$175 Million Superyacht Viva Moored Off Nantucket

If you’ve arrived or departed from the island by boat over the past few days, you couldn’t have missed the gargantuan visitor lurking just offshore.

The 308-foot superyacht Viva was moored off Nantucket earlier this week, just outside the jetties, as the massive vessel was too large to navigate into the harbor. It departed for Martha's Vineyard Wednesday night.

The $175 million Viva, which was built by Feadship in the Netherlands and completed just last year, features its own helicopter which has been spotted circling around the island this week. It is the 85th largest superyacht in the world, and is believed to be owned by billionaire Frank Fertitta III, the CEO of Station Casinos in Las Vegas and founder of Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

The yacht’s helicopter sports the tail number N702FF, which was believed to have been chosen for Fertitta’s initials.

"That's definitely one of the biggest vessels I've seen around Nantucket in my 20 years here," Harbormaster Sheila Lucey said on Wednesday.

The yacht has been called the “most environmental-friendly luxury vessel of its kind” as it features a hybrid propulsion system that allows the boat to travel at 12 knots under diesel-electric power, as well as a waste treatment plant and heat recovering systems on board. Its annual running costs are reported to be in excess of $17.5 million.

Viva has a steel hull and an aluminum superstructure. Among its many amenities are a cinema, a beauty salon, a gym, and, of course, a helipad on the upper deck.

Following its construction in the Dutch shipyard, the massive yacht had to squeeze through narrow canals to make it out to sea, as documented in these photos shared by CNN last year.