Symphony is a 101.5m Feadship delivered in February 2015 from the De Kaag yard, reported owner Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH. She is one of three Feadship deliveries that crossed 100m in the 2014 to 2016 window (the others being Madame Gu refit and Anna predecessor), and she remains in private use 11 years after launch. She is not on the commercial charter market, has no central agent, has no published rate, and has not had a public booking in her history.
This is the context piece. What Symphony is in spec terms, how the ownership is publicly understood, why a $500K-charter-week client searching her name will not find her available, and which Feadship deliveries at adjacent sizes are actually on the market.
Specs that matter
101.5m LOA, 14m beam, 4.1m draft, 2,999 GT (deliberately positioned under the 3,000 GT threshold for crew and certification reasons that several 100m-class yachts target). Built by Feadship at the De Kaag yard, hull. Naval architecture by De Voogt. Exterior design Tim Heywood. Interior design by. Delivered February 2015.
Propulsion is conventional twin-screw diesel. Two MTU. Top speed. Cruise around 14 knots. Range under cruise. The yacht is not a hybrid in the diesel-electric sense.
Guest layout is reported at 36 guests across. The 36-guest figure exceeds the 12-guest commercial-charter cap that defines the difference between a charter yacht and a private yacht under MCA Large Yacht Code. Symphony is rated for private use and her certification reflects that. Putting her on commercial charter would require a re-coding exercise that has never been done.
Why Symphony is not on charter
The structural answer is the ownership model. Bernard Arnault and family use the yacht. There is no economic reason for the owner to put her on the commercial charter market, and the certification cost of switching from private to commercial coding is not trivial. Several of the largest private Feadship deliveries follow the same pattern. Venus, Madame Gu, Symphony, the original Anna: all private, all over 100m, all not on charter.
This is not unique to Feadship. Among yachts above 100m delivered in the last 15 years, the share that has ever appeared on commercial charter is in the range. The economics tip toward private use at this size. Charter income at $1.5M per peak week, even if booked 12 weeks a year, covers a fraction of the annual operating cost of a 100m-plus Feadship (commonly cited at annual operating cost band for a 100m Feadship, often $20M to $30M), and an owner already willing to absorb that cost has no incentive to also absorb the wear and the privacy cost of charter.
The LVMH connection is not the reason Symphony is not on charter. LVMH owns charter operators in the sense that some of its hospitality brands (Cheval Blanc, Bvlgari Hotels) cross into yacht-related concierge, but Symphony is personal property of the chairman, not corporate inventory. The financial reporting on her construction, refit, and operating cost has been absent from LVMH filings, consistent with private rather than corporate use.
What readers actually want when they search "Symphony yacht"
In our reading of search intent, three distinct queries collapse into this one.
The first is press-driven curiosity after a Symphony sighting in St Tropez, the Caribbean, or wherever the yacht has been photographed that week. There is nothing to do with this intent on a charter-or-buy site beyond confirming what the yacht is.
The second is "the largest Feadship I can charter," which is a real market question. The answer is one of three current options: Anna (110m, 2018), Lady S (93m, 2019), or Savannah (83m, 2015, the same delivery year as Symphony from the same yard). All three appear on the commercial charter market under different patterns and we cover them in dedicated profiles.
The third is the "what does the Arnault yacht cost to operate" curiosity, which we are not in a position to confirm and which is mostly tabloid material. We note the figures cited above are widely reported but not directly verified.
Closest available Feadship alternatives
If you want the closest thing to Symphony on the open charter market in 2026, you have these.
Anna, 110m, Feadship 2018. The largest Feadship on commercial charter when she lists. Delivered to, later sold and re-named through. Asking. Twelve guests in 7 cabins. Full notes in the Anna yacht charter profile.
Lady S, 93m, Feadship 2019. Twelve guests in 6 cabins, the IMAX-theatre yacht. Owned by. Asking. Full notes in Lady S charter.
Savannah, 83m, Feadship 2015. The same delivery year as Symphony from the same yard. Six guests below the 12-guest cap, hybrid diesel-electric propulsion (the first significant Feadship hybrid). Asking. Full notes in Savannah yacht charter.
The trade between Anna and Lady S is interior preference and current calendar. Both are credible. The trade between either and Savannah is size: Savannah is a 12-guest yacht in an 83m envelope, where Anna and Lady S are 12-guest yachts in 100m-class envelopes. Spec-for-spec the deck space and the tender storage on Anna and Lady S are larger. The hybrid propulsion case for Savannah is real, particularly for clients who care about that.
The friction about Symphony (the hypothetical)
She is not on charter, so this is academic, but the obvious answer is the certification. If she were re-coded for commercial charter at the 12-guest level, she would slot in as the most-booked 100m-class Feadship in the Mediterranean, ahead of Anna, and the rate would be in the range. The Arnault family is not going to do that, and we would not advise a client to wait on it.
The second hypothetical change is the helicopter setup. Symphony's helideck arrangement is. For a yacht in this class, certified helideck capability is meaningful for charter use and we would assume any future charter coding would include the certification step.
What we have passed on
We have passed on the Arnault wealth coverage and the LVMH stock-performance narrative. Both are extensively covered elsewhere and neither has anything to do with whether Symphony is bookable. We have also passed on the speculative refit-history rumours that circulate around long-tenured private yachts. If a refit has happened it has not been publicly disclosed in a way we can verify, and we will not insert a date we cannot stand behind.
Verdict
Symphony is a reference point and not a charter option. If you are reading her spec sheet as a comparison for what you want to charter at 100m-plus Feadship class, Anna is the answer, Lady S is the alternate, and Savannah is the smaller hybrid option. If you are reading because the yacht has been in the press, the page next door at HotelsForKings has the St Barths list for post-charter time ashore.
Last updated
May 2026. We update this page when the ownership, charter status, or material refit information for Symphony enters the public record.
FAQ
Has Symphony ever been chartered? Not on the open commercial market. There is no central agent and no published rate, and we have no record of a public charter booking since her 2015 delivery.
How does Symphony compare to Anna at 110m? Anna is larger by 8.5m LOA and is on the commercial charter market when listed. Symphony is private. Comparing them on charter terms is not meaningful because only one of them is available.
What is Symphony's flag and certification?. The yacht is reported as privately coded rather than commercially coded for charter.
Why do owners deliberately keep yachts under 3,000 GT? The 3,000 GT threshold under the MCA Large Yacht Code triggers additional crew, equipment, and operational requirements. A yacht over 100m LOA that comes in under 3,000 GT is a deliberate design choice to manage that regulatory step. Symphony at 2,999 GT is at the edge of that line.
Where has Symphony been seen in 2026?. The yacht has historically followed a Mediterranean summer plus Caribbean winter pattern.