“Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money money money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world”
As the ABBA song sings, it must be funny in a rich man’s world, funny meaning odd or strange.
One of our enjoyable pastimes on hot, sunny days is ‘yacht watching’…what’s yacht watching you ask…let me explain.
Place your beach chair in the shade of a big fully leafed tree, glass of chilled rose in hand, feet up on the cement embankmant of the intercoastal waterway in the middle of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in downtown Fort Lauderdale and wait…within a few minutes your first yacht. The aim is to assess the value of the launch that is cruising by.
How do I know cost of yachts?
Hey, I’ve never shopped for a canoe, let alone a yacht, the likes of which are commonly seen on this waterway. So my evaluations are guesses with no certainty whatsoever. But one can differentiate between “poor boats” and “high end treasures” by looking at the size, the decks and their driving power.
Driving power
From the little that I know, and the many James Bond movies I have seen, expensive boats do not use outboard motors. Their drive power comes from engines within the craft. So those internal engined boats rank higher in my books in dollar value than do ones which have outboards. If assessing lower cost boats, excuse the expression, and they are outboard driven, the number of outboard engines, as well as their size tends to raise the price. Also, the make of the outboard is another factor in price escalation…domestics manufactured in the US surely cost much more than Honda’s, Yamaha’s and Suzuki’s, judging from motorcycle experience.
Other assessment factors
Like a high rise apartment building, more floors, more cost,…more decks, more cost. More decks mean a bigger boat…ergo bigger price tag.
More glass, more value.
More open deck at the back for partying, more cost.
The emergency launch used to get to shore in an emergency or to ply tight waterways where the yacht cannot is another indicator of value of the main ship. Seadoos and Jetskis are two Personal Water Craft used by less expensive ships…the more upscale have a use inflatable Zodiacs with their own outboards.
The most expensive so far
Flying a Bermuda flag, the most expensive looking yacht we have seen so far was a blue and white behemoth the size of 3-4 two story homes in Toronto…we guessed the value at half to three quarters of a billion dollars. This was no dinghy!
To photograph it felt too gauche…must be funny in a rich man’s world.
