Moran Yacht & Ship has announced the sale of 122.5-metre Lürssen Project Elusive, a 5,500 GT custom superyacht now under construction in Bremen for delivery in 2030.
Moran Yacht & Ship has announced the sale of Project Elusive, a 122.5-metre custom Lürssen superyacht now under construction at the German shipyard's Bremen facilities and scheduled for delivery in 2030. The project places another yacht of more than 100 metres into Lürssen's long-term construction programme while giving Moran Yacht & Ship responsibility for overseeing the build from contract through final delivery.
At approximately 5,500 GT, Project Elusive will combine substantial internal volume with a length of 122.5 metres, a beam of 16.8 metres and a draught of 4.4 metres. Moran records accommodation for as many as 22 guests in 11 staterooms and confirms a steel hull, while the identities of both the exterior and interior designers remain confidential.
The sale is significant not simply because of the yacht's scale but because it represents the beginning of a build programme that will continue for several years. With delivery not expected until 2030, Project Elusive illustrates the unusually long planning horizon involved at the very top of the custom superyacht market, where design development, engineering, construction, outfitting, commissioning and trials can extend across multiple yacht-market cycles.
Moran Yacht & Ship will act as the owner's representative and construction manager throughout Project Elusive's build. According to the company, the yacht is being built to a full Moran Yacht & Ship technical specification, with its team responsible for work extending across naval-architecture review, specification development, outfitting, commissioning and sea trials.
Sean Moran is leading the new-construction team responsible for the project. Moran Yacht & Ship describes its role as maintaining direct oversight of the build and ensuring that the owner's objectives are carried through from the technical specification to final commissioning.
That role becomes increasingly important as yacht size and complexity increase. At more than 120 metres, decisions made during the early specification and engineering stages can affect almost every later phase of construction, from machinery installation and classification requirements to hotel systems, crew circulation, exterior spaces and the eventual testing programme.
For an owner, appointing an independent technical and construction-management team can provide continuity between the initial contract and delivery. The shipyard remains responsible for building the yacht, while the owner's representative provides a separate layer of project oversight focused on the owner's specification, contractual requirements and operational priorities.
Although Moran has disclosed the principal dimensions, relatively little has yet been revealed about Project Elusive's design.
The yacht measures 122.5 metres overall, with a 16.8-metre beam and 4.4-metre draught, while gross tonnage is listed at approximately 5,500 GT. Accommodation is planned for up to 22 guests across 11 staterooms.
The identities of both the exterior and interior designers remain confidential, as do details of the yacht's propulsion system, performance, guest amenities and overall layout. Moran says further information will be released as construction progresses.
That confidentiality is not unusual for a yacht at this stage of a fully custom programme. Large projects can remain known principally by project names for years, with owners and project teams choosing to reveal design details only as the yacht approaches launch or delivery.
Project Elusive therefore enters the public record with an unusual combination of certainty and secrecy: its sale, builder, dimensions, construction manager and delivery programme are confirmed, while much of what will ultimately define the yacht remains undisclosed.
Project Elusive also extends Moran Yacht & Ship's long-standing relationship with Lürssen.
Moran cites a build history with the German shipyard that includes Nord, Kismet, Ahpo, Tis and CC-Summer, alongside other major yacht-construction programmes managed by the company. Project Elusive will now become another multi-year collaboration between the brokerage and construction-management firm and one of the world's most experienced builders of very large custom yachts.
The 2030 delivery date is itself notable. Large yachts of this scale require construction slots, design and engineering resources, specialist suppliers and long procurement programmes to be coordinated years in advance. A confirmed sale for delivery four years ahead therefore offers another indication of the forward order visibility that exists in the upper end of the custom market.
Unlike production or semi-custom yacht sales, the sale of a project such as Elusive is effectively the start of a lengthy industrial programme. The finished yacht will emerge only after thousands of individual engineering, design and procurement decisions have been converted into a vessel capable of satisfying both the owner's expectations and the regulatory requirements applied to a yacht of this size.
Project Elusive is particularly interesting because its delivery sits far enough into the future for the yacht to be affected by changes taking place across the industry today.
Propulsion efficiency, electrical generation and storage, emissions reduction, digital systems, communications, cybersecurity and operating regulations are all developing rapidly. While Moran has not disclosed Project Elusive's technical architecture, a yacht scheduled for delivery in 2030 must inevitably be designed around requirements and expectations that may look different from those facing yachts delivered at the beginning of the decade.
That makes specification management particularly important. Systems selected during the early phases of a long build need not only to be available and technically viable today but also support a yacht expected to remain operational for decades after delivery.
The confidentiality surrounding Project Elusive means it would be premature to attribute specific technologies or environmental measures to the yacht. What can already be said is that the project's scale and timescale place it firmly among the major custom construction programmes that will help define the next generation of the 100-metre-plus fleet.
For Lürssen, the sale adds another substantial yacht to a construction portfolio built around highly individual projects. For Moran Yacht & Ship, it adds another owner-representation and build-management programme extending from the initial contract through commissioning and sea trials.
For the wider market, Project Elusive provides another reminder that activity at the largest end of superyacht construction is measured not simply in launches and deliveries, but in projects whose commercial and technical decisions are being made many years before the finished yacht finally leaves the shipyard.