My brother-in-law’s voice had a huge smile in it when I picked up the phone. He might not even have bothered with a “hi.” Just: “You’re going to love this, Helen.”
As part of his and my sis-in-law’s kayak and outrigger tour business in Jaco, Costa Rica, Neil captains the Ashuma, a trimaran that guests book for day sails in Herradura Bay.
Neil’s also got a pretty good nose for prospect research, and every once in awhile he comes across a tip or resource he knows I’ll like, usually related to Central American sources or to yachts and/or the people who own them.
“I’m standing on Ashuma looking at the Hodor. Nice helicopter on the back. I’m going to send you a picture.” 10 seconds later, this pops up on What’s App:
Hodor. Photo by Neil Kahn
Now, Ashuma is not exactly a small sailboat – she’s 7.6 meters (25 feet) long, but Neil tells me she’s a dingy next to the Hodor, which I later learn is 66 meters long (216 feet).
As Neil is talking about what she looks like, I click the link to the article on the building of the Hodor on Super Yacht Times that he sent after the photo. It’s got lots of nice pictures which I start to scan through.
I see a helicopter, three or four boats on the deck, a winchy-crane-looking thing, three dune buggies, a gorgeous cabin and galley…
I’m skimming, skimming, mainly looking at the pictures, not really reading because he’s still on the phone…and that’s when I see it.
“Wait! Neil??!?”
Neil chuckles at the tone of my voice: “I was waiting for you to find that.” Simultaneously he and I both say, “SHE’S THE SUPPORT YACHT.”
My exhale turns into an almost-silent “holy cow.”
Lonian. Photo by Neil Kahn
Hodor is essentially a floating carriage house carrying the 20 support crew and toys that don’t fit on – or that they don’t want crowding up – the $125 million, 87 meter (285 foot) superyacht Lonian. Lonian is owned by 51-year-old Las Vegas billionaire, philanthropist, and art collector Lorenzo Fertitta and his wife, Theresa. The megayacht only has room for 12 guests, so you can imagine how big each stateroom is.
There are lots more resources
As we were about to hang up, I mentioned to Neil that two weeks ago my colleague Rick Snyder (no relation to this fine craft) wrote an article chock-full of resources that can help us think about (and estimate) the additional costs that a wealthy lifestyle entails. Nannies, housekeepers, family office managers – all of the people needed to keep the small village of everyday high net worth life running smoothly.
Neil’s call was another reminder to me (and to all of us) not to take things we see at face value, but to look behind the cost of the big yacht (or house, or island) to see if there’s an even bigger one to consider. Fortunately, there’s lots of information about these wealth indicators if you know where to look for them.
For example, if you ever happen to be walking down a wharf and see a yacht in a slip (or slipping down the waterway you’re walking by) you can check it out on the very handy MarineTraffic.com. The website/app doesn’t go into detail about a watercraft’s ownership, but you can get a lot of information for free about that ship sailing by.
Besides that and the other sources linked in this article, help yourself to lots more yacht (and art, and horse, and jet) resources which can be found in the “Wealth Indicators” section of the HBG Prospect Research Links (Americas page). Access is free; we just require your email address (which we don’t use to mail you) to register to access the pages.
If you have other favorites, don’t be shy – share them here with all of us, and I’ll add them to the links page for everyone to use.
