Boats as Big As the Ritz

摘要

Imagine your $50 million, custom-built 165-foot "waterfront retirement property" about to drop anchor in a sun-bleached Mediterranean bay. You are sitting on the aft sun deck, three stories up, sipping champagne and watching a stream of small boats following your wake like pilot fish. Tonight, your chef is preparing one of your favorite meals matched with the most exquisite wines, all served, by a white-gloved waiter. Later, you can catch a movie on your flat-panel plasma TV screen that folds down from the ceiling, or retire to your wood-paneled study to make a few business calls. What about a spin on your 20-foot speed skiff or an expedition to hunt for fresh squid? That's life on a luxury yacht. Few can afford it. But those who can are keeping big-yacht builders busier than ever, especially in the U.S., where a weak dollar means American shipyards can undercut European rivals by 20%. Thanks to a resurgent stock market and the imminent retirement of many prosperous baby boomers, orders for luxury yachts of more than 80 feet are up 6% worldwide since last year. The 507 nautical behemoths now on order or under construction in shipyards around the world represent the industry's "all-time high-water mark," according to Show-Boats International, a Fort Lauderdale trade magazine.