Bill Gates, $645 Million, Hydrogen Powered Yacht For Sale

Maritime Topics Yachts
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For the life of me I can’t fathom why a person would want to own a ship like this? I can understand people wanting luxury but why put so much of it on a boat? If a person can afford to build or buy a yacht like this they shouldn’t feel the need to show it off or prove anything to anyone. Rich people are just a weird as all other types of people imo.

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From the below article:

“….its fuel system: a next-generation hydrogen fuel cell platform that allows the vessel to operate entirely off compressed liquid hydrogen stored below deck at minus 253 degrees Celsius..”

“The interior is fitted with a blend of leathers, marble, limed oak and rattan, intended to evoke a coastal resort aesthetic.

There’s a full-size basketball court, a cinema, several hot tubs and a private hospital onboard.”

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I’d certainly like to lounge about onboard and be pampered. Seems to be a bit of a waste to own a yacht like this and not use it.

I wonder where she bunkers?

From the linked article, “The owner’s deck alone sits 121 feet above the waterline.”

That must be the reason. He’s afraid of heights.

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If you believe they buy those yachts to show off or prove something that is about as far from reality as you can get. Owners of megayachts are probably the most secretive people on the planet. They do not flaunt their yachts or wealth, they make every attempt to go unnoticed.

The yachts are for the most part, spectacular in their outfitting and are intended to provide the kind of atmosphere the owner and family desire, not to impress the likes of us. The yachts provide a refuge, privacy, safety and security as a resort in which the owners are familiar and comfortable anywhere in the world.

There are a very small handful of length and flash obsessed oligarchs and idiots like Trump but 99 percent of owners are not as “weird” as those who have unfounded ideas about who and what they are.

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@Steamer if you say something about yachts, the yacht building industry or anything else concerning yachts, I believe it. Thanks for sharing your expertise in that sector of the maritime field with the forum over the years. But why the extravagant boat shows then? I can only guess the yards or brokers still own them during the shows & the secretive owners get them afterwards? And I’ve seen & heard of some silly things on boats but a full sized basketball court?! I’ve played hoops in helo hangers/pads & cable storage areas but I don’t think the big cruise ships have full designated courts? I’d keep that silliness secret too.

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Because it is excellent advertising for the builder if it is a new boat or because the owner offers the boat for charter. The presence of a yacht in the show and many times the show itself is sponsored by the yacht brokers or charter brokers. It costs a fortune to put a boat in a show and opening it to prospective buyers or brokers is a wise business decision.

I am sure that most of us have “things” or activities that many others would consider “silly” but are personal and satisfying to us even though they might offend passersby.

In the case of those megayachts, they employ hundreds of thousands of highly skilled and well paid workers and businesses directly and probably millions of downstream families and businesses. In Florida alone the revenue created by yachting is larger than the famous citrus industry. If you want to see the value of the industry, research the top 3 yacht building nations, Italy, Netherlands, and Turkey. Nothing silly about any of it.

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It is nothing to Gates. They guy is worth 117 billion dollars. At 4% interest in US bonds he makes 4 billion dollars a year doing nothing. likely he does better than that. These guys live in a different world from the rest of the world.These guys buy governments. Trying to equate your thinking to their thinking is impossible. He could sink the yacht and financially not notice; it’s a few days interest.

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I see where Bezos spent $50 million on his wedding in Venice. He made that much in a morning. What did your wedding cost?

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Port Vauban offers liquid hydrogen bunkering for superyachts

She was there until this morning…

… and she’s now on the market, of course!

Breakthrough Yacht for Sale - Own the Luxury 118.8m Superyacht

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I loved the link by @Binbag_the_Saylore about the port that sells liquid hydrogen. It reminded me of a paragraph in a biography that I read about JP Morgan. (Who didn’t sound like that bad of a guy btw?) When on his superyacht at the time, an acquaintance asked Morgan how much it cost to fuel such a vessel and his reply was something like, “If you need to ask, there’s no reason owning such a ship.” Until a few minutes ago I had no idea how much marine grade liquid hydrogen costs. Of course liquid hydrogen isn’t widely available but I’m sure the uber few who can buy such a yacht can just charter a tanker to follow them around?

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Thanks for that. It figures, being a mega yacht capital.

I had to search for Port Vauban and realised I had been there in my square rigger in 1992 prior to the Columbus 500 anniversary Tall Ship Race but just referred to it as Antibes.

We were offered the King of Saudi’s berth (outermost on the mole) but I thought the walk was too far from town, so settled on the mega yacht Mediterranean mooring trots further in along that mole. We had special status as a visiting “warship” from Australia.

Our mooring lines weren’t long enough to connect to the buoys and get the stern to the mole so we had to add additional lengths.

We were very well looked after by other crews who spent their days polishing their yachts in case the owner sent a guest to stay. I had a 50/50 trainee crew male/female who seemed to enjoy it too including a day skiing in the alps.

Life was hard in the Navy.

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The first article I linked said Bill Gates never set foot on her. The below quote is the sales pitch from the broker. After reading it, I can see why Bill Gates, the former smartest man of our generation, never visited the ship.

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“..one cubic metre of liquid hydrogen weighs 70kg vs. some 800kg per cubic metre of non- fossil diesel equivalent fuel (HVO or e-diesel). However, safely storing it on a vessel requires a double-walled cryogenic storage tank (a large very well-insulated cooling box in a dedicated room. Together, it takes eight to ten times more space to store hydrogen than the energy equivalent in diesel fuel.

In total, the cryogenic fuel tank that holds 92 m2 (some 4 tonnes) of hydrogen on BREAKTHROUGH, the sixteen compact fuel cells, their switchboard connection to the DC electrical grid, and the vent stacks for the escaping water vapour added four metres to the yacht’s original specification length. Importantly, the fuel cells developed for BREAKTHROUGH can also use easier-to-store methanol, a liquid fuel in ambient conditions. Steam reforms methanol into hydrogen before the electrochemical reaction in the fuel cell.”

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Don’t think it was ever Saudi King’s berth, but it was the private home berth for “Kingdom 5KR” owned by Saudi Prince Al Waleed.

[That yacht had been Khashoggi’s “Nabila”, then Big Orangey’s “Trump Princess”]

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My apologies. I must have mixed up my Saudi royals.

I was perfectly happy amongst the ‘not royal, just filthy rich’ group closer in. And the French do entertaining with a certain aristocratic style I first experienced with the French Navy and Foreign Legion whilst we were visiting Djibouti (which has few points on the places to visit scale) a few weeks earlier. Another good story for another time.

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… and she’s back in Antibes - way down the end

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The Uncle Scrooge *may have to waite a while to “just charter a tanker to follow them around".

Here is the only LH2 tanker yet in existance:

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Suiso Frontier, the world’s first liquid hydrogen tanker, docked at Kobe terminal for loading (source: Kawasaki Heavy Industries)

Source: Riviera - News Content Hub - Hydrogen tankers: from first mover to full fleet

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Nothing new in all of this. In Washington state we have a historic figure, Robert Moran, who reminds me of all this. In the early 1900s he got fabulously rich making battleships for Uncle Sam, in Seattle. Then, when Moran was in his forties, his doctor told him he had only a couple of years more to live. Bad heart.

So he decided to retire and spend his last days making a huge estate for his family to live on when he was gone. He bought a huge part of Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands, including a couple of lakes, his own bay, and part of a mountain, and built an enormous mansion. Today it’s all a state park and worthy of a visit.

He did this all in a couple years, because that was the type of guy he was. And it was a race against time before he died.

Trouble was, he didn’t die. He kept on living. He would live a long time. And he got bored.

So, he decided to make a super yacht in his backyard. The backyard being 100s of acres in size. First, he built a three-story tall machine shop worthy of a shipyard, also in his backyard.

Then he built, or rather oversaw a small army of workers, building the super yacht. No expense spared. The finest of everything. His plan was to sail her around the world.

When he was finished he took the yacht on a fishing trip in the Salish Sea, then ordered her anchored in his bay, where he could see her from his windows. But he never took her out again, though he lived another 20 years.

It was the building that was the fun part.

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Gawd! sounds like a Chief Engineer nightmare.

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She 390 foot long with a crew of 43. I guess 20 of that crew is in the galley, steward, medical & hospitality departments. So the other 23 remaining would be split between the deck, bridge & engine room departments? That seems way to thin for 390’ of boat considering the high expectations of those who buy megayachts. Also, the Chief Engineer probably spends more time answering to & coordinating with the Chief Steward compared to the captain. Any job on that ship probably is suited to the vast majority of professional mariners.

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Many of the larger super yachts have a master who also holds a degree in hotel management. The owners and charterers have one point of contact and that is him or her that is why they get the big bucks.

The chief engineer is left largely on their own and the chef, chief steward and second steward answer to the captain. The rest of the catering and deck crew work under the direction of the Bosun and leading hand for mooring and security .

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