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Big Yachts Provocation?

Discussion in 'General Yachting Discussion' started by jpaul, Jun 13, 2021.

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  1. jpaul

    jpaul New Member

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    Hello all, i wanted to use middle finger instead of provocation, but as it's my first post i didn't want to give the feeling i was trolling/baiting. it's a real question i'm trying to understand. i'm trying to understand what is yachting about. I searched hard, pretty hard actually (i'm not a yacht owner myself) why do people buy big yachts, but i couldn't find any satisfactory answer. That is why i came to these forums. I though there could be people around here familiar with (big boats) yachting who could help me understand the thing
    An argument that came often into what i read, was that the privacy provided by these assets created a stress free environment that was priceless to their owners.And i can fully understand that people often appearing in the medias can need a kind of 'escape hatch'. but, and this is where i get stuck, and that i don't understand it's that when you park these ships into harbors, or bays, it's like you were showing your bank account on a big billboard, thus making a middle finger to the people right down there
    feel free to add your input, even if you dropped in here several months later
  2. ychtcptn

    ychtcptn Senior Member

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    I might be feeding a troll but here is my take.
    After 30 years in the industry, my take is relaxation and family time. None of the owners I have worked for could care less about showing off their shiny object, in fact it is just the opposite.
    Rickfisher likes this.
  3. menkes

    menkes Member

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    jpaul
    people buy big yachts because they can, for many different and weird reasons
    but I am afraid you wouldn't understand that
  4. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Why do people buy large homes?
    Why do people buy nice cars?
    Why do people buy private jets?
    Why do people eat gourmet food?
    Why do people wear nice clothes?
    Why do people drink good wine?

    What a ridiculous question to ask.
    Soulstice, yr2030, rocdiver and 3 others like this.
  5. boatpoor

    boatpoor Active Member

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    If you have to ask.... you probably wouldn't understand.
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  6. bayoubud

    bayoubud Senior Member

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    Who cares????
  7. KoffeeCruising

    KoffeeCruising Member

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    Here are some thoughts:
    -Challenges of preparing, navigating, provisioning and maintaining an asset
    -Choosing to spend time with family and friends combining travel with adventure


    The majority of the yacht owners I have met over the last 5 years are not show offs, not Thurston Howell III types, and not boating to “flip off the world.” In my experience of meeting fellow owners, in general, they are helpful, interesting, and generally did something really well for a long time to get to this point in their lives. I have met many long term married couples who are living their dream.

    Sure, I’ve met a few @$$-Clowns with their newest girlfriends, but that has been the exception, not the rule....

    I don’t feel like I’m showing my middle finger; I feel like I’m a genuinely interested traveler that wants to learn about everywhere I go, and spend $$ along the way.

    I bet if you spent any time at a Marina, you’d have a much better opinion of the people who “yacht”.
    Soulstice, rocdiver, bayoubud and 2 others like this.
  8. jpaul

    jpaul New Member

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    I'm not a troll i swear. And i want to thank the people who answered. There's no doubt in my mind that wealthy people are not bad minded. they're like any other. nothing more, nothing less. and i'm certainly not judging them
    i didn't say they wanted to offend, i said the simple fact these luxury assets are docked seems kinda shocking. it's just the ostentatious side that makes me wonder

    actually yes menkes, i don't understand, and that's why i asked. but if you're from the 'upper bucket' (see no offense here) maybe you could help people from the 'lower bucket' understand

    with all due respect Pascal, i don't think this is such of a ridiculous question. yachts are ostentious in opposition of all the assets you mentioned above. i don't know if you noticed but the world is not far from explosion. everywhere we look populism is gaining terrain even in places we thought it impossible a couple of years ago. i don't think the ostentious luxury helps calm down the situation. i'm just trying to understand. that's all

    revolutionaries maybe?? people with low revenues who work very hard, and for whom ostentious is simply unbearable

    i'm hesitating between sending the ball outside the terrain limits, or completely disconnected from the world. again see no offense, but i was just waiting a simple answer, not an agressive one.
    my question was pretty simple, i'm trying to understand what justifies such an ostentatious. as simple as that
  9. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    "Asset", "stress free", "boat ownership":
    You managed to fit a triple oxymoron in a short sentence! :D
    woofwoof likes this.
  10. jpaul

    jpaul New Member

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    as i said i never had any doubt that yacht owners weren't show offs as...s for the great majority. they are humans point. the thing is as i said when you stop at an harbor, it's like showing everyone there, hey look, look how great my bank account is. i'm trying to understand what justifies such ostentatious, that's all. i know most of these guys are kind people, and often great philantropists
  11. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Are you saying a big waterfront home, a G5, an Aston, etc are not ostentatious? They are

    I m curious how you define yachts? It s a valid question as depending on where one comes from the word yacht has different meanings. Are you talking about 50 footers... 100 footers... 200 footers?

    as usage, all owners I know don’t want to be seen. Their boat is a form of escape so they can enjoy life with their family and friends away from the limelight. They love anchoring out away from it all.

    The cliché of the yacht owner showing off in at tropes or Monaco is just that. A cliché propagated by a minority

    as to ostentatious and populism and revolution and all the BS, don’t forget how many people are employed, how many contractors are in business because of people who can afford these boats... a 200 footer probably supports 20 to 30 people year round between crew, contractors and staff.
  12. jonrd463

    jonrd463 New Member

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    To this point, docking a yacht is necessary sometimes. Maybe they're in port provisioning. Maybe they just came back from a long trip. Maybe the owner is in between trips and chooses not to charter while he/she is not using it. Maybe trips are on hold due to pandemic issues.

    I'm not really understanding why a yacht at a dock is such a problem. Seems sort of like agonizing over the fact that someone has a BMW in their driveway. Just because a yacht is at a dock doesn't mean the owner's intentions are to show it off.
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2021
  13. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    Well, if you aren't a troll, you surely must appreciate why a question like this can come across as such.
    I'll bite anyway, and try a serious answer.

    If your main concern is based on the socio-political analysis of a world which is not far from explosion, with ostentious luxury fostering populists and revolutionaries, in your boots I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep on that, for the very simple reason that it's nothing new under the sun.
    The world might well explode (or not - I can predict anything but the future), but if that will ever happen, it will be because of much better reasons than the existance of UHNWIs, which have been around for ages, and regardless of how shy they are with the use of their money.
    In other words, everyone and their dog know that Roman Abramovich has a pretty fat bank account, regardless of how many and how big his boats are, you know.

    Secondly, where do you draw the line?
    I don't think my 56 footer, bought used when she was already 14 years old, is the type of boat that you had in mind with this thread.
    Still, she's regarded as just a distant, impossible dream by many of the folks who stroll along the marina dock.
    Should I be concerned about that? Well, maybe.
    But she's a place I call home, I spend most of my time on her, and to me it was worth spending a non trivial share of my hard earned savings, for what to the eyes of many people can appear as just an ostentious toy.
    So, if and when the world will explode, I'll come to term with that.
    If nothing else, I will have been nice till it lasted... :)
  14. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    So, I'll bite the troll bait and attempt to answer. First, you are a troll. You're here with no purpose other than to question why the rest of us are here. Fits the definition.

    As to being docked, is your car not parked somewhere while you're here?

    I agree with Pascal that it's a ridiculous question as to all the other things he points out. You came in making judgements and classifying things and claiming we were pointing our fingers. Then I'll point as the owner of several boats that offend you and of a large home and cars sitting in my garage. I own as someone very lucky and fortunate who has worked hard to do so. My home is large, but often 30 or more people here sharing with us.

    So now you want to know what justifies something so ostentatious. By even using the word you've questioned us. I'd ask what justifies you questioning us? What have you done so wonderful in your life that allows you to point fingers? Or are you so wrapped up in what others do, that you do nothing? I don't feel the need to justify anything I do to you, a total stranger. I do try to do right by the families in a town where we have a school or the orphanage we've long been involved with or our 14,000 employees, and to the people we help through our foundation, but nothing to you.

    And my reason for owning any boat is the same. It's to see the country and the world by water. Just recently I saw Croatia for the first time with 13 others with me. I was exposed to something new, a country new to me and people new to me and I did it all by water. What a beautiful country and wonderful experience. Then today I took friends out and ran beyond Miami and back home and we all had wholesome and refreshing entertainment and the company of those important to me, of which you are not one. Tomorrow, I'll conduct business, but none today.

    I hope you find time in your life to enjoy leisure time with family and friends. That's all I'm doing and how I go about doing it is none of your ^%$#^ business. So, guess that gives you the rise you wanted. Now, hope you leave our presence and go trolling elsewhere.
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  15. Norseman

    Norseman Senior Member

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    Here you go.
    6B77AD23-E59E-4A25-859E-02A89D37AF75.jpeg
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  16. Rickfisher

    Rickfisher New Member

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    I live in the Pacific North West. Boats are about adventure and nature.
  17. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    I love when trolls are so obvious that they feel they need to try to announce they aren't trolls. It's like someone with a business repeats over and over how religious they are right before cheating you.
  18. NYCAP123

    NYCAP123 Senior Member

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    We're in a world where almost every question has an instant answer. So what's unusual about a curious person asking about something so obvious and expensive as a yacht? But there are a lot of reasons from addiction to the sea to needing a tax write-off, then there's those who use their boats for research. Interesting how defensive some are. Yes showing off is a big part of it whether for the looky-loos along the Miami River or Canes or to impress people they do business with or want to. You don't cruise into a marina on a hundred or 200' yacht cause you don't want to be noticed. However, like a home it gives the owner control of his environment. The only people who get to come close are those they invite. For many today it's also place to park money. A lot of people today have more money than they know what to do with. Sticking it in a bank is boring. The one thing you can count on is that most don't buy yachts to increase their wealth (except by generating business deals with people they impress).
    jpaul likes this.
  19. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Most of the people we ve had on board whether owners or charter guests care about their privacy when it comes to picking up a marina (whether transient or permanent), an anchorage or a cruising spot

    you mentioned the Miami River... well we rarely cruise up the river anymore because of all these invasion of privacy social media feeds that post videos of boats and close ups of the people on board. Neither owners or guests want their pictures or videos plastered on line.
    jpaul likes this.
  20. chesapeake46

    chesapeake46 Senior Member

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    Neither YOUR owners or guests want their pictures plastered on line but many people LIVE to be seen.
    The videos of the Miami river that I have seen ensure that I will never be show up on a YT video.
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