Houston Billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s Superyacht Causes a Greek Stir — The Boardwalk Continues to Turn Heads

While hiking through the woods lining Greece’s Corinth Canal, a local Greek television reporter took a video of billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s superyacht Boardwalk squeezing through the Corinth Canal. He documented a snippet of the four mile journey and posted it on the TV station’s website with the headline: “Who is its billionaire owner?”

It didn’t take long for the Greek news hounds to discover that entertainment and sports mogul Fertitta was the owner. The video posted on the website shows the 252 foot long, 40 foot wide yacht gliding through the canal, which at its most narrow point is 69 feet. The manmade canal is the watery path leads from the Aegean to the Ionian sea, which opens to the Mediterranean

Sailing on a superyacht from the Greek Isles to the enchanting coast of Italy is definitely the realm of the world’s richest.

Recent reporting in national publications are shedding more light on the superyacht‘s mastery of luxe design. Among the numerous amenities in the Tilman yacht that sleeps 14 — including the VIP suite — are a 120 bottle wine cellar, a lavishly decorated beauty/massage room, a 19-foot-long swimming pool, a bronze sculpture of a female form by Estella Fransbergen with a dress of flowing crystals, diamonds and pearls, and the billionaire requisite — a helicopter pad.

“I don’t think any other owner pays as much attention to the details,” Fertitta told Robb Report during a visit to his yacht. “If you look at the bigger yachts, they really don’t vary much with standard features like ceilings and lighting.”

Robb Report first gushed over Fertitta’s superyacht in the luxury lifestyle magazine last year.

In addition, the magazine quoted Seattle-based yacht interior designer Amy Halffmann. “Tilman came in with all the important details — all the details that really make the difference in this boat. He’s an extreme detail man, down to the quarter of an inch,” Halffmann told the magazine.

The luxe interiors of the Fertitta superyacht include 54 different types of stone, marble and tiles, including mother of pearl tiles, a light pendant by Charles Loomis, appliqués by Wired Custom Lighting and a glass sculpture from David Wright.

“I was going for classic elegance – beautiful spaces that could stand the test of time, and I think we achieved that,” Halffman tells Boat International.

A limited number of Houstonians and Galveston residents are privy to the superyacht as each year Fertitta transports this — his second Boardwalk — to Galveston during Mardi Gras. He entertains VIP guests at a cocktail reception aboard the superyacht before the billionaire and friends join a police escort caravan to the Galveston Convention Center for Fertitta’s San Luis Salute to Mardi Gras.

Now, the rest of the world is getting in on the fascination.