Andrey Melnichenko's $300 Million boat

[underpants]

The $300 million, 120 metre superyacht 'A', owned by 36 year old Russian billionnaire Andrey Melnichenko, berths in Valletta's Grand Harbour in this September 25, 2008 file picture. Multi-million-dollar superyachts sailing from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean for the European summer could be the next high-profile target of Somali pirates, security experts say. The megayachts, many measuring more than 100 metres (330 feet) and owned by some of the world's wealthiest people, tend to spend the northern hemisphere winter in the Indian Ocean or the Caribbean before relocating to the Mediterranean. Picture taken September 25, 2008. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

[WinkyDink]

1. Ya know, obscene wealth like this (stolen from the Russian people by criminal oligarchs) makes me

root for the pirates.
Or at least a tsunami.

[Dreamer Tatum]

13. I bet the pirates leave ships like that alone

I'm sure they're armed to the teeth. A Russian billionaire has to watch out for much worse than a few toothless pirates with GPS receivers and rocket propelled grenades.

[DCKit]

15. Not only the arms and personnel, but it looks almost impossible to board...

and designed that way for any billionaire willing to spend the extra $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[MrScorpio]

2. Damn, It Feels Good To Be a Gangsta nt

[DFW]

3. I guess if he can afford a tub like that,

Then he can also afford a permanent on-board commando unit of 25 guys trained and
armed to fight off any pirates until that thing's obviously super-charged engines
carry it out of danger.

[underpants]

5. KGB?

or would that be giving them a cut on both ends?

[DFW]

16. At age 36, he's a bit young to be ex-KGB

Maybe some family connections. Ex-KGB guys have in some cases made out big time. One group of them
made off with one of the five gold depositories of the former Soviet Union. Four of them held ingots
and recently coined gold, and the fifth one held all the old gold coins stored since czarist times,
plus what Stalin stole from the Spanish Republic in 1936, plus what the Red Army looted from the
Reichsbank in 1945, including tons of gold coins the Nazis looted from the rest of Europe (notably
Denmark). They were storing part of it in the UK in the early 1990s, and were selling coins out of
it ten years later via Las Vegas via Austin via Tampa and New York. They told one of their American
intermediaries that his (kindergarten age) children were already too old to see the end of the hoard
they were controlling.

So SOME ex-KGB guys made out just fine. Not all, I guess, as some of them seem to still be trying
to sell off containers of plutonium and other choice objects, and getting caught in stings every now
and then. The sales of plutonium we DON'T hear about are the ones that give me the creeps.

But there was a small group of well-connected post-USSR guys who knew the right people in the right
places at the right time, and had the imagination and daring to make fortunes for themselves. One can
only speculate about what those connections were, but this 36 year old guy was 18 when the USSR broke
up, and that's a bit young to have gotten anywhere in the KGB old boy hierarchy. There could always
be some family connections there, I have no clue about this particular guy. As we've seen with the
now-fallen Khodorkovsky, even those with connections are not immune to stepping on the wrong toes
and losing it all.

[Stevenmarc]

4. I doubt it will be a issue

People with $300 million to spend on a boat will have some serious armed security. It's a surprisingly ugly boat that looks like a tank which lends me to believe that security was more of a priority than style.

[LeftHander]

6. Judging from the lines...I doubt pirates will catch that one....

Looks quite speedy....

[cobalt1999]

7. Poor design for a yacht.

Yes, it looks like something from Star Trek, but a boat should have lots of open air spaces. That thing looks enclosed from waterline to cockpit. The bow area has no handrails or lounging area. The stern may be a little more open, but jeez, for $300 million, it's got less open air entertaining area than my sailboat.

[LisaL]

10. Maybe he is concerned about security.

Obviously enclosed boat is more secure.

[cobalt1999]

12. Yes, but it sort of defeats the whole purpose of boating

Boating all the beautiful, warm, sunny places and only being able to look out the windows at it all. Seems kind of pointless to go at all. He might as well buy a DVD of the islands and watch it from home.

[thereismore]

8. looks like a submarine. Rich people with no class have no sense of beauty. nt

[cobalt1999]

11. If he wants a sub, he should have bought a sub.

[underpants]

14. He probably has one of those too

:boring:

[LeftinOH]

9. That's the kind of yacht James Bond sneaks onto.. and it surely comes complete

with babes in bikinis, at least one pet panther, a steel-toothed goon (a la Richard Kiel), and several machine-gun totin' guards (all wearing matching uniforms -natch).

[KansDem]

17. Don't forget the gear required for making martinis!

Shaken, not stirred, of course...