What I know about Mega Yachts of the Rich and Infamous:

[SayItLoud]

They are floating safety deposit boxes. Hidden aboard are documents, massive amounts of currencies and the secrets the owners do not want revealed.

If anyone on DU has means and methods to get this to the right investigative parties...go to it.

[Ocelot II]

1. How do you know this?

[secondwind]

3. It is well known they stash their cash OFFSHORE... for starters........

[Ocelot II]

4. If it's well-known, why is this special information?

Maybe it’s true, but there are many reasons not to store valuable items on a boat.

[BlackSkimmer]

20. Lol, that's not what's meant by "offshore." nt

[Irish_Dem]

2. And they were escape pods.

The oligarchs knew this day might come.

[secondwind]

5. Yep... the yachts take them anywhere they want to go, they don't have to go to the airport, etc.

[Ocelot II]

14. They have to dock somewhere from time to time to refuel and reprovision.

These are look-at-how-rich-I-am things, mainly pleasure vessels, that probably spend very little time on the high seas or anywhere far away from ports where they can easily get fuel (which they need a lot of), food, booze, dope and hookers. If they're out on the open sea they can't show off to the other oligarchs and they are at the mercy of bad weather (no ship is unsinkable). Also, piracy is still a thing.

[Irish_Dem]

16. When you have that kind of wealth, it buys a lot of little bolt holes.

[Ocelot II]

19. Maybe, but can those little bolt holes accommodate and refuel a giant yacht?

And it's pretty hard to hide a ship anywhere these days, even if they turn off their emergency locator devices.

[Irish_Dem]

15. Exactly.

[barbaraann]

6. I hadn't thought of that.

I always just thought they were floating brothels.

[Irish_Dem]

17. That too.

[DFW]

7. Even I didn't know all that. I did know some of it, of course

I got the part that they float..................

[brush]

8. Anybody ever watch that show "Below Decks" about the crew members...

on luxury yachts...the captain, the head stewart, the stewarts, the cook etc., who keep the vessel clean and running day to day? It's quite a few of them and they have the run of the vessel and know where everything is.

The Russian super yachts have crews too. Guess the owners have explicit trust in them?

[Turbineguy]

9. They do not have the assets on board.

But they do have the means to control those assets on board. Those satellite antenna domes are for more than just watching teevee.

[brush]

10. Yeah, that was my point. I wouldn't have valuables...

of any great extent on board. I guess you can have state-of-the-art safes/vaults for cash etc. but still you gotta trust the crew...

[Turbineguy]

12. Too many pirates about these days too.

[Irish_Dem]

18. Yes I think so too.

[Thtwudbeme]

13. A friend of mine's daughter was a "steward" on that show-

I thought the show was tremendously stupid- and it made her look silly. No, I obviously never said that to my friend.

[OnDoutside]

11. There's a YouTube channel called Aquaholic which reviews a lot

of superyachts.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

21. My dog ain't hearing that whistle. n/t

[albacore]

22. Anything that big CAN be a liability.

It attracts attention. Extortion, piracy, blackmail...outright attack.
What's to keep some group from telling the owner...."Nice boat. Shame if something happened to it. Pay us."
Those things don't have sophisticated defenses, and people trained in underwater demolition could pop a small hole in one and tell the rest of the oligarchs that unless they pay up the next hole won't be small.
It's like those quasi-military, end-of-civilization compounds. Anybody who wants a lot of food, guns, and supplies knows right where they are, and the pickings are good.

[Buns_of_Fire]

23. Liquid assets, so to speak. nt