47.4m Bilgin MOONRAKER Sold as Blue Oceans Confirms Buyer Representation

Blue Oceans Yachting has announced the sale of the 47.4-metre motor yacht MOONRAKER, bringing a fresh transaction to the market for established, sub-50-metre steel-and-aluminium superyachts. In the brokerage firm's announcement published in early November 2026, Ami Griffith Ira is identified as the representative of the buyer, with IKONIC Yachts on the seller's side. The announcement establishes the transaction but does not identify the new owner, disclose the final consideration or give a completion date beyond the recent notice. Those distinctions matter: a published asking price is a marketing figure, not proof of the amount agreed between two private parties.

The yacht was delivered in 2019 by the Turkish builder Bilgin Yachts and belongs to its Bilgin 156 family. The builder identifies her original launch name as SNOW 5, formerly LILIUM, and describes a displacement yacht conceived by Unique Yacht Design with interiors from the Bilgin in-house team. MOONRAKER's sale therefore involves a comparatively recent yacht with an identifiable construction and design history, rather than an unverified concept, a speculative build slot or a proposed new project.

A confirmed sale, with clear brokerage roles

The strongest current confirmation comes from Blue Oceans Yachting's own company announcement, which states that MOONRAKER has sold and credits Ami Ira with the buyer representation. It names IKONIC Yachts on the seller's side. An independent report by SuperYacht Times also identified AJ Blackmon of IKONIC as the seller-side broker. Steve's Superyacht Guide has treated the company announcement as the primary confirmation of the transaction, while the shipyard's own technical information supplies the vessel particulars.

There is an important difference between buyer representation, listing representation and ownership. A broker being credited with bringing a buyer to a transaction does not mean that the broker purchased the yacht. Likewise, a seller-side brokerage credit is not evidence of the former owner's identity. Neither side's announcement, as reviewed for this report, provides information permitting a verified identification of the buyer or beneficial owner. We are not drawing such inferences from the vessel name, earlier names, brokerage offices or possible cruising destinations.

IKONIC had marketed the yacht before the sale, including a March 2025 announcement stating an initial asking price of €26.5 million. Later market reporting put a last-known asking figure at €18.5 million. The movement between advertised figures, if the marketing records are compared across their dates, is not equivalent to a final sale-price disclosure. Without a public closing statement, the actual consideration, financing terms and negotiated inclusions remain unknown. This distinction is essential when comparing brokerage announcements to market valuation data.

What Bilgin built in 2019

Bilgin's current shipyard profile supplies a length of approximately 47.5 metres, a beam of 8.75 metres, a draught of 2.5 metres and a gross tonnage of 499. The shipyard lists five cabins for ten guests and a crew of nine. These are the builder's specifications; brokerage measurements may differ slightly in published length because of rounding or the measurement convention used. MOONRAKER is commonly described as 47.4 metres in contemporary sale reporting, and that figure is used in this headline.

The hull is steel, with an aluminium superstructure. Naval architecture and exterior design are credited to Unique Yacht Design, while Bilgin's design team handled the interior. The combination places the yacht in a part of the market where owners expect the seagoing characteristics of a full-displacement platform alongside extensive guest areas. It should not be confused with a lightweight performance yacht simply because the model series carries a length figure similar to fast semi-displacement competitors.

According to Bilgin, the yacht's published maximum speed is 16 knots, with an approximate range of 5,000 nautical miles at 11 knots. The builder lists a fuel capacity of 63,800 litres and water capacity of 11,600 litres. Range is not a guarantee for every passage: weather, loading, engine setting, hotel demand, condition and reserve policy can affect practical voyage planning. These figures are useful comparative specifications, not an operational passage plan or a promise of performance under all conditions.

The design and onboard arrangement

The yard describes a contemporary profile by Unique Yacht Design and a restrained interior palette with light materials and warm metallic accents. The interior story is worth examining in context because it illustrates how a builder's design team can maintain a cohesive style across the guest accommodation without requiring a separate celebrity design studio. Bilgin attributes the interior to its in-house designers and the vessel is presented as a demonstration of the company's joinery and fit-out capacity.

MOONRAKER's published arrangement accommodates ten guests in five cabins. The yacht also carries a crew complement of nine, according to the builder. Cabin count alone is not a measure of charter certification, passenger-ship status or permission to operate in a particular jurisdiction. The new owner's intended use has not been confirmed in the sale announcement, so it would be premature to describe the yacht as entering a new charter programme or commencing any specific itinerary.

The vessel's exterior spaces have formed a prominent part of earlier marketing, including multiple areas for open-air seating, a beach club and a sundeck Jacuzzi. Those features help explain her positioning within the 45-to-50-metre market: this length class is sufficiently large to separate guest, service and technical circulation, yet it sits below the scale and infrastructure needs of many much larger custom yachts. The particular design of those spaces, rather than length alone, determines how comfortably a full complement of guests and crew can use them.

Earlier brokerage material has also called attention to natural light in the main foyer and an owner's suite with a connection to the side deck. Marketing descriptions can be valuable for understanding an arrangement, but they should be read as descriptions of the yacht at a particular point in time. Loose furniture, décor, tenders and equipment can change during ownership; a new sale announcement does not independently verify every item from an older brochure as still included.

What the resale says — and does not say — about the market

A completed transfer of a seven-year-old Bilgin is a useful data point for the secondary market, but it cannot on its own support an assertion that all yachts in the size class are rising or falling in value. Condition, class status, maintenance records, certification, the scope of an owner's upgrades and the exact assets included can materially change the commercial result. Those variables are not set out in the public transaction notice.

The earlier IKONIC marketing announcement stated that substantial upgrades and maintenance had been undertaken in the two years before March 2025. That is the broker's historical claim about the then-listed vessel, not a new survey assessment made by this publication in November 2026. A prospective buyer would still require current technical inspection and documentation, including machinery reports, class records, flag information, major systems and any outstanding recommendations.

For operators and industry observers, the most meaningful verified points are the identity of the yacht, the fact that a sale has been announced and the brokers identified on each side. A transaction of this kind also keeps attention on the continuing utility of 499-GT yachts, but the significance of that figure must not be reduced to a universal regulatory shortcut. Applicable crew, commercial, flag and port-state requirements depend on the yacht's actual status and operation, not solely on a rounded tonnage.

In a market often populated by provisional sale listings, stale asking prices and repeated promotional copy, a broker's explicit sold announcement is a more useful editorial trigger than an unexplained change of status on an advertising page. Conversely, the absence of an asking price on a live page is not enough to declare a transaction closed. This report is based on the affirmative brokerage communication and supported by Bilgin's official vessel record.

Name history and the need for precise identification

The builder's records connect MOONRAKER with the earlier SNOW 5 and LILIUM identities. Name changes are common in yacht ownership and can complicate searches of old photos, press releases and brokerage archives. The correct way to reconcile such material is through a continuous vessel record, including build particulars, official identifiers where available and dated documents. Similar vessel names or broker descriptions are not enough to establish a link between unrelated hulls.

Bilgin also built other yachts in its 156 family. MOONRAKER must therefore be distinguished from sister yachts when comparing launch images or historical sales. Design characteristics may be shared across a series, but photographs of one sister are not photographs of another; moreover, their interiors can differ significantly. Superyacht Guide's image for this story is drawn from its existing MOONRAKER vessel gallery and identifies the photographed yacht accordingly.

The delivery year also matters to how the sale should be understood. Built in 2019, MOONRAKER is not being announced as a November 2026 newbuild delivery. The news is the change of ownership. Distinguishing those event types avoids inflating shipyard delivery figures and helps keep sale records separate from new construction, charter marketing and refit activity.

Next steps after the announcement

The public statement does not reveal whether MOONRAKER will retain her name, flag, home port, management arrangement or intended operating pattern. Any such change should be reported only when an official register, owner-appointed representative or another reliable primary source confirms it. Speculation about the identity of the buyer or intended routes would add little to a transaction that has already been announced on sufficiently clear terms.

For now, the confirmed November development is straightforward: Blue Oceans Yachting has announced MOONRAKER's sale, Ami Griffith Ira represented the buyer and IKONIC Yachts represented the seller. The yacht remains a 2019 Bilgin 156, with the shipyard's published specifications providing a stable technical reference. Superyacht Guide will distinguish any subsequent confirmed ownership, refit or charter announcements from this single brokerage event rather than treating the same sale as several separate pieces of news.

Primary documents and sources

• Blue Oceans Yachting brokerage announcement
• Bilgin Yachts official MOONRAKER profile
• IKONIC Yachts MOONRAKER listing and specifications
• IKONIC Yachts original March 2025 sale announcement