Cat that got the cream

Sailing aboard Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard is like hanging out with Eva Herzigova for the day. From a red-carpeted pontoon to champagne and canapés on her glistening cockpit, from the tip of her 4.5-metre bowsprit to the top of her towering 47-metre mast, the 30-metre carbon fibre super-maxi makes jaws drop, boats stop and cameras flash. As we charge through the 1,000-strong Skandia Cowes Week fleet at an effortless 15 knots, leaving even the biggest raceboats staggering dwarf-like in our wake, I feel like one of the A-list.

The latest 30-metre offshore maxi to hit the water, ICAP Leopard is property tycoon Slade's third monohull, following in the footsteps of Ocean Leopard (1988-1999) and Leopard of London (2000-2006), and the most ambitious design by far, taking shape over two years and costing Slade a wallet-bashing US$12 million. Built by McConaghy Boats in Sydney, Australia, she was shipped to the UK and launched in the Solent in mid-June, without a doubt the biggest beast in town.

Designed by Farr and fashioned by Ken Freivokh, the brief was to produce a real multi-tasker of a yacht, suited to both the charter market and claiming offshore records. The superyacht's beamy 6.8-metre beam, curved cabin top, headroom and plush interior detailing - flushing loos, hotel lobby style flowers and even leopard-print coffee cups! - is primarily for the benefit of paying guests - the old Leopard reportedly netted Slade over US$6m through charter fees alone, and parties of 12 guests on the new boat will pay in the region of US$14,000 per day. Slade hopes to charter ICAP Leopard through his company Ocean Marine for over 50 days this summer; even for a millionaire, that's big business.

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