Necker Belle Necker Belle The Necker Belle is a 105-foot (32 m) private charter catamaran yacht, offered through Virgin Limited Edition and based at the resort Necker Island. The "Belle" superyacht is one of the few luxury sailing catamarans in the world. Prior to being purchased by Richard Branson's Virgin, the yacht was called "Lady Barbaretta", and cost £5.3 million for Branson to obtain. It required a two-year refit to emerge as the Belle, operates with a crew of seven, and is currently captained by Captain Piers Helm. The refit won the "2010 best new refit" at the World Superyacht Awards. The
Necker Island (British Virgin Islands) Island and also Mosquito Island (sometimes spelled Moskito Island), which is also owned by Branson. The British Virgin Islands (BVI) are a group of islands about south-east of Miami, Florida, due east of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and about north-west of St. Barts. The island was named after the 17th-century Dutch squadron commander Johannes de Neckere, although it remained uninhabited until the late 20th century. In 1965, the photographer Don McCullin and journalist Andrew Alexander, spent 15 days on the island at the behest of "The Daily Telegraph" newspaper for which they worked. The magazine editor had hoped that they