
The Lonely Life of a Yacht Influencer - microtherion
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-lonely-life-of-a-yacht-influencer
======
giarc
I'm reminded of an old colleague of mine. She worked as a food safety
inspector for Cara Foods that service many airlines around the world. They
have kitchens in airports and prepare the food for airlines. She would travel
the world inspecting the kitchens. She would always travel business class and
had an IATA pass/badge and had the ability to bump business class passenger
and hold the plane. She wasn't paid well but was young, single and loved the
idea of travelling the world in swank business class. She quickly learned two
things, her company wasn't willing to give her time to take day trips into the
city (so her sightseeing was airport hotels and the underbelly of
international airports), and more importantly, flying economy feels really bad
once you've spent time on business class flights.

So for this influencer, I imagine it's tough to live a regular life once he is
forced to. If he wants to vacation with his friends, they are renting a 20ft
boat rather than a 200ft boat.

~~~
goostavos
That echos my experience really closely. I spent almost 4 years traveling
twice per month with each trip lasting between 3-6 days, and each day, due to
work schedules, being 12+ hours long. At the end of those 4 years, I couldn't
tell you anything about the actual cities I visited, but I can still describe
the intricate details of the hotel/conference centers in which I basically
lived.

~~~
Scoundreller
But how many million tax-free hôtel and airline points did you accumulate?

~~~
ac29
A million miles is a lot. If you flew roundtrip from New York to London twice
a month, it would take over 6 years to have flown a million miles:
[http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=JFK-LON](http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=JFK-LON)

~~~
CydeWeys
You don't need to fly close to a million miles to get a million
"miles"/points. Miles are based on spend now, not on distance traveled, so
it's easy to rack up a million when you're flying business or first class.

As an example, let's say you're a regular business traveler flying a $5k
business class round-trip from NYC to London on American Airlines. You have
the highest status level which gives you a 120% bonus on miles earned. Each
dollar spent on the flight thus earns you 11 miles, so that one round-trip is
worth 55k miles. Source: [https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-
program/miles/aadvantage-...](https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-
program/miles/aadvantage-currency.jsp)

But wait, there's more. Of course you also bought the $5k flight on your AA
credit card, which gives another 2 miles per dollar spent, which puts the
total up to 65k miles earned for one 7k mile round-trip flight. Or maybe you
put it on your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which gives you 3X Chase Ultimate
Rewards points for travel spending, so 55k AA miles + 15k UR points. Now
imagine that you're doing this trip several times per month and the
miles/points add up very quickly; you can get to a million in no time.

~~~
skellera
What airlines include card miles in your million miles count? Having a million
miles is different from the million miles status which seems to be based on
the first kind of miles you mentioned.

~~~
CydeWeys
That wasn't the asked question though. And getting a million flown miles isn't
all it's cracked up to be; you get a lower level of status guaranteed for
life, but given that you're still actively traveling frequently for business
you're gonna have a much better level of status anyway. And it all depends on
the airline anyway.

American Airlines, for example, only gives you gold status (the lowest level)
for life at 1M miles.

~~~
heelix
Delta did lifetime silver for 1M miles, which was their lowest level. They did
give a nice Tumi suitcase at the 1M (or was it 2M?) actual miles mark, but I
don't think it does much outside of a normal high status... probably zone one
boarding, or something like that. Once you hit diamond status, upgrades
domestically were pretty common. International... not so much. The flexibility
was the really nice thing - they always would go out of their way to get you
on the route you wanted if possible.

With status multipliers (but flying meat space), the most I ever hit was 623k
miles in a year. I suspect it was close to 300k 'real' miles. Our travel
person was booking 'round the world' tickets to save money at that point.

------
stcredzero
_He now made a “comfortable middle-class living,” but sitting there with me in
the cabin, fretted that it could go away at any time. “This is me working a
little network I’ve built using someone else’s social media platform,” he
said. “If Instagram changes its algorithm slightly, there goes a bit of my
business. If Instagram disconnects some of the tools I use to build and
monitor my account, there goes a bit of my business. And if Instagram goes
away and is replaced by something newer and better, I need to get there first,
just like I did with this account. If I don’t, I’m done. I’m totally dependent
on a platform that’s completely out-of-control.”_

I think this man is a bit of a canary in the coalmine for the rest of us. Even
for those of us who do not depend on social media for our income, enough of
human communication is wrapped up in social media to affect our lives in a
significant way, whether we want it to or not.

~~~
Waterluvian
Can you elaborate? The only social media I do is here and I'm not seeing the
connection.

~~~
stcredzero
_The only social media I do is here and I 'm not seeing the connection._

To me, HN is a refuge!

------
abainbridge
This made my day. I am now totally sure I don't want a super yacht. If I did
have one, I'd want the toilets to be clean and the dining room to serve good
dinner.

On the picture that asks if I want the yacht, the classic car or the private
jet, I found myself thinking that I'd like to build a replica of the classic
car. That'd be way more fun than owning any of the three and would save about
99% of the budget. I guess I missed the point.

~~~
stackola
I'll take a hotwheels version of the car, and the rest in cash.

Who spends $50 million on a car?

~~~
whatshisface
> _Who spends $50 million on a car?_

Someone who has so much money that $50M feels the same to them as the price of
the hotwheels feels to you. (Also, people without that much money who are
impulsive).

~~~
C1sc0cat
I don't think there are $50 million cars even one of the GT40's and Ferraris
that raced at Lemmans a lot less than that.

~~~
stackola
Yea, the car displayed (250 GTO) sold for $48 million at auction in 2018

~~~
C1sc0cat
Ah I sit corrected - I seem to recall one of the Lemans Ferraris was $16 Mil

------
jonnycomputer
Edited:

In my preferred world, no single person would be able to afford a large yacht.
However, I have no problem with yachts per se. Yacht enthusiasts could join
cooperatives, for example. Just like I think its silly that individuals can be
so wealthy that they can afford massive private golf courses, but think that
people who want to play golf should be able to join a golf club.

“But for the guy who owns the Eclipse [Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch],
that’s not the point. He’s not chartering that thing out. It has a submarine
and a missile detection system. See, the power of owning a magnificent yacht
like that is in how you’re telling the world that you’re beyond buying and
selling. You have more money than there is money to have. You’ve transcended.
There are no frontiers left for you on dry land. I mean, true peace is only at
sea.”

~~~
protomyth
And that attitude got us a luxury sales tax in the 90's that destroyed a lot
of highly paid workers building luxury yachts. A lot of craftsman-style jobs
rely on rich folks. A lot of manufacturing jobs rely on rich folks. Private
golf courses need people.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/07/16/h...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/07/16/how-
to-sink-an-industry-and-not-soak-the-
rich/08ea5310-4a4b-4674-ab88-fad8c42cf55b/?utm_term=.6cbe1c746431)

~~~
justin66
This was quite a popular media thing among conservatives who were torqued
about the evils of the 10% luxury tax in the early nineties. It was always
about the yachts and yacht industry, too. It was the _opposite_ of persuasive
because in reference to the luxury tax, they were _always_ going on about the
freaking yachts. I imagine in the end, it did little more than make most
normal people conscious of how little they cared about the yacht industry.

The way the repeated messaging was effective in getting everybody talking
about the same (ridiculous) thing was an early taste of what was to come in
right-wing media.

 _The yacht costs $2,995,000, but, thanks to the current luxury tax that kicks
in at $100,000, you have to fork over another $289,500. Rich people aren 't
happy about paying this extra money. Even if they can afford it, they think
it's unfair. And in some cases, they're refusing to pay it -- simply by
refusing to buy new boats and planes._

Funny stuff.

~~~
CharlesColeman
> This was quite a popular media thing among conservatives who were torqued
> about the evils of the 10% luxury tax in the early nineties. It was always
> about the yachts and yacht industry, too. It was the opposite of persuasive
> because in reference to the luxury tax, they were always going on about the
> freaking yachts.

>> The yacht costs $2,995,000, but, thanks to the current luxury tax that
kicks in at $100,000, you have to fork over another $289,500. Rich people
aren't happy about paying this extra money. Even if they can afford it, they
think it's unfair. And in some cases, they're refusing to pay it -- simply by
refusing to buy new boats and planes.

> Funny stuff.

Hilarious, and so transparently selfish and self-serving. Something tells me
that if you can afford to spend $3 million on a conspicuous-consumption item
like a yacht, _you 'll still find $3.3 million affordable_. They just don't
like paying taxes. I'd bet they'd have to raise the luxury tax to a level
quite a bit higher than 10% to negatively affect the yacht industry.

Even the tax did hurt the yacht industry, the important question is: _what did
people spend their money on instead?_ If a tax kills the yacht industry, but
strengthens industries more beneficial to the common good, I think that's a
positive result.

~~~
pradn
The incredible depreciation of yachts is a much bigger part of the cost of
owning a yacht. A million-dollar yacht will go down to like 200k if that after
10 years.

~~~
noir_lord
Boats are holes in the water into which you throw money.

------
TrackerFF
The cross-posting and multiple accounts strategy is rampant on IG. I have two
major hobbies (very unrelated), and very much the same there.

It's kind of annoying, because in the end, there's no stylistic difference. So
my IG feed gets bombarded with content from the same handful of people. Gets
old real quick.

~~~
RankingMember
I have to think that what basically amounts to spam will bring about a quality
vs quantity tipping point for the platform and ultimately cause people to
abandon it if not mitigated.

~~~
taude
I've been pretty aggressively unfollowing accounts in Instagram. I kind-of
wish they'd create a "list" feature, but I'm OK with just cutting it down to
my core group of friends. When I want to see the stuff of the influencers,
other things I only need in small doses, I go to the search and look at
hashtags or "videos I might like".

Ideally, to me, my social network would be a small group of people I know and
love.

------
janlaureys
So this guy has 800k followers, but most pictures only get 5k likes? I feel
like I know where he got most of his following. I also don't get who he's
trying to influence. Which millionaire is going to decide to buy a specific
yacht because they saw an Instagram picture of it ?

~~~
gambiting
So I don't know a thing about yachts, but I know a thing or two about really
expensive cars. And the interesting thing is that 90% of buyers for cars
$200k+ don't even try them out before buying. There are plenty of buyers who
literally phone the dealership(or their assistant does) and they just make a
phone order, wire the money, and they maybe come over to pick up the car
unless it's delivered to them directly. The guess in the industry is that
those people literally see an article or an ad for a new Lambo(or whatever)
and they just buy one on an impulse. If they don't like it they'll just buy
something else, doesn't matter. I can only imagine that it's somewhat similar
with Yachts - you see something cool on instagram, you want it.

~~~
iguy
I can't find the source, but I read somewhere that the average length of
ownership of yachts over 60ft is only 9 months. Or something, maybe it's 100ft
& 18 months. But astonishingly short.

Which points to these not being well-considered deeply researched purchases.
So I can see instagram playing a pretty big role.

~~~
michelb
I work for a client that designs and builds these 100MM+ yachts. They just
can't build them fast enough to keep up with demand. Some of their clients buy
a yacht, and sell it within a year for a hefty profit, then buy a new one,
repeat. There is quite a business in selling 'used' yachts simply because it
takes 2-4 years to build a new one.

~~~
iguy
Do you have any estimate of how many buyers actually want to sail around /
host parties, and for how many it's some kind of tax evasion / money
laundering scheme?

I don't know any details but always wonder about this... an easy-to-move
super-expensive asset, physically in Cannes but legally in the Bahamas...
there must be many schemes.

~~~
michelb
That kind of information is not something I'm privy to, but I'd say it's about
50/50\. It's definitely a laundering scheme for many. They deal with brokers
obviously, and those just want a cut, never mind where it came from. But they
deliver to a lot of Russian oligarchs. I bet there are tons of schemes.

------
patorjk
I wonder how much he makes, and how long he thinks this gig will last. He
wants to own a Yacht, but unless he's making a ton, I'm not sure how that
would be possible. Also, I'm not sure it's fair to say "lonely life", the
article mentioned that he has a family. If anything, he just seems like a
workaholic.

~~~
Casseres
I think it's very fair to say he lives a lonely life. He doesn't seem to have
much if any time away from the boats. I've sailed with many men that were so
loney, a good number of them had been married and divorced 4 or 5 times.
Others that had kids, rarely got to see them. That's one of the reasons why I
quit being a Merchant Mariner.

------
Animats
There's a step beyond owning a yacht and an airliner sized private plane -
having your own airport for your own private planes. The Google founders have
that. They lease 1000 acres of Moffett Field.

Brin was rumored to be building a giant dirigible at Moffett, but not much has
been heard since 2017.

------
tnorthcutt
_I’m always on the clock, always tracking my time on these expensive
wristwatches with the big clock faces. And so, I’m sure to never set foot on
dry land when I’m working.”_

This ending struck me as not how someone would actually speak in real life.
Too poetic to be an actual quote.

------
RickJWagner
Interesting hustle. I hope this article doesn't spoil his gig with his
clients.

~~~
notacoward
I hope it does. Don't get me wrong, I don't wish the guy ill. I hope he
expects that and was ready to get out anyway. But I also don't care much for
the "Instagram influencer" thing. It's a lot like political astroturf,
appealing to people's preference for real-person authenticity when there's
really none involved. The harder it becomes for people to make money at it,
the better off we'll all be.

~~~
puranjay
I mean if you're going to hustle someone, better to hustle the rich.

~~~
stronglikedan
> better to hustle the rich.

How so?

~~~
tom_
They've got more money.

~~~
stronglikedan
I still don't understand how that makes it _better_.

~~~
CharlesColeman
If you hustle someone who's poor, maybe they won't be able to make rent on
their primary residence next month.

If you hustle someone who's rich, they're probably still going to be rich next
month.

~~~
stronglikedan
"Maybe" and "probably" are a lot of assumptions. Hustling is a shitty activity
that isn't made _better_ by the status of the victim.

~~~
notacoward
Putting people in prison is a shitty thing too, but it's still better to do it
to people who are actually a menace to society. Something doesn't have to be
good in an absolute sense to be better (than an alternative) in a regular one.
Even if we're just dealing with statistical probabilities, hustling the rich
seems less egregious than hustling the poor. Would you have reacted so
strongly if the same sentiment had been expressed as "preying on the poor is
especially bad"?

~~~
stronglikedan
> Would you have reacted so strongly if the same sentiment had been expressed
> as "preying on the poor is especially bad"?

Nope. Preying on anyone is bad. A rich person could lose everything in a
hustle the same as a poor person. It's only the extent of the hustle that
makes it better or worse. E.g., hustling someone for a fraction of their
assets is better than taking all of their assets. The value of the assets is
not relevant.

~~~
notacoward
Do you seriously think taking half of a poor person's assets is the same as
taking half of a rich person's? I suggest a little reading on the concept of
marginal utility before making more simplistic moral statements.

------
WhompingWindows
Tangentially related but wow, these yachts are a pure expression of the
excesses of fossil fuel capitalism. These personal boats are extremely
inefficient, far more luxurious than 99.9% of human's domiciles, and they are
only utilized some small fraction of the year by their ultra-wealthy owners.
It's truly a shame that so much money is poured into such utterly wasteful
possessions, rather than scientific research, philanthropy, or mitigating
climate change.

~~~
bigpicture
> It's truly a shame that so much money is poured into such utterly wasteful
> possessions

When the yachts are idle, which is the majority of the time, they are
typically plugged into shore power and are thus just consuming electricity
from the grid. The electrical systems of these things are typically far more
efficient than your home because they must generate their own electricity when
at sea.

As for the wasting of money, you'll note that most of the cost of building a
yacht is labor because they are mostly one-off builds and can't take advantage
of automation. The article mentions that they cost 10% of the purchase price
per month in upkeep. The vast majority of those costs are labor.

These things are among the most efficient devices for transferring wealth from
the rich to the middle class. I wouldn't discourage their use at all.

~~~
iguy
This all is true.

I also wonder how much of the yacht business is really about money laundering
or tax-evasion. Like the art collecting world. If your company buys the boat
in one country, reflags it to Panama, sells it in Monaco the next tax year...
I don't know any details but I'm sure there's substantial room here to massage
what numbers you present to various tax collectors.

~~~
ehnto
Given how short the ownership tends to last (~9 months according to an
anecdote in this thread), I suspect moving or protecting money is probably
part of it somewhere. I also imagine a lot of it really is just wealthy people
spending for fun rather than profit.

~~~
iguy
Heh, my anecdote is famous already :)

Indeed, it's pretty hard to tell. Both seem entirely plausible and I just have
no way to guess how such buyers think.

------
kilon
I will take the money for the Yacht and buy a submarine. Enjoy the depth
before we completely ruin them via climate change and pollution.

------
Antonio123123
So basically the guy has ~1m followers on instagram, is helicoptered from
yacht to yacht and gets paid to hang out with rich people and wear expensive
watches, in the most beautiful places.

He also seems like a nice person.

In contrast author looks like a douchebag, portraying him in a bad light, as a
lanky lonely person, whose financial security is at the mercy of instagram.

To me author looks like a petty jealous person who wants to gain by
undermining others that are successful.

~~~
lawlessone
i didn't get that from the author at all. They both seemed pleasant.

~~~
brootstrap
I didnt get those vibes either. Wasnt it the yacht guy himself talking about
his dependence on instagram? Anyways, props to instagram guy for getting his
$$$ when he can. Dude is right, only a matter of time before instagram sucks
and there is some new hotness.

This whole social media influencer thing is kind of funny. Of course I think
it is trash and that likely some large percentage of followers are bots.
However, it does have some degree of power in certain circles. Just yesterday
on sports radio these talk show hosts (been working for 20+ years in
journalism) are quoting people on facebook/twitter etc because they have 70k
followers. The host literally said, I dont know who this guy is but he has 70k
followers and knows Manny Machado's dad.

~~~
Antonio123123
I got the feeling from: >lonely life >he’s kinda lost at sea >next to a lanky
guy >I began to wonder, “How could anyone spend their whole life doing this?”

and details, like him having a tiny cabin (you're on a boat).

And of course the fact that he published what seems to me a candid
conversation in such a light.

