If you have the money, what will you spend it on? For an insanely expensive and huge object, it's nowhere nearly as hideous as you'd expect. It's actually rather beautiful...
... but so terribly wrong, for some reason. Other than it's contribution to global warming, I don't see what.
September 11, 2014
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Your title is off by 3 orders of magnitude.
$300,000,000.
Your title is off by a factor of 1000: It is $300M not $300k.
For $300K, I would say that is quite modest and a good deal.
I wonder two things:
What kind of defense mechanisms are in place on the yacht. Maybe they just steer clear of the Indian Ocean.
How close is the owner to Putin? And how did he make the money to afford the yacht?
Okay, three things.
The boat of a James Bond villain.
I wonder what he might think of it when he is old.
looks like a surfaced SSN
Hell. if it was 300,000 I'd buy one.
What people spend their own money on is interesting.
I will take two at 300k each. No, make that three.
but so terribly wrong, for some reason. Other than it's contribution to global warming, I don't see what."
Global warming is code for obscenely rich. Thats what is so terribly wrong. Why the money could have been spent on socially useful things or at the minimum not have been spent on something so extravagant as to inflame the sensibilities. Why be shy? Come out and say it.
"The Russian billionaire's $300,000 yacht."
Althouse, as Dr. Evil.
Very little forward deck space to enjoy.
I suppose, though, that a Russian Billionaire has enough connections with the (cough) right people that only a desperate fool of a pirate would try to take his boat.
All right, already. I fixed it.
Sorry.
I knew it was $300 million. I just didn't feel like writing the number like that. Blech.
I'm envious!
I've never been on any sort of yacht. Not even a lousy $300,000 yacht.
Not that I particularly want to be. Imagine being the woman on that thing with the billionaire, in that massage chair pool with the table for drinks.
I realize I can't imagine it without first seeing a picture of the guy.
Global warming, liberals!
Imagine being the woman on that thing with the billionaire, in that massage chair pool with the table for drinks.
I realize I can't imagine it without first seeing a picture of the guy."
Whoever that woman is, she's there because she wants to be. The owner is pictured in the clip, I'm know expert in masculine attractiveness but lots of cash never hurt in that department. Aesthetically the boat screams of nouveau Russian rich with their overly glitzy taste. But then again I don't have a spare three hundred million to spend on a yacht so what do I know?
I'd say "it's his money" except that if he's like other Russian billionaires, he stole it with the help of cronies in the government.
Other than that, though, doesn't it look like it's about to pop up on hydrofoils to escape James Bond?
Isn't it better that the rich spend money on ridiculous things like this then let the money sit in a bank account? Thinks of the hundreds of workers who were paid to make this beast, and the crew that now has jobs ferrying around the guy in his floating phallic symbol.
I've seen some large yachts. This one is hideous on the outside.
It's OK that billionaires waste their money on these things. It employs ship builders all sorts of suppliers. Better to spend the $300 million than use it to light your cigar.
Plus, it will keep plenty of people employed just to maintain it. Most of these yachts sit empty most of the time. Working on one these is a great gig. It's a game of who builds the biggest and best.
BTW, the problem with yachts is that whatever opulence you build, the same opulence could be had on land for a small fraction of the cost.
Ever been on a $1 million yacht? It's not that great.
Blacks invented seaborne propulsion.
There is one of this type (slightly smaller but just as garish) sitting at the dock in Sturgeon Bay having the final interior finish done before it will be shipped overseas to some other Russian. It is gold in color and would fit perfectly in a Bond movie.
It was built in the Palmer Johnson yard with American labor, who are quite well paid craftsmen and by American subcontractors. The construction profit leaves the country though, since PJ is now owned by a middle easterner living in London who picked it up in PJ's latest bankruptcy. The story is (I do not know if it is true) the current owner of PJ had a half finished yacht in the yard when PJ got in financial and ended up owning it.
The other big yard in town, formerly Bay Shipbuilding, is now owned by an Italian shipbuilder. They are quite busy. Among other things they are helping build the littoral combat ships for the US Navy.
The global economy is complicated, n'est-ce pas?
Imagine being the woman on that thing with the billionaire
A man that covers a boat in mirrors may not be concerned with women.
I would much rather he spend it on the yacht, then on some whim to change the national educational curriculum based upon a video he watched while working out.
Stingray skin? I guess that's what you have to do to spend $300M.
Are there any nice Russian Oligarchs? It seems doubtful. But the guy wasn't horrible looking and he was only 38. You could do worse if you were an attractive Russian woman looking for a sugar daddy.
His wife is a Serbian model.
Cruising speed is 19.2 knots.
The design looks to maximize speed, rather than deck space.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/russian-billionaires-363-million-superyacht-docks-auckland-photos-video-ck-146234
This actually has some information-- not some idiot panting his way through the 100 yard dash.
betamax at 8:56 said what is wrong with it.
Funny, it has exactly the aesthetic I would imagine from a Russian client using a French designer.
The design meetings would have yielded an awesome reality TV show.
Alas.
Ann Althouse said...Not that I particularly want to be. Imagine being the woman on that thing with the billionaire, in that massage chair pool with the table for drinks
Because of...the implication??
Shouldn't we blame the women who stay with him despite his inappropriate use of his wealth?
Building it probably put a lot of people to work.
I have sailed on a yacht. It was built by a high school friend's father, an engineer, who sailed it on Lake Michigan, let his son take it out with his friends on the lake by themselves, and then when he retired sailed it to Florida.
He's not so bad. Here's a picture. He's married. If the massage chairs are used by him and his wife, then I think that's perfectly nice. Good for him. I was picturing an ugly old ghoul and a beautiful woman putting up with him for his money.
I need a lock like that on the bedroom door, except I'd put it on the other way, to keep people in.
Althouse,
"I was picturing an ugly old ghoul and a beautiful woman putting up with him for his money. "
Well, maybe that's what she wants...
"BrianE said...
His wife is a Serbian model.
Cruising speed is 19.2 knots."
DAMN! His wife's cruising speed is faaaast!...
;)
(Kidding... KIDDING!!)
Anyway... "A" (that's the yacht's name) is, to me, not good looking at all. Eclipse and Serene are both larger and prettier, Pelorus smaller but prettier (and at one point owned by a different Russian billionaire), Octopus more interesting (Paul Allen outfitted it with a recording studio, basketball half-court, and submarine garage, complete with minisub). But hey, items at that price aren't designed to appeal to everybody, they're designed to conform to a specific person's tastes. So it doesn't matter that my aesthetics differ from Melnichenko's, it only matters what he wants. And since he's paying and I'm just looking, that's exactly the way it should be.
SOJO said
Growing up as a beach kid, the meme of old guy attempting to ply young wimmens with cocaine and/or yachts was def a real thing.
Despair.com has it covered.
1. If you've got it, flaunt it.
2. "A hand carved banister...." Correctly speaking, AFAIK, "banister" refers to the upright supports; the handrail supported thereby is the "balustrade."
Ann Althouse said...
Good for him. I was picturing an ugly old ghoul and a beautiful woman putting up with him for his money.
Tsk tsk tsk.
I was picturing an ugly old ghoul and a beautiful woman putting up with him for his money.
That's funny, I was picturing a soulless gold digger and an accomplished man putting up with her because she's hot.
He is 42. His wife is 37. Good.
$300 million yacht = $300 million economy. Good.
So far, so good.
Claustrophobic even with all the mirrors.
Russians love their discos.
Althouse: Always interesting, topical and frequently coming up with the bizarre! I was sailboat racing on Santa Monica Bay last night and this "yacht" was anchored just north of the breakwater. At the first sighting we assumed it was military. We sailed around it in a kind of disbelief and awe wondering what it was and whose it was. I woke up this morning and you answered our questions!
One of the New York magazine contests had an entry by grade schooler Caroline Kennedy about her summer vacation on daddy's yat.
I went to the Greek isles in college. And had to get to all the islands via Ferry.i never puked so much in my life. Granted a ferry is not the same as a yacht, but my guess is I'd be heaving over the rails. So, maybe a sailors life would not be for me.
Still, for 300,000,000 I'm sure we could find ways to minimize water choppiness.
We were talking the other day about the "robber barons". The 19th C. US guys were neither robbers nor barons. The Russians, though, seem to be both.
"jr565 said...
Still, for 300,000,000 I'm sure we could find ways to minimize water choppiness.
Stabilizers. Far from perfect, but way better than nothing. Unfortunately not all passenger ships have them, so yeah, being on the water can be rough.
How about because these billionaires looted the Russian national economy back in the 1990's? The Russian people made enormous sacrifices to create that wealth under Stalin, and now they (or their children and grandchildren) get to see some of it appear in the form of three hundred million dollar status symbols.
remember now puten just got all his gold back
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