WORLD'S LARGEST SUPER YACHT COSTS £260MILLION, SEE PHOTOS

Designed to be a palace that floats on the water, the superyacht A has spotless credentials and is a stunning boat
With six guest suites, a helipad and three swimming pools, this £260m superyacht is beyond the realm of the believable for many of us.

Boasting mirrored surfaces on many of its interiors, it's also got a below-deck disco which has a view into a glass-bottomed pool.

There's even a secret 'nookie room' hidden behind mirrored panels.

The yacht, called A, or the White Pearl, is a 300ft high plaything for a Russian billionaire, with 468ft in length packed with the very last word in modern entertaining.
Taking its test voyage in Kiel, Northern Germany, the craft was designed by Philippe Starck and Martin Francis, and built by Blohm and Voss for Andrey Melnichenko.

 Frenchman Starck has described it as a 'stealth yacht', telling Yachts International: "Physically it is more a fish than a building, which deviates quite a bit from what is being done today.

"Inside are extraordinary technical innovations that yield extraordinary comfort, which are very large spaces.

"In many yachts you have small corridors, small rooms and complicated things.

"This project nearly has no corridors but rather large lofts, very pleasant gigantic rooms with many windows."

Melnichenko, one of the richest Russians with rumoured wealth of almost £6bn, made his money when he co-founded MDM Bank, now one of Russia's largest.

 The name of the yacht is derived from the initials of Andrey and his wife Aleksandra Nikolic, a Serbian model who became a pop star.

The pair wed 10 years ago, with Christina Aquilera and Whitney Houston performing at the ceremony.

The yacht, which offers almost 24,000ft sq of living space, employs a crew of at 35 and contains a master suite encased in bomb-proof 44mm glass.

According to Boats International, A has a top speed of 23knots - around 26mph.

Properties of Andrey and Aleksandra Melnichenko include a Boeing Business jet with registration MY-BBJ (My Boeing Business Jet), and, according to Forbes, he also has a collection of impressionist paintings including pieces by Claude Monet, some of which hang inside his yacht.