Rich people having trouble selling their yachts

[Liberal_in_LA]

You Think Houses Are a Slow Sell? Try a Yacht
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
Published: January 21, 2011

In boom times, yacht enthusiasts would order a new dream boat and keep their old one for the two or three years the builder needed to complete the new boat. Then, they would quickly sell the older yacht to impatient new millionaires and billionaires eager for their requisite status symbols.

But that equation changed with the financial crisis two years ago and took the superyacht market down with it.

Some of the wealthy have ended up like Peter A. Hochfelder, the principal and founder of Brahman Capital Management, a private investment firm in Manhattan. Mr. Hochfelder already owned a 134-foot Lürssen, named Blind Date, that was built in 1995. He commissioned a second boat in 2007, a 161-foot Trinity yacht, that he christened with the same name. It was completed in 2009.

Now, Mr. Hochfelder, who declined to be interviewed, has put both on the market, in the hope that he can sell at least one. He has been asking $9.5 million for the older yacht and $33 million for the new one, which is big enough to sleep 12 guests.

Maintaining a big yacht, after all, is expensive. Yacht specialists estimate that Mr. Hochfelder pays about $4 million a year to run his two boats. :nopity::nopity::nopity::nopity:

“It was a fool’s paradise,” said Malcolm Maclean, editor at BoatInternational.com, a Web site that tracks the yacht industry. Now, he said of the owners who cannot get rid of their boats, “They have caught very bad colds.” By one estimate, 300 new boats were sold annually worldwide from the mid-1990s until the 2008 collapse, when sales dropped to about 100 boats.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/business/22yachts.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=business&src=me&adxnnlx=1295665420-gxuKYIwE8Fy/8x0sf7D4mg

[Dawson Leery]

1. Perhaps they will drown with them?!?

:nopity:

[aquart]

2. Not enough other rich people, you greedy, unpatriotic bastards!

[liberal N proud]

3. Sucks to be them

NOT!

[Angry Dragon]

4. I should be able to get a pretty good deal then

I need to call my boat broker right away

[bobbolink]

5. They can give me one, then I can live there instead of in my car.

Too sensible, right?

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. way too sensible

[bobbolink]

13. but, but...but... they would get a huge tax break for it!

Oh, that's right... they already aren't paying taxes.

:nuke:

[Forkboy]

16. Pshaw...people like you have it easy.

No hassles, no daily work stress...what do homeless people have to feel bad about? You have a car to sleep in? Be happy!

This post brought to you by the RNC.

[bobbolink]

18. I've missed seeing you. You always remind me of what is important.

Car repair bill on the way.

:rofl:

:hi:

[Forkboy]

19. As do you.

:loveya:

[Kievan Rus]

7. They have no trouble selling their souls to further their mindless pursuit of material possessions

[gratuitous]

8. My God, will the madness ever end?!

What is the government doing about this? This is a travesty! An outrage! And the lamestream media observe a conspiracy of silence, the suffering yacht owners remain in oblivion, outside the public eye, their plight unnamed, unnoticed. Oh who, who I ask, will step forward in a latter day profile in courage, to rescue them from this horrible, nay devastating situation?

It is to weep. :cry:

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. lol n/t

[bobbolink]

15. Vexing, ain't it?

[RagAss]

9. I hope they don't commit suicide on them....!

[Motown_Johnny]

10. Insure them, dock them along the gulf and wait for a hurricane

problem solved

[texanwitch]

20. I wonder if some will catch fire.

Poor souls.

One guy said it cost $4 million to upkeep his boats.

Makes me cry.

:sarcasm: :nopity:

[Trajan]

11. Happiest Days for a boat owner ?

The day they buy the boat, and the day they sell the boat ...

I guess the rich can only be halfway happy now .... I am literally in tears ...

Let's take up a collection for them !

[Forkboy]

14. That has to suck.

[bobbolink]

17. yup.

:party: :toast: :bounce: :party:

[glinda]

21. They will just burn or sink them and claim insurance.

[WestSeattle2]

22. They're too big to sail; the government will bail them out. Oh wait -

was it fail or sail?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[krispos42]

23. This is absolutely tragic

[Lint Head]

24. Po itty bitty wee wich peepha

[Digit]

25. I wonder if incidences of fire will increase

I will keep an eye out.

[madinmaryland]

26. Fuck them. nt

[cascadiance]

27. At some point they'll make these yachts with armor and armaments...

... and then these bastards will be able to sell them to places like Iran, who'd like to have them to fight against us with. And if they keep them, they'll at least be able to fend off the hordes when the newer rendition of the French Revolution starts here in this country after they've sacked it that much more!