"A" yacht - a video of the interior

Fortunately (???) I was born & raised in Sydney, NSW and therefore have the WGAF attitude down pat.

Especially when it comes to Greenies who haven't got a clue, nor the money or intelligence to buy or learn one. I have taken great delight in upsetting them over the years by shooting their pet assumptions full of holes because, unlike the bulk of them, I actually have grad & postgrad degrees in biology & geography and the ability to learn from experience.

On the subject of carbon footprints, Viking my mate, you'd have to agree that I can basically do as I please, because I own nearly 600 acres of carbon sink AKA forest land. So there.

PDW

 

It is pretty unfair that one man is allowed to run a few thousand horsepower all day long while the average Joe sweats out his car's anti-pollution systems at inspection time.
There should be a point where enough is enough, where idiotically wasteful consumption of fuel and the attendant pollution are limited to some degree.
Used to be nobody noticed or cared about pollution but times have changed. Yet very rich people commonly pollute thousands of times as much as us regular folks.
Support that "right to pollute" if you like.
And then those millionaires (like Mitt Romney, for example) think 13% is a fair income tax while the rest of us pay much much more.
Rupert Murdoch has at least two yachts, big ones, a sailboat and a motor yacht. My ex's cousin was captain of both. Murdoch, as far as I've heard, pays almost no taxes.
It would be easy to legislate "gas guzzler" taxes for pleasure boats over a certain size.
They did it with cars.
Maybe their tax dollars can go towards developing new clean forms of energy.

 

Every gallon of fuel used is already taxed

 

VN - I really don't want to get into a climate change debate... but seriously... why is it that you think that your level of supposed emissions is ok, but someone elses isn't. If you were actually serious about what you are saying then you'd be living in a tent with no car, no boat, not taking holiday's and not eatiung anything that you hadn't caught or grown yourself, whilst espousing that the world ought to do something about its ballooning population.

AW - What's to say that this chap didn't spend an inordinate amount of money developing 'cleaner' energy systems for his boat. He may have only done it so that he can tell his mates how enviro conscious he is, but the technology that he helped pay for will filter down to the mainstream over time. It's no different to the advances in automotive technology that are a direct result of the millions that are poured into F1 each year. But of course the greenies only see such things as rich man's noisy, environmental vandals that do nothing more than go round and round in circles.

 

What a truly excellent idea.

One minor point, though.

How are you going to prevent the owners from swapping their registry to, say, Panama or some other place that doesn't try to legislate environmental morality? It may have escaped your attention, but ocean-capable craft don't bear a lot of similarity to cars.

Not that it matters, but I don't at all like those giant gin palaces myself, but that's not really the point here.

PDW

 

Would you make a law which says "from now on, Alan White will pay 3 times more taxes than he payed in the past"? Sure you wouldn't. Because, as you probably know, these folks are the ones who decide, directly or indirectly, about economic policies of the governments... Our vote serve, essentially, to democratically decide shall we (the rest of us) be squeezed or sliced.

Vessels like this are a pride and joy to design and build, and it's true that they give job to few thousands of people (how fairly payed is another question) for several years. It is also true that from the purely rational point of view they make very little sense as a mean of transportation. They bring very little advancement in technologies and their transport efficiency is ridiculously (or sadly, if you prefer) low. They will probably burn more fuel during one year, and for no actual purpose, than any one of us will during our lifetime.

Yet, objects of admiration and hate like this have existed since human beings have walked on this planet. Think of ancient pyramides, the effort and resources necessary to build them and compare it to their purpose... Nonetheless, more and more of vessels of this class are being built in the last years, despite all the logical and moral arguments one can bring against them. Probably a proof that morality and big money never lived in the same place.

At the end, though aware of these sound logical and moral considerations, what would I do if a (naive ) client approached me, asking me to design a vessel of similar class and scope? Needless to say, I would accept. The intellectual chalenge would be just too big to even try to ignore it. The challenge, the human nature - it's a mix which has brought us to the Moon, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's a part of us, and that's why this vessel exists, despite all the good-hearted arguments.

 

thx daiquiri, that was worth putting my pc on and seeing this movie full screen

 

Nice boat- I am with the distribution of wealth crowd.

Patrons of the arts, spenders of great fortunes on baubles let out funds towards industries and people.
Conspicuous consumption is is the better side of the coin if the alternative is a towering edifice of wealth held static in property and assets.

 

Here in Florida, the marine industry in general is the largest industry in the State after tourism, larger than the citrus industry by far.
In Ft Lauderdale the large yacht industry drives an extremely large portion of the local economy. The Industrial Park where my business is has most every marine type business you might think of, 2 distributors, 2 propeller shops, 3 exhaust shops, 2 water maker manufacturers, 2 waste disposal companies, an aluminum distributor, more carpenter, canvas and metal fabricating shops than you could count, etc, etc. and that's just this little industrial park, there are several more in the general area.

Then there is the personnel part of the industry, the dozen crew placement companies, crew uniform companies, yacht management companies, the health and insurance parts, car rentals, air travel, etc.

These large vessels contribute HUGE amounts of money to our local industry as well as directly and indirectly employing thousands if not tens of thousands of people.

I like them. Steve

 

Why would I assume the guy is doing anything at all for the environment? I just thought he probably was very much like most millionaires, who care not a whit for the air and water quality if their behavior is any indication.
I would guess, based on the video, that his nookie room isn't hidden because he does secret environmental studies in there.
I think F1 cars encourage powerful, energy-sucking production cars more than electric scooters. ever heard of the Briggs and Stratton high mileage competition? The record (for a person inside a streamlined car) is a couple thousand miles per gallon or something. I'd say that competition, by high school students and college students would offer more breakthrough technologies than some fat cat on his overdone pimped out yacht.

 

Well written Daiquiri -- thus all the more reason to voice an opinion and while I well know mine is nothing but a squeak in the wilderness it is important that it be added to those others out there who think likewise. I am not a green fanatic, I have no religion, nor am I ignorant of the golden rule (them with the gold rule). However all my life i have strived to follow the simple code "do unto others ---------" and I have made it a point that this old hippy, within reason will not be bought. It's this "within reason" that I voice my opinion. For the few to pollute so much against so many of earths living is not in anybodys book "within reason" and yes we have the responsibility and duty as citizens of this our only living sphere (our home)to speak out.

 

My 2 cents.

these super luxury vessels burn very little fuel because they are "parked" 50 weeks a year in Monaco or similar grand places
they usually ONLY get used within the first 12 months of ownership, there after less and less and less
this goes for most boats anyway, over 28 feet even more so, regardless of what type - stinkpot or sail.

these "owners" create massive employment, the designers, the builders, the crew, the marina, and of course the "bikini brigade" to decorate the deck.
Lots of people eat of this plate.

For many of these rich guys it is about the thrill of building the boat, it gives them something to do that is creative to them and satisfies their urge of wacky "design ideas" like a "nookie room" which only he would understand why?

Many of these rich guys desperately need people around them all day long to tell them how wonderfull they are and how clever they are. It is just in their nature to think they are almost god-like.

But it is a good thing that they spend money on luxury goods or else we also wont have Ferrari or Rolls Royce. Just go and research what those two have contributed to fuel efficient motors in cars and aviation.

The really good news is that Mr. Rich will soon be tired of this boat and build an even bigger one.
So - might as well go and stand in line to tell the king how beautiful his robes are. Just keep that damn kid away that will tell everybody he is naked.

 

Ha Ha Manie--you too have watched the Tutors series. Anyhow I'm smart enough to know this is a no win debate and apologise if I have ruffled a few feathers but then again that was the point of it all. Anyhow --peace brothers --live long and prosper and -----------
A yacht is NOT defined by the vessel but by the care and love of her owner

 

This is where you are dead wrong.

The R&D for the F1 race cars is one of major players in the development of the general automotive industry. The structural, weight and fuel efficiency is everything in the world of competitions. The modern light-weight engines, the high-strength and temperature-resistant materials, the tires, the on-board electronics, the safety systems, the manufacturing methods and processes - each one of these have found an application in our everyday's lives and on the roads, after having been developed and tested in the race circuits.

Weight is everything for F1 cars, just like it is for high-speed boats. It implies that the quantity of fuel on-board an F1 car has to be minimal, hence the engine thermal efficiency has to be maximum. One refueling stop too much makes a difference between win or lose. This technology finds an immediate application on the commercial cars, because the fuel efficiency and weight effectiveness is increasingly important for them too.
For the same reason (weight and power density), the car's structural efficiency is brought to the peaks. The next F1 car by McLaren, which will be presented very soon, will be all-carbon - a true gem of engineering.
The future electric cars, which also have to be as light-weight as possible, will have huge benefits from the knowledge coming from the F1 R&D.
The KERS (Kinetic-Energy Recovery System) which is mandatory on F1 cars, is already at work for the fuel and electric efficiency of hybrid and all-electric cars.
These are just some of many aspects of F1 engineering which already are improving the everyday's car technology, and I have omitted all the vast chapter relative to the fabrication of composite parts.

A similar speed race for seaplanes was held each year during the period between the WWI and WWII, called Schneider Trophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider_Trophy). It was a strong motor for innovation for the whole aeronautical industry. A huge amount of knowledge was gained in the field of high-speed subsonic and transonic aerodynamics, thanks to the reasearch aimed at improving all aspects of airplane efficiency, weight saving, propeller thrust, aero and hydrodynamics of the floats etc. The R&D of seaplane floats gave us the comprehension of the physics of modern planing hulls for boats, for example. Many good things have come out of thise apparently pointless quest for speed.

Cheers

P.S.
Regarding the F1 and it's ties with the "outer world", I've just recalled this story too: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...aces-to-learn-lessons-of-ferrari-crew-459294/

 

Hey Alan, the "sin" tax on yachts was already tried once. Do you hate boat builders?

"Starting in 1991, Washington levied a 10 percent tax on cars valued above $30,000, boats above $100,000, jewelry and furs above $10,000 and private planes above $250,000. Democrats like Ted Kennedy and then-Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell crowed publicly about how the rich would finally be paying their fair share and privately about convincing President George H.W. Bush to renounce his 'no new taxes' pledge," the newspaper said in an editorial.

"But it wasn't long before even those die-hard class warriors noticed they'd badly missed their mark. The taxes took in $97 million less in their first year than had been projected — for the simple reason that people were buying a lot fewer of these goods. Boat building, a key industry in Messrs. Mitchell and Kennedy's home states of Maine and Massachusetts, was particularly hard hit. Yacht retailers reported a 77 percent drop in sales that year, while boat builders estimated layoffs at 25,000. With bipartisan support, all but the car tax was repealed in 1993, and in 1996 Congress voted to phase that out too. January 1 was disappearance day.