Porto Cervo Marina, Sardinia
It’s always interesting to see how the other half lives. But in the week of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup we're not talking about the other half but the other 0.00001 per cent. There used to be a night spot here nicknamed “the millionaires’ club.” Today they have renamed it the “billionaires club.”
The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda was built in 1967 by the Aga Khan - the Paris-based head of the Nizari Muslims, the largest branch of the Ismaili Shi'a sect - and a few of his friends. Create an exclusive yacht club within a sleepy, sunny, rocky inlet and wait. One by one the big yachts came – the really big yachts: yachts with toy cupboards in the stern holds. In the place where smaller yachts store their mops, buckets and painters, the biggest maxis have sailing dinghies, power boats and canoes.
Search across the deck, beyond the godlike physiques of the so-called rock star sailors to the scruffiest incarnation of Harold Steptoe and you may well be looking at the owner.
What do the sailors do after a hard day’s racing in the Rolex Cup? A group of them I noticed were playing with remote controlled yachts. The rest were hitting the bar.
The super yachts range from sleek Wallys (I have always thought it must be something of an indignity to describe oneself as a Wally yacht owner) to the timeless J-class boats evoking the great days of sail.
The shirts may be scruffy but there’s no mistaking the accessories. Men with chunky watches, glistening like medieval body armour, heave their burdened wrists chest high with all the effort of a weight-training exercise.
If you want to give a maxi-yacht owner a hernia, just ask him the time. The yachts look unsinkable; you also get the impression they are fully recession-proofed.
“It’s a different world,” an event organiser confessed to me. “Before I discovered the big boat circuit I had no idea it existed. They keep an incredibly low profile,” she said.
There’s no stigma in being rich in this place. Not much advantage either. No matter how big you make your boat there will always be another that's bigger or taller with vast swathes of teak. They have a name for the rain forest here. They call it decking.
The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda was built in 1967 by the Aga Khan - the Paris-based head of the Nizari Muslims, the largest branch of the Ismaili Shi'a sect - and a few of his friends. Create an exclusive yacht club within a sleepy, sunny, rocky inlet and wait. One by one the big yachts came – the really big yachts: yachts with toy cupboards in the stern holds. In the place where smaller yachts store their mops, buckets and painters, the biggest maxis have sailing dinghies, power boats and canoes.
Search across the deck, beyond the godlike physiques of the so-called rock star sailors to the scruffiest incarnation of Harold Steptoe and you may well be looking at the owner.
What do the sailors do after a hard day’s racing in the Rolex Cup? A group of them I noticed were playing with remote controlled yachts. The rest were hitting the bar.
The super yachts range from sleek Wallys (I have always thought it must be something of an indignity to describe oneself as a Wally yacht owner) to the timeless J-class boats evoking the great days of sail.
The shirts may be scruffy but there’s no mistaking the accessories. Men with chunky watches, glistening like medieval body armour, heave their burdened wrists chest high with all the effort of a weight-training exercise.
If you want to give a maxi-yacht owner a hernia, just ask him the time. The yachts look unsinkable; you also get the impression they are fully recession-proofed.
“It’s a different world,” an event organiser confessed to me. “Before I discovered the big boat circuit I had no idea it existed. They keep an incredibly low profile,” she said.
There’s no stigma in being rich in this place. Not much advantage either. No matter how big you make your boat there will always be another that's bigger or taller with vast swathes of teak. They have a name for the rain forest here. They call it decking.
Labels: Aga Khan, Costa Smeralda, Harold Steptoe, Isma'ili, max-yacht, Nizari muslims, Porto Cervo Marina, Rolex
posted by Richard Donkin at
3:46 AM
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