Gratuitous excess 401

[unixronin]

What do you get for the mega-billionaire who has everything else except a sense of good taste?  What else but a "yacht" the size of a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship?¹

(Found by jenkitty)

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[1]  OK, I concede, this is slightly inaccurate.  Her Majesty's Royal Navy did not formally classify the Queen Elizabeth class as battleships.

...They were classified as super-dreadnaughts.

Comments

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

What constitutes "good taste" in yacht building?

How big is "too big" in a home?

I'm waiting for someone to order an Airbus A380 (http://www.aircraft-info.net/aircraft/jet_aircraft/airbus/A380/) for a private plane, and then figure out just where they can land it. These gigayachts have the same problem: where the hell can they tie up? How many ports can service them?

On the other hand, many people are employed building and operating these things. When Congress passed a luxury tax (http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/old/11583345.htm) in 1990, it devasted the boat-building industry - lots of people laid off.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

These gigayachts have the same problem: where the hell can they tie up? How many ports can service them?

I suppose that's why they need multiple 40-foot "tenders".

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

What constitutes "good taste" in yacht building?

Oh yeah, meant to add .... I'm not sure what one would canonically consider "good taste" in yacht building, but I'm pretty certain "Make mine sixty feet longer, so it's forty feet longer than that bastard's" isn't it.

If I had to answer what I personally considered good taste in a yacht, it'd be emphasis on graceful lines and good seakeeping rather than on conspicuous consumption. it'd be a boat sized to be both big enough and small enough for comfort and utility, rather than to flaunt how much gratuitous opulence I can afford to squander money on to show how big my financial dick is. A floating penthouse apartment, OK, but short of the aforementioned fiscal dickwaving, I don't see any need to have a floating Hearst Castle unless you're planning on staying in international waters and declaring yourself a seagoing sovereign nation.

Somehow I doubt that's on Larry Ellison's to-do list any time soon.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I want a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier for my luxury yacht. Y'know, when I'm super rich.

-Ogre

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Need a CAG?

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

Good luck buying fuel!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'm quite sure that if someone were to be able to procure a functioning Nimitz-class carrier, the Pentagon would be willing to turn a blind eye to an occasional procurement of fuel rods in exchange for, shall we say, arrangements for occasional basing and resupply with plausible deniability.

"Of course it wasn't us. Don't be ridiculous. We don't have a carrier battle group within two thousand miles of there."