The thing about yachts…

I have  always been a big fan of yachts. They are the universal symbols of luxury, prosperity, independence and serenity. Disregarding the pollution to water they glide like swans on deep and shallow seas conquering the most beautiful spots in blue and green. Yet I have come to see  the dark sides of being on and in one of these luxury vehicles. Here is my list to why a yacht might not be such a good idea after all:

1. If you are an easily bored passenger like me you will keep wanting to move from bay to bay spending more and more of that precious fuel. The bay-hopping will hurt your wallet as much as the anchor hurting the sea life below the surface.

2. The open air, the wind and the little exercise you have in water will increase your appetite exponentially leading you to increase your daily meal number to 4 with a hefty tea time. There is a potential that you will eventually become the ugly fat fly on top of your beautiful white swan.

3. Yachts are some of the most expensive luxury items of our time. From buying one to maintaining one there is not a single activity on a boat that requires reasonable spending. So why is it that you pay so much money to sleep below ground in a small, unstable bedroom with a few tiny windows and an uncomfortable bathroom when you could take the same money and get a 5-star treatment on land in a hotel? If you say the mega-yachts have better rooms, I’d say they lack the mobility of their smaller peers and lose the meaningful touch between the sea and their passengers.

4. You can’t always enjoy your expensive toy alone. You need guests to be entertained and stay occupied. Yet in order to be entertained you need to entertain. Food and various drinks have to be served throughout the day. Servers need to be present full-time.  The cost put aside there is always a chance that small disputes can arise over small details (from music to towels) given the tight, limited space everyone is  forced to share and live in.

5. No matter how long your yacht is there won’t be enough room to get away from table games! Monopoly, backgammon, chess, canasta, poker, etc. They will hunt you down and you will finally surrender. One way or another a yacht visitor will have to excel in at least one of these games to survive the trip and preserve sanity. Just pray that you will not be the third wheel among two other friends who are obsessed with a two-players-only table gable (for ex: backgammon).

So far these five points have led me to believe that looking at a yacht from a distance could be so much more healthier than staying in one. I am still go for daily trips to small speedboats, but I might pass on the longer stays on the larger swans.