Jeff Bezos and Michael Jordan were among the billionaires docking superyachts in tiny St Barts for New Year’s

St. Barts is a tiny island in the Caribbean where there’s no such thing as winter, which explains the perpetual presence of massive superyachts in its waters.

Dozens of billionaires choose the island to spend their winter holidays.

This year, both Michael Jordan and Jeff Bezos were there.

It’s not like you can miss their yachts, considering they’re nearly as big as the island itself.

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These superyachts dwarf the local architecture

Jeff Bezos owns Koru, a gigantic superyacht with incredibly tall sailing masts.

Michael Jordan owns M’Brace, which is significantly smaller than Koru, but that’s like saying that Saturn is significantly smaller than Jupiter: they’re both massive.

For reference, Koru’s sailing masts – at 230 feet – are six times taller than the tallest building in St. Barts’ capital, Gustavia.

Even smaller yachts look enormous when they’re moored near the capital.

St. Barts is probably the biggest smallest place in the world

Despite being geographically small, St. Barts is a big deal.

Like Monaco or Sint Maarten.

It has a population of 10,000 people, but that number goes up dramatically if you include millionaires and billionaires who own property there, moor their yachts in the harbor, or both.

Interestingly, most superyacht owners love St. Barts as a holiday destination, but very few use it to register their yacht.

If they did, these superyachts would technically fly the French flag, which is why so many opt for what are known as ‘Flag of Convenience’ jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, or the Marshall Islands.

A breakdown of all Caribbean islands

There are hundreds of islands in the Caribbean, but we can easily divide them into three categories: fully independent, semi-independent, and non-sovereign territories.

Several islands in the Caribbean are sovereign states, like for instance, Cuba, Dominica, The Bahamas, and Jamaica.

Others belong to certain countries but retain a significant degree of independence.

Both the Caymans (UK) and Puerto Rico (US), for example, are self-governing states.

Then you’ve got a long list of territories that still belong to other countries, but there’s also the curious case of Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin.

Saint-Martin – the French side – fully belongs to the EU and uses the euro, whereas Sint Maarten – the Dutch part – is semi-independent and uses the US dollar.

Fun fact: Princess Juliana Airport – the one famous for its proximity to the beach – pictured above – is in Sint Maarten, the Dutch side of the island.