Billionaire tech tycoon Charles Simonyi just got a new yacht: the man behind Microsoft Word and Excel owns Norn, a US$250 million megayacht with an open-air cinema and pool-slash-dance floor
Norn’s shape is also reminiscent of another Lürssen yacht, the 230ft Skat, which was also previously owned by Simonyi, the man behind several Microsoft programmes, for more than two decades. Designer Espen Oeino reimagined Norn as a more youthful and energising version of Skat with the same narrow rectangular windows and greenhouse-style glazing on the upper deck. She was delivered to Simonyi, a yacht enthusiast, after her recent maiden voyage and is currently located at the Kiel Canal in Germany.
Read on to get to know the Norn yacht better.
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Charles Simonyi’s Norn yacht – a new and improved Skat
Commissioned in 2018 by Simonyi, the father of MS Word and Excel, Norn is the tycoon’s second luxury yacht. After two decades with Skat, which was sold to a company owned by Swiss entrepreneur Eugenio Losa in October 2021, Simonyi chose a newer, revived version in Norn. Launched from Lürssen’s Rendsburg facility in February, the beautiful ship flaunts interiors by Dölker + Voges.
What doesn’t the Norn feature? It has an open-air cinema and a versatile pool floor that can be adjusted to different depths, seamlessly incorporating a dance floor into its design complete with illumination for days when the plan is to dance and not dive. Additionally, Norn boasts zero-speed stabilisers and a dynamic positioning system, facilitating electronic anchoring and effectively reducing potential impact on delicate areas, thereby safeguarding the yacht and its surroundings.
Per Boat International, the shipyard described the project as “a striking design with extraordinary features” with an exterior “dominated by flat surfaces, straight lines and angular corners”. Cornelsen & Partner overlooked the construction process of the vessel boasting an estimated volume of 3,600 GT. While the exact cost is not known, a vessel like this can easily have a price tag of US$250 million and an annual operating cost upwards of US$20 million.
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But what is his first yacht Skat like?
In October 2021, Skat got a new owner who did little to change the luxury vessel. Skat became a family boat, so the office was converted into a child’s cabin. Family cabins were located in a separate private wing secluded from common areas with the addition of an uncomplicated door. A swing set, trampoline and sea pool found their way into Skat’s uninterrupted, clean layout.
The excellent ship boasts a helipad, a state-of-the-art gym and a bridge deck that would surely captivate even the most discerning yacht enthusiasts.
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Simonyi is a billionaire who is a space tourist
The 74-year-old tech tycoon is worth US$6.1 billion today. An early Microsoft employee, he drove the company’s most successful software, including Word and Excel. The Hungarian has undoubtedly come a long way from working as a nightwatchman in a computer laboratory in the early 1960s. Simonyi, who has a Stanford doctorate in computer science, co-founded and led Intentional Software, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2017.
Interestingly, Simonyi shelled out US$60 million to fly to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket in 2007 and 2009. He is the only tourist to have visited space twice. Top that, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos!
- Made by German shipbuilder Lürssen, Norn is a step up from Charles Simonyi’s previous luxury boat Skat, which he sold to Swiss entrepreneur Eugenio Losa
- A yacht like Norn, which boasts zero-speed stabilisers and a dynamic positioning system, can easily cost upwards of US$20 million to operate annually