This $400 million mega yacht is ridiculously over the top

The White Pearl cost $400 million and is now the largest sailing yacht in the world. (YouTube/ Sascha Buchholz)

The world's largest sailing yacht has hit the high seas and is turning heads.

It's the latest boy-toy of multi-billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, who is one of Russia's wealthiest men, and cost a staggering $400 million.

The 468-foot-long White Pearl, known as "Sailing Yacht A", was spotted in Kiel, Germany this week as it was tugged out of the shipyard for its test voyage.

And it was hard to miss with its 300-foot-high masts, one so large it has a small room inside it.

Built by the German Naval Yards shipyard, it was imagined by marine architect Martin Francis and celebrated designer Philippe Starck, who has described it as a “stealth yacht.”

Starck was behind Melnichenko​'s previous yacht (below) delivered in 2008, which went by the name​ "Motor Yacht A", but at 360 feet, it now seems like a dingy in comparison.

(Reuters)

The White Pearl yacht has a helipad, three swimming pools, six guest rooms, a disco and eight levels, which also includes an underwater observation room. It can reach a maximum speed of 24 miles per hour and will have a crew of 54 to attend to the 20 guests it can hold.

“Physically it is more a fish than a building, which deviates quite a bit from what is being done today,”  Starck told Yachts International. “Inside are extraordinary technical innovations that yield extraordinary comfort, which are very large spaces."

Melnichenko has an estimated net worth of $9 billion and founded companies including a fertilizer producer, a coal producer, a power generator, and a pipe exporter.

The Russian billionaire and his Serbian model wife Aleksandra Nikolic also own a Boeing jet and a series of Monet paintings.

The "Sailing Yacht A"  overtakes the current world’s largest sailing yacht, the 359-foot Sea Cloud, which was launched in 1931.