Many, many years ago, when my children were young and we had a sailboat, they gave me a sailbag for Christmas. The next year, it was a hand-held compass. I was very happy with both of these presents; my children knew how to connect with my passion. Later on, when they flew down to Fort Lauderdale to join me on our Grand Banks for a holiday cruise to Ocean Reef in the Keys, they brought a set of drinking glasses that I still have to this day.
Those are normal kinds of holiday gifts for boat owners. Last week we wrote about more, including a FLIR thermal camera, Garmin inReach and even a portable folding bike. They too are all within reason for most cruising boat owners, and their families, in terms of possible holiday gifts.
But what if the person on your list already has everything? Well, there’s always something more, something new, something over-the-top. Then there’s the stratosphere – really over-the-top.
Here’s where a new holiday gift guide, The Most Over-the-Top Superyacht Toys, just published in Forbes, comes in. We’ll assume that the billionaire on your list already has a superyacht, but now, in the same sense that I had to have drinking glasses on my Grand Banks, he (or she) has to have all the latest toys and accoutrements to fit it out.
What are they? First, any self-respecting superyacht has to have a shadow yacht; it carries all the toys (and these are big toys). The shadow yacht, or support boat, usually isn’t too shabby by itself; a Damen Support Vessel, for example, is 225-feet and is made in Holland with military-grade construction so it can go anywhere in the world.
And it has enough deck space to deploy a fixed-wing plane, such as the ICON A5, which isn’t a bad gift in its own right. It’s amphibious, it can go 120 mph, and it carries a base price of $269,000. A helicopter, such as the Bell 429, is almost a must. Indeed, some superyachts have two helipads.
Support boats will also need a variety of boats, from sportfishing boats to luxury tenders, and they always can use another one. But the ultimate boat gift: a personal submarine. Read more:
