There are plenty of things you might not want to read 10,000 words about. But the seafaring proclivities of the ultrarich — the 400-foot superyachts, the obsession with L.O.A. (“length overall”), the 3D-printed restaurants airlifted to a sand bar that will be submerged in eight hours — are something that, I promise you, you very much do.
One boating guest told me about a conversation with a famous friend who keeps one of the world’s largest yachts. “He said, ‘The boat is the last vestige of what real wealth can do.’ What he meant is, You have a chef, and I have a chef. You have a driver, and I have a driver. You can fly privately, and I fly privately. So, the one place where I can make clear to the world that I am in a different fucking category than you is the boat.”
Get the Longreads Weekly Email