It’s Friday, so I’m taking a tangent.
As some of you are aware, there is a particular breed of business book to which we are itchily, madly allergic, and that is the type we refer affectionately to as the Dude on a Yacht book.
The Dude on a Yacht book promises a life of luxury, usually via a photo of a smiling (or fiercely staring into the camera, for extra butch points) white guy enjoying the leisure his entrepreneurial efforts have bought him. Often it’s a CEO biography, though not always. Dude on a Yacht books may be good, bad, or indifferent; really, their defining feature is a combination of aspirational cover art and a title that promises insights into how to access the inner circle of privilege occupied by the world’s most financially successful businessmen. A few examples are shown at left.
Emira and I have chuckled over a lot of these covers and enjoy a good example when we find one (so feel free to send us your favourites!). But… I think I may have found the ultimate Dude on a Yacht. And he’s not on the cover of a book.
Well, actually — he is. But it’s not a very sexy looking book, and I don’t think I’d file it in the above-mentioned category. However, the dude in question (Paul Allen, that is, of Microsoft fame) owns the world’s largest privately owned yacht, named “Octopus,” so I feel like he deserves a special mention.
I mean, check out these specs:
Octopus cost Allen over US$200 million and has Permanent crew of 60, including several former Navy Seals. It has two helicopters, seven boats, a 10 man submarine and a remote controlled vehicle for crawling on the ocean floor.
There’s so much more in this slideshow, it will simply blow your mind.
He should really get himself a fresh photo shoot for his book cover, stat.
[Edited to add: Thanks to the friend who pointed out that this post would not be complete without the official Dude on a Yacht video…]
4 responses so far ↓
1 peesoop // Aug 3, 2009 at 2:50 pm
That’s not a yacht. That’s a ferry. I’m not keen on it m’self… where’s the…the.. well, the intimacy? I mean, you could LOSE people on that beast and where’s the fun in that?
‘Has anyone seen mother?’
‘Er, I think I saw her on the aft helipad on Thursday… no, wait, it was Wednesday. No it was Thursday. Damn it all – when were we last near Bermuda??”
Nah. I’ll keep my pedalo if it’s all the same to Mr Microsoft.
2 Chookooloonks // Aug 9, 2009 at 10:08 am
Hysterical.
3 peesoop // Aug 11, 2009 at 2:53 pm
“I’m on a PEDALO, mother hubbards!!”
Hmm, I’m not sure that’s working actually. Good vid though!
4 Chantal // Aug 13, 2009 at 8:29 am
Apparently.. the origin of the name Octopus comes from the owner finding out during construction that there was another mega-yacht being built that would be bigger (this was to be the biggest in the world at the time) so he had the boat amended, increasing the size by eight feet, making it the biggest private mega-yacht in the world, and creating the name, Octopus.
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