Happy Christmas and here's wishing you a great 2009 !

2008 was the best of years … and the worst of years. It started with a bang, with the launch of two exciting reverse bow designs, A and Predator. Following on in the spring came the superb 133m Al Mirqab, one of the largest yachts ever built.

Smaller production-series yacht builders continued their expansion into the higher-end segment, with 35 and 50 metre models. Here they competed with the larger traditionally one-off yacht builders, many of whom are also now producing similar-sized series.

But then, somewhere around the middle of the year, it all went pear-shaped. The world economy started to feel the tightening grip of the credit crunch, and the yacht industry was not immune. Iceland went bust, the Russian stock market fell by 70%, and the rest of the world fared not much better. The price of oil fell from $150 to $35 a barrel. Bulk shipping rates fell from over $200,000 to under $10,000 a day. Some operators were prompted to stop using their ships for transport and start using them as off-shore storage facilities.

Banks folded or were nationalised, en masse around the world, commercial lending came to a nearly complete halt at one point. And, as you surely know, the main solution currently on offer to all the world's woes appears to be a massive subsidization of the car industry. Opinions differ as to the extent of the forthcoming downturn but right now it certainly looks like we're up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

2008 saw an end to yacht flipping, the process by which buyer A sells his slot for a yacht under construction, at a premium, to buyer B, who doesn't want to wait two or three years for delivery, while buyer A moves his order two or three years down the line.

There have been reports of some yacht prices dropping by up to 50% in the last three months, in one instance a seller knocking a cool six million dollars off the asking price. There has been the inevitable talk of repossessions, which begs the question, if banks have no use for repossessed houses, what possible use is a repossessed yacht?

But what does the future hold? Despite all the gloom and doom, there are mixed signals. France has not yet entered recession officially. And, extraordinary as it may seem to US and UK readers, new residential construction is still being started in Monaco, with houses being pulled down to make way for a series of new residential apartment blocks. That having been said, I heard recently that the ambitious "Monaco Island" project - an offshore luxury Dubai-style residential complex - may well now have been shelved.

Yacht brokers are reporting sales, so there are evidently still buyers out there with new yachts being ordered and built. Many large yachts are under construction and nearing completion. 2009 should see the launch of Luna, a 115m explorer being built in Germany. But the highlight of year may well be Roman Abramovich's Eclipse, at 162m, not just the largest of his fleet, but the largest yacht ever built.

A big thanks to all those visiting monacoeye this year, sending in photos and leaving comments. In 2008, the site saw a record numbers of visitors, with a great quantity and very high standard of photo submissions. On occasion we have been known to struggle to keep up with all the emails and photos, so for all those waiting for "larger photos" or "updated lists", thanks for hanging in there! Happy Snapping to you all and see you in 2009!

Yacht Name: Mary P
Length: 122 ft • 37 m
Year: 2008
Builder: Trinity Yachts • # 44

Mary P was launched in 2008.

Photo needed, please send to monacoyachts@gmail.com or upload in the comments section below. Read More...

length - year: 122 - 2008

Yacht name: Lazy Me • Akhir 135 # 1
Length: 135 ft • 41 m
Year: 2008
Builder: Cantieri di Pisa
Sylist: Carlo Galeazzi

Photos: monacoeye • September 2008 • Monaco Yacht Show

The new Akhir 135 from the Cantieri di Pisa made its debut at the Monaco Yacht Show

length - year: 135 - 2008

Yacht name: Mayan Queen
Formerly known as Project Safari
Length: 305 ft • 93 m
Year: 2008
Builder: Blohm & Voss • # 969
Design: Tim Heywood
Gross Tonnage: 4200 GT

Photos: Victoria Carlisle & Robert Theobald • Dartmouth, UK • December 2008
Photos: Klaus Gaeth • Hamburg • 17 June 2008

December 2008: Mayan Queen elicited great interest in the local press when she visited Stavanger, Norway last week. This week she's been turning heads in Lyme Bay and Dartmouth in Devon. Thanks to Vickii & Robert for sending in photos.

June 2008: Klaus has just sent a superb set of new photos of Mayan Queen in Hamburg … March 2008: This yacht is due to be delivered in the next couple of months. Boat International reports that Mexican business man Alberto Baillères is upgrading from the Feadship Mayan Queen (renamed Marion Queen). Read More...

length - year: 305 - 2008

Yacht name: Tatoosh
Length: 303 ft • 92 m
Year: 2000
Builder: Nobiskrug
Naval architect: Kusch Yachtagentur

Photo: Robert Rens • Cape Town • October 2008
Photos: monacoeye • Monaco & Antibes • 2005 - 2007

This series of photos of Paul Allens's yacht Tatoosh has been updated to include Robert's night shot in Cape Town.

length - year: 303 - 2000

Yacht name: White Rabbit
Length: 200 ft • 61 m
Year: 2005
Builder: North West Bay Ships
Architect: Sam Giovanni

Photo: Jayson Kitingan • Sutera Harbour Marina, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia • September 2008
Photo: Dainis Kivlenieks • Fremantle, Australia • November 2006

September 2008: White Rabbit dropped in to the island of Sabah. November 2006: Dainis Kivlenieks, took these very nice shots of the fast Singaporean trimaran White Rabbit, as it made a rare stopover in Fremantle near Perth in Western Australia. He says: We don't get many big boats around here, so this was a treat…

length - year: 200 - 2005

Yacht name: Vive La Vie • Project Bounty Hunter
Length: 197 ft • 60 m
Year: 2008
Builder: Lürssen • # 13649
Design: Espen Øino

Photos: monacoeye & Michael Chevalier • Cannes • December 2008
Photos: Christian Eckardt • Weser • 20 June 2008

December 2008: Vive La Vie has made it down to Cannes - thanks to Michael for the heads up. June 2008: Great new photos of this new yacht sent in by Christian… April 2008: Vive la Vie was launched in April at the Lürssen Bardenfleth yard.

length - year: 197 - 2008

Yacht name: Seaquest • Westport 164
Length: 164 ft • 50 m
Year: 2008
Builder: Westport • # 5004

Photo: Adam Cunningham • Santa Barbara • September 2008
Photo: Tamara Wills • Port Angeles, Washington • July 2008

Seaquest, the fourth in the Westport 164 series, was seen in Port Angeles by Tamara and again more recently by Adam…

length - year: 164 - 2008

3 Dec 2008: I'm testing out a new Google social gadget called Friend Connect (GFC). It's still in beta so I'm kind of curious to see how it will work. You can login with your Google, Orkut, Facebook, MySpace or Yahoo ID.

The advantage is that you can use pre-existing IDs and your data is in the safe hands of Google. I guess if you prefer to have multiple personalities on the web then you can always create a new login. Feel free to give it a spin, leave a comment etc.

8 Dec 2008: having tested out GFC for a few days, I don't think it's yet possible to upload photos or create links, though you can embed Youtube videos. So I'm going to leave it on this page for testing until it gets a few more features. If Google develop it further, I might use it to replace the current comment system in time.

9 Dec 2008: It seems everyone is rushing out new commenting platforms this month. As well as new platforms from Google and Facebook, JS-Kit have also started to migrate their Haloscan database, which monacoeye uses. As of today, you should start to see a new format for comments, with a lot more functionality. Old comments will be upgraded in the next few weeks.

You can use the same login across all JS-Kit enabled sites (it's very widely used). Very much like GFC you can create a profile with JS-Kit which will give you access to all your comments across many sites.

Cruise ship: Nautica
Operator: Oceania
Length: 594 ft • 181 m
Gross Tonnage: 30,277 GT
Year: 1998
Builder: Chantiers de l'Atlantique
Capacity: 684 passengers
Crew: 386

Photo: monacoeye • Monaco • 2007

Nautica, a frequent visitor to Monaco, is the latest cruise ship to be targeted by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Nautica used a combination of speed and a pain-inducing long range acoustic device (LRAD) to foil the pirates, who approached in two skiffs and fired shots. The attack only lasted 5 minutes.

BBC