Superyachts

[capnsensible]

I don’t think envy is relevant here, with me or anyone else as far as I can see.

Yes.

Right.

Of course.....

 

[Fr J Hackett]

They are an insane expense, but for most of the owners that expense is an easily managed financial burden as it is for most of us of more modest means.

I’m not sure I would like to live in a floating stately home even if I could afford it, with staff buzzing around in your private space and all the recruitment and hassle of managing them.

It is an rare example of a marginal negative return on investment.

Two points, you never have "staff buzzing around you"quite the opposite, the appear just as you need them and disappear shortly after you don't need them. It's what they do.
There is no "hassle of managing them" other people do that for you.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

I wonder what his forum user name is?

Perhaps it begins with P ?

 

[Clancy Moped]

Not forgetting the charter income.

FLYING FOX

 

[Zing]

Two points, you never have "staff buzzing around you"quite the opposite, the appear just as you need them and disappear shortly after you don't need them. It's what they do.
There is no "hassle of managing them" other people do that for you.

That depends on the scale of superyacht. At the low end it’s an issue. At the top, less so. I know Abramovitch has a minder to manage staff on his yacht by radio with the sole purpose of ensuring crew clear from areas first as he moves around.

 

[Wansworth]

In my Dixon Kemp manual of Yacht and Boat sailing(tenth edition) there is in chapter 7 a handy guide to crew management

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Where does a motor yacht end and a super yacht begin or is there a gap between them?

I was a frequent guest on a 30M motor yacht with captain, engineer, chef, chief stewardess and two stewardess and very nice it was too. I was also once a guest on a boat of 80M along with 15 other people and a crew too large to count, the 30 M was by far the better experience.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

That depends on the scale of superyacht. At the low end it’s an issue. At the top, less so. I know Abramovitch has a minder to manage staff on his yacht by radio with the sole purpose of ensuring crew clear from areas first as he moves around.

The crew do that as a mater of course, they quickly get to know which guests are "sociable" and which are not and in any case they will as a mater of course keep their distance simply being polite and responding to the guests. The owner will also dictate the mood or ambience but the captain and chief stewardess even more so.

 

[westernman]

Where does a motor yacht end and a super yacht begin or is there a gap between them?

At 24M.
Below that you can self drive with an ICC or Day Kipper qualification.

Above that you need more serious qualifications - or captain with those qualifications. Also from 24M you have to respect the crewing regulations and there is a whole bunch more regulations for boats above 24M.

 

[rotrax]

I’ve just finished reading ’Fall’, an account of his life and demise, which is a great read if you like having your gob smacked. The question of how he succumbed was never settled, partly due to an inadequate first post-mortem. There is evidence that he may not have drowned, also that he clung to part of the ship as he fell, but his behaviour that night was strange, with him taking unusual measures to lock his cabin. There are even theories that Mossad did him in, but they don’t make sense. The experts only give a percentage opinion as to whether he slipped and fell or whether he jumped. On my own superyacht, I never go out in the middle of the night with no clothes on to relieve myself over the stern.

Dont you know about the last orders the Skipper of the Lady Ghislane gave to the First Mate?

When it was clear he was not on board the immediate investigation caused the Skipper to say to the first mate " You Idiot!!!! I said throw the flat anchor over, not the Fat Wanker!!! "

 

[Fr J Hackett]

At 24M.
Below that you can self drive with an ICC or Day Kipper qualification.

Above that you need more serious qualifications - or captain with those qualifications. Also from 24M you have to respect the crewing regulations and there is a whole bunch more regulations for boats above 24M.

Yes I was aware of the quasi legal definition but it was more a question of where is the super yacht perceived to be in the minds of most. Of course to the man pottering about in his 18 foot GRP day boat a 60 foot Oyster or 58 foot Princess could well be a superyacht but those are not types of vessel I was thinking of and the owner of the 30M motor yacht didn't consider his vessel to be a super yacht either. The old adage of there is always someone with a bigger one springs to mind.
Personally I think super yachts start at the 80 to 100M mark their doesn't seem to be much if anything in between 30 and 80M or 100M

 

[Lightwave395]

In the unlikely event of my becoming extremely wealthy, the answer for me would be to buy the biggest Oyster I felt the two of us could manage alone and charter something larger with paid staff for a month or so in the Carribean with a bunch of mates when the fancy took me

 

[westernman]

In the unlikely event of my becoming extremely wealthy, the answer for me would be to buy the biggest Oyster I felt the two of us could manage alone and charter something larger with paid staff for a month or so in the Carribean with a bunch of mates when the fancy took me

I would do it a little differently.

I would have several smallish yachts (~35ft) which are light, fast and can be sailed single handed but with enough comfort for three. Moored in different locations. I would pay some one local to stock up the fridge and wash down the boat before I arrive to sail off into the sunset.

And also, a couple of floating apartment type motor yachts for the winter. Again suitable for sleeping about 4 people in luxury. But same thing with the fridge and washing etc.

And may be charter a big luxury yacht with staff in the Carribean from time to time.

And may be a private jet to get to my yachts. Actually a membership of one of the Uber type companies for private jet hire would do the trick and avoid the necessity of having a several planes for different distances, purposes and airfield types.

 

[SolentDavid]

And may be a private jet to get to my yachts. Actually a membership of one of the Uber type companies for private jet hire would do the trick and avoid the necessity of having a several planes for different distances, purposes and airfield types.

You’d be better off with a large Falcon aircraft. Can do the long and short flights and get into the smaller airfields.

Remember my help when you strike it rich! ?

 

[Wansworth]

I would do it a little differently.

I would have several smallish yachts (~35ft) which are light, fast and can be sailed single handed but with enough comfort for three. Moored in different locations. I would pay some one local to stock up the fridge and wash down the boat before I arrive to sail off into the sunset.

And also, a couple of floating apartment type motor yachts for the winter. Again suitable for sleeping about 4 people in luxury. But same thing with the fridge and washing etc.

And may be charter a big luxury yacht with staff in the Carribean from time to time.

And may be a private jet to get to my yachts. Actually a membership of one of the Uber type companies for private jet hire would do the trick and avoid the necessity of having a several planes for different distances, purposes and airfield types.

Will you have an old one to layup and fettle for the following year?

 

[dunedin]

My own experience of a super yacht was thirty years ago the in those days quite large yacht came alongside in Cowes.The owner was a nice bloke and we chatted but the paid crew was a sullen enervated type who was not sociable at all…a miserable old git?

If only one paid crew it isn’t a super yacht - need skipper, engineer, chef and hostess as a minimum to qualify for the “super” prefix

 

[Wansworth]

If only one paid crew it isn’t a super yacht - need skipper, engineer, chef and hostess as a minimum to qualify for the “super” prefix

Things have moved on,he probably had a fag hanging out..?

 

[Stemar]

If only one paid crew it isn’t a super yacht - need skipper, engineer, chef and hostess as a minimum to qualify for the “super” prefix

I think any full-time paid crew and you're getting there. Add a chef to the above and you're definitely pretty close - that's as big as I can imagine wanting, even if that nice Mr Gates who keeps asking me to collect my gift were to leave me everything in his will.

Then there are the megayachts - those are for the serious willy-wavers, because even the smallest can take as many guests as most folk would want around. It may be politic to have 100 guests, but most won't be people you want to chill with.

 

[westernman]

Will you have an old one to layup and fettle for the following year?

No. I don't want to do any more fettling. That will be for the staff to do.

 

[westernman]

No. I don't want to do any more fettling. That will be for the staff to do.

But I don't ever want them on the boat with me.