THE World IS YOUR Oyster

Tatler gets a taste of the luxe nomadic life aboard the world’s most exclusive residential ship as it sails from South Korea to Japan

- Aun Koh

I am old enough to remember when The World, a residence at sea, was launched. I remember seeing the ads in the late 1990s promoting the idea of living full‑time on a luxury ship that circled the world every year or two. It seemed, at the time, like a crazy idea. It did, though, spark conversation and debate among the world’s one‑percenters, some of whom gave the idea serious consideration.

Three years before its launch in 2002, the International Herald Tribune (IHT) questioned what would be the chief reason for investing in an apartment aboard the 196‑metre‑long ship. Conrad De Aenlle, writing for the IHT in 1999, wrote: “Apart from the numerous other amenities, The World may offer one that would be certain to make the voyage more enjoyable for the wealthy inhabitants: tax avoidance.” Later in the same article, a representative from ResidenSea, the company that launched The World, did say that the ship “was intended more as a resort or a floating second home than a primary residence”, but also maintained that “ResidenSea remains agnostic on the tax implications”. In 2001, Forbes published a similar article, very simply and aggressively titled Floating Tax Haven.

Today, though, this is clearly not the case for most The World residents. Sixty‑five per cent of the owners are American. And Americans are taxed by their country no matter where they live and no matter how long they might be away.