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
Albertine Necker de Saussure in science. She supported her father's schooling in her later writings. Although a Calvinist, her religious views were broadminded and tolerant. At age 19, Albertine married a noted botanist who was the son of Louis Necker and the nephew and namesake of Louis XVI's finance minister, Jacques Necker. The French Revolution ended Necker's military career and, in 1790, he began teaching as a demonstrator in botany at the l'académie de Genève, a job he had obtained because of his wife's surname. She initially wrote her husband's botany lectures for him, and she educated her own children in a wide range