yachts at this level value the ability to disappear into their own world for weeks, and Dilbar delivers that completely. She remains the reference point for volume in the superyacht market. Nothing delivered since has taken her crown. She is a private world that can vanish over the horizon for as long as her owner wishes.

Who it is for: For the owner who measures a yacht by interior volume and wants the single most spacious vessel ever built.