Under a grey Bremen sky, the $450 million Boardwalk finally rolled out of the Lürssen sheds, ending a 3 year stretch of secrecy and speculation around American billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s largest yacht to date. At 117 meters, roughly 384 feet, with an internal volume of about 5,350 GT on a 17-meter beam, the vessel steps straight into Lürssen’s upper tier.
She sits close to award-winning superyacht Ahpo by length and in the same general volume bracket as several 120-meter class Lürssens, a quiet monster in a fleet where giants like Dilbar, Nord and Kismet dominate the headlines. For Fertitta, the world’s richest restaurateur and the richest Houstonian on the Forbes list, this is not simply yacht number six. It is his most ambitious private build and the largest expression yet of the Boardwalk tradition.
The layout immediately shows how he has scaled his preferences. Boardwalk carries 6 decks on a sleek hull, with a strong resemblance to his Feadship Boardwalk in the stepped aft profile and long forward sheerline. The difference is scale. His Feadship sits at roughly 1,848 GT. The Lürssen is approximately 5,350 GT. He is not just adding length. He is tripling usable interior volume while preserving the design language he likes, creating a vessel that supports family life, guest privacy, staff operations and ambassadorial hosting all at once.
Aviation capability is where this jump becomes most visible. Lürssen confirms 2 helipads, one forward and one positioned higher up. It tracks perfectly with Fertitta’s existing habit of flying an Airbus H130 to his current Boardwalk, and it fits his new lifestyle as U.S. Ambassador to Italy. With the yacht typically based in Civitavecchia and the embassy only a 10-minute helicopter hop away, the second landing area elevates the yacht from a simple “pad-equipped” vessel to a true aviation platform capable of regular shuttles, redundancy and more controlled movements for diplomatic travel.
The water-level amenities continue the theme of expansion. Early coverage highlights a very large swimming pool on the main deck aft, a spa pool on the upper deck and a sizable beach club opening directly to the sea. Papercity’s reporting notes 2 pools and a Jacuzzi, which aligns neatly with the way his Feadship already uses a 6-meter mosaic pool and a wellness beach club. Early database listings add the full contemporary gigayacht toolkit: beach club, spa, gym, elevator, deck Jacuzzi, tender garages, at-anchor stabilizers, underwater lighting and full satcom. It reads like a 5,000 GT scale-up of how he already lives aboard, simply executed with far more space, reach and range.
In the Lürssen hierarchy, Boardwalk lands in an interesting slot. At 116–117 meters, she becomes one of the shipyard’s 20 largest yachts by length, slightly longer than Ahpo and just shorter than Golden Odyssey, with competitive volume for her class. She does not chase headline length. Instead, she enters as a restrained heavyweight, big enough to sit comfortably alongside the yard’s flagships without needing to break records.
Delivery is expected in early 2026. With Fertitta currently using his Feadship Boardwalk as a partisan commuting base between Rome and Civitavecchia, German and Italian reporting positions this new Lürssen as the next floating residence. Only this time the platform is larger, more aviation-capable, and far better suited to the blend of family cruising, business hosting, and ambassadorial duties that shape his current life.
The financial scale is unmistakable. The build cost is estimated at $450–500 million, and the annual running cost sits around $40 million. Fertitta has never shied from acknowledging the expense. Talking to ABC News about Boardwalk, he said, “It is one of those things I always wanted and I will always have. It is not cheap, I can tell you that, but every time I walk on it I tell myself, ‘God, I love this boat.’”
From shucking shrimps to the worlds richest restaurateur –
He grew up shucking shrimp at his father’s restaurant in Galveston, hustled through arcade machines, construction projects, and retail liquidations, and built Landry’s into a global hospitality empire that controls 600-plus restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues. He owns the Golden Nugget casino chain, holds major stakes in Wynn Resorts and DraftKings, and bought the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion in 2017. His philanthropy transformed the University of Houston’s arena and medical school. Boardwalk simply becomes the latest stage, a 384-foot extension of a life built around hospitality, scale, and the relentless pursuit of what comes next.