It is commonly accepted – particularly in mainstream media – that length is the measure by which all things superyacht are judged; Azzam is frequently headlined as the largest yacht in the world.

But the more astute will see it differently. At 180m, Azzam may be the longest yacht in the world, but the title of largest surely goes to the 155m Al Said which, at 15,850GT offers roughly 2,700GT more volume than Azzam.

For 2016's edition of The Superyacht Intelligence Annual Report, the team of expert analysts at The Superyacht Group decided to undertake a secondary study looking at yards’ and countries’ order books by gross tonnage, as well as LOA.

The results are surprising. Under the old LOA measurement, one country leads the way with more than 40 per cent of the order book – nearly a 30 per cent greater share than the second ranking country. But when viewed in terms of combined gross tonnage, that advantage drops to just 14 per cent greater share.

Image courtesy of Claus Schaefe.

Even more remarkable is that one European yard alone has an order book equivalent to nearly half the entire order book of Italy, and that to match that yard’s volumetric output, Italian builder Custom Line – whose average yacht measures 34m – would have to have more than 275 of those yachts in build.

 So which yards make the new gross tonnage top ten? And what do the volumetric measures say about each country’s superyacht industry? Subscribe to The Superyacht Annual Intelligence Report 2016, available soon, for the most insightful and accurate assessment yet undertaken of the global superyacht industry.

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Superyacht Intelligence Agency

Custom Line SpA (Ferretti Group)

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