My Other Yacht is a ....

by Sail-World Cruising on 17 Jul 2007 Once you've owned one of the 100 largest yachts in the world, once your Lamborghinis and Porsches come in collections rather than items, once you need an airport full of hangars for your jet fleet, and you've even spent the $38million for a guided tour to a Russian Satellite Space Station – what on earth do you spend your money on? - why a submarine of course! Why get wet snorkelling, when you can just order your yacht to dive down to examine the coral?

It is estimated that these days there are about 100 private submarines lurking about the ocean floors, getting in the way of whales and dolphins. Some are as small as the two man variety, designed so that you can slip into the sub for a look sea below when tired of floating about on your megayacht on the surface. The ultimate is the 65metre variety, with four decks and 470 square metres of living space.

It's terribly hard to find out who the owners of these lurking vessels are. Many of them are built by Seattle based US Submarines. According to Bloombergs, a question to the President and founder of the company, Bruce Jones, is a little off-putting: ``If I told you, I'd have to shoot you,' he says, referring to his client list.

However, there are some clues.``If you can find my submarine, it's yours,' says Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of two of the top ten mega yachts in the world, and that's all he WILL say.

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., is a little more direct in his approach. He warns his boat builder that 'Loose Lips Sink Ships.', whatever that's supposed to mean when you are talking about submarines. However, there is a very strong rumour that his submarine is – yellow!

The submarines range from about $15 million to $80 million, which is cheap when you compare it to the cost of the ultimate war submarine, the U.S. Navy's Virginia-class New Attack Submarine, which costs $2.4 billion. To be fair, included in this price are 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which, I hasten to add, do not come with any of the private subs.

So if you are happy to go without the weapons, and the price hasn't put you off yet, here's a list of some of the available subs on the market at the moment.

Triton 650

Designed for launch and recovery from megayachts, this two-person mini-submarine, the modest version, and one of the least expensive on the market, has the capacity to dive to 200 metres.







Nomad 1000

The 20-meter (65 ft.) long Nomad has a luxurious interior similar in size to that of an executive aircraft. Developed as the first diesel-electric tourist submarine, it is available in 24- and 36-passenger configurations.






Seattle 1000

At 36-meters (118 ft.) in length, the Seattle is the submarine equivalent of a luxury yacht with spacious staterooms on two decks. a three-story-tall vessel with five staterooms, five bathrooms, two kitchens, a gym, a wine cellar and a 30- foot-long by 15-foot-wide observation portal. It has a range of 3,000 nautical miles.




Phoenix 1000

The ultimate personal transportation device, 65 meters (213 ft.) in length with 470 square meters (5000 sq. ft.) of interior space on four levels






Finally, if the idea appeals to you, but you think you might come up a little bit short on the payments, US Subs, the manufacturers of the Seattle, suggest the following for budding entrepreneurs:

Purchase the sub, rent out rooms by the night, and market it as 'a submarine version of the Orient Express.' They recommend that a 24-hour trip be priced around $2500 per person.