Here’s a fun story from maineboats.com about the influx of superyachts this summer, largely because of the pandemic, but also because, well, Maine is simply one of the best cruising destinations in the world in any summer.
Not only did boat rentals and sales see a huge surge this summer as pandemic shutdowns sent more people out on the water. In addition more super-sized yachts than ever cruised along the Maine coast, visiting ports both big and small.
Normally in the summer many of these boats head across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. But when Europe shut the door to people with American passports, many of them sailed downeast instead.
Too big to fit inside many small harbors, these super yachts moored slightly offshore in many places — luxurious floating homes, loaded with water toys such as jet skis, paddle boards, fancy electric hydrofoil boards, and small sailboats. In Portland, where the new Fore Points Marina has docks built specifically to serve the large yachts, they were able to tie up and stay for a while, or load up with fuel and provisions.
Any boat over 250 feet long entering the midcoast between Boothbay and Mt. Desert Island is required to bring a local pilot on board to help with navigation. In a normal year, the pilots might see two yachts this big, said Pen Bay Pilot David Gelinas. This year they saw at least eight, which is an impressive number when you consider that there are only perhaps 100 or so yachts in the world in this category, he said.
“The bottom line is that travel to Europe was extremely impacted by the COVID crisis,” Gelinas said.
Another significant change was that instead of visiting the state for maybe a week at the most, many of the yachts visiting Maine this summer stayed for a month or more. In addition, while most of these yachts are often under charter (which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a week) this summer the owners were aboard.
These superyachts as well as a dozen or so more yachts over 100 feet long visited Kennebunk, Portland, Blue Hill, Camden, Bar Harbor, Boothbay and other ports, including Islesboro, where the 452-foot Rising Sun, which belongs to music mogul David Geffin, spent a chunk of time.
Other yachts potted along the coast and their reported owners included Excellence, 262 feet, car dealership owner Herb Chambers; Infinity, 290 feet, Eric Smidt, CEO of Harborfeight Tool Co.; Mogambo, 242 feet, Whatsapp founder Jan Koum; Dreamboat, 295 feet, Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot; Kismet, 312 feet, Shahid Khan, a sports tycoon who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars football team; Sixth Sense, 242 feet, Carnival Cruise CEO Micky Arison; and Fountainhead, 288 feet, Sears CEO Eddie Lampert. Read more:
