Holland has since switched over to super yachts, designing dream boats for the likes of Prince Rainier of Monaco and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. His current major project is the $50m Ethereal, commissioned by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy.

The man dubbed the "Edison of the Internet" has demanded that the Ethereal should be as green as possible. The boat is planned to be entirely self-contained, proving amenities such as heat and hot water, and processing its own waste products.

Joy is "over the moon" about his project, according to Holland. "To reduce the air conditioning power he needs, he is using very sophisticated glass in windows and hatches, " the designer said. "In that study alone, he employed the world's experts in glass."

Joy hasn't yet designed a super yacht for an Irish owner, though he has designed racing boats for the likes of property developer Ken Rohan. But he expects that it won't be long before he gets his first commission. A throng of Ireland's high-profile tycoons already have high-price trophy boats berthed in all corners of the Mediterranean from Portugal to Spain to Croatia, Ibiza and Malta.

Among the best-known Irish luxury boat owners are Michael Smurfit and Eddie Jordan. Cork's Clayton Love Jnr has had a boat moored in the Mediterranean for more than two decades.

But where fancy sail boats (the term favoured by the boating community) and power boats were once the preserve of the few, they are becoming increasingly popular playthings for the affluent Irish.

Dublin-based MGM Marine, for example, has sold nine 1.2m Sunseeker 'Manhattan 50' yachts in the past two years, according to managing director Martin Salmon.

Think James Bond films, where Sunseekers regularly feature. "Sunseeker is the Rolls Royce of boats, the best you can buy, " Salmon said. "When you order one, you are looking at 12-15 months delivery. And out of those nine who bought the Manhattan 50, three or four are already looking to go bigger again."

Travelling around Europe, Salmon said, "you hear stories from boat brokers saying: 'I had an Irish guy in here who just spent 40- 50m'." Back at home, the 200,000 to 500,000 category is increasingly popular, he said, and people are buying 50ft and 60ft boats where once they might have bought 40-footers.

"Before, someone would buy a boat, keep it for five years and then upgrade, " he said. "Now we have cases of people who have bought three boats in a year."

Hugh Mockler, boat dealer and admiral of Royal Cork Yacht Club, has sold two 600,000 Sun Odyssey boats, one into Cork and one in Dublin. He is hoping to sell another 600,000 boat into Cork soon, he said, and is selling Swedish Najda yachts that are "the Mercedes" of yachts.

"I sold a new 33-foot into Dublin, " he said. "You're looking at just under a quarter of a million euro.

They are one-off boats built to individual specifications."

Fresh interest is being prompted by the fact that boats are now easier to sail.

Another reason for the growth in demand for luxury boats is the recent availability of marine finance packages, which are now offered by Bank of Scotland and Lombard.

Bank of Scotland began offering marine mortgages this year and the most expensive boat it has financed so far cost 6m, according to marine finance manager Ronan Kelly.

"The average starting price of your decent motor cruiser is now 80,000, and the same for yachts, " said Kelly, who estimates that the market in new and used boats is worth 150m per annum.

"On the other end of the scale you have the larger motor cruisers that guys take down to the Med. They start at 150,000 and keep on going."

Dealers report that sales of half-million euro boats are now reasonably frequent. MGM, for example, is seeing good demand for the 'Jeanneau Prestige 36', which Salmon calls a "miniature Sunseeker for people who don't have the millions to buy a Sunseeker". It's pricey enough all the same, selling at up to 470,000.

Steve Conlan of the Irish Marine Federation noted that there has been "phenomenal growth" in terms of smaller sports boats. "Overall, boat sales are running at about 50m a year, and two years ago that would have been 30m, " he said.

Power boats are also increasingly popular, outselling sail boats in Ireland by a 60:40 ratio.

O'Sullivan's Marine, which has offices in Kerry and Dublin, is hoping to cash in on the trend with a new agency for power boats that will cost up to 400,000.

"Year one will be next year and six sales would be a good year, " said sales director Paddy Boyd.

Selling boats is a fairly hard slog these days, he suggested, with increasingly demanding customers.

"There is a lot of wooing that goes on in selling a boat. People are very faddy and they will go around and compare everything."

With more money pouring into the boat market, those in the industry reckon there is still a big opportunity there for the taking. The Irish Marine Institute has estimated the Irish 'boat park' at around 25,000, giving Ireland a ratio of one boat for every 160 people.

This compares to one for every 140 people in the UK, one in 124 in the Netherlands, one in seven in Switzerland and one in four in Sweden.

"We've a long way to go, " said the Marine Federation's Conlan, who estimates the growth in the boat business over the past two years at about 20% annually. The federation's members are involved in everything from chandlery to boat sales. With combined annual turnover of about 150m, they account for 80% of the market.

Conlan's view, shared by others in the industry is 'build and they will come' . . .

that new marinas would fill up immediately. In 1996, Ireland had six marinas, a figure that had grown to 21 by the end of last year, and a slew more are in the planning pipeline.

"The market here is growing as fast as it is allowed to grow, " MGM's Salmon said. "Overall, we would see that if there were another 3,000 to 4,000 berths around the country, they would be full."

Converts are flooding in at all ends of the market, from reasonably affluent younger customers teaming up to buy, to retiring couples buying boats to live on. Bank of Scotland offers 80% mortgages and Kelly reports that SSIA money is being used to fund the 20% needed up-front.

"There are so many firsttimers going in, " Salmon said. "In the past four or five years we have a new breed of people who care about the boat, want the full package, employ people to clean it and so on. They are younger. It's the new money."

The boating lobby wants more recognition of the potential value of the business for Irish tourism.

The most recent in-depth evaluation of boating and sailing in Ireland was done in a 2003 survey by the ESRI on behalf of Ireland's Marine Institute.

That study put a value of 69m on the contribution of boating and sailing to Irish tourism. The institute has just carried out an assessment which forecast that this could grow to 110m given the right level of investment in development and management of the sector.

The Marine Federation's Conlan argues that marinas could revitalise the Irish coast: "Take Kilmore Quay and you can see the impact a small marina has had. It was totally reliant on fishing, and the fishing industry is more or less dying. The marina has helped replace fishing jobs and is also providing an income in the town in terms of business spend."

The federation is lobbying hard for a national focus on the potential of the marine business. Down in Kinsale, meanwhile, Holland is plugging away at the Ethereal. Joy has gone through everything in detail, he said, and the "wild thing" is that Ethereal is Joy's first boat.

Holland predicts that an increasing number of wealthy Irish will be bitten by the super boat bug. "If you look at the marinas all around the coast, once they were full of 20ft boats, now they are 50ft, " he said.

The Ethereal is "typical" of what's going on in the luxury market, " Holland suggested.

"It's just that there is so much more wealth than there was before."