Turnkey yachting - Owning a luxury yacht hasn't been so easy before!

Owning a luxury yacht is one of the newest fashion among millionaires. I know you got a lot of money floating around, but you are not in the mood to go through all the trouble, which are usually involved with owning their own boat.

yachting

Most owners only use their yacht a few times a month. A boat, besides being expensive, idle assets, requires an enormous amount of time and money to maintain. So, fractional ownership, it seems only proper solution to this problem. Complete yachting is now a reality thanks to SeaNet Company, which removes all the typical hassles of preparing the boat for use in conjunction with clean afterwards.

modern yachts

All you have to do is write a check to SeaNet, and they will take care of the rest. They will take care of all things, including stocks, management or maintenance. You have to buy membership of SeaNet, and you will get access to their growing fleet of Sunseeker yachts at a different price levels. SeaNet program and includes five-star concierge, crew, captain, slip fees, insurance and others. they offer sumptuous yachts, 60 Manhattan, 66 Manhattan and 62 predators.

Speed boats

Depending on the size of the vessel and cruising route, SeaNet offers shares in 1 / 6, 1 / 3, 1 / 4 or 1 / 2 interest. Owners may own more than one shares have more time available each month.

Owners have the opportunity to plan an excursion (seven within fourteen days of travel) to a year earlier. Prices range from $ 278,500 to 1.39 million U.S. dollars depending on the style of the yacht and shares you have.

Luxury yacht maker Ferretti launches “Marine Legends”

Ferretti Yachts today launched two luxury waterfront residences, "Ferre Luxury Beach Residence" and "Pershing Luxury Beach Residence". In Freehold property project mark as "Marine Legends" is estimated at 1.6 billion U.S. dollars U.S.. Not surprisingly, this development is located on the pier and offers nearly two million square meters area marketable.

Dubai yachts

ACI Real Estate have been selected for sale to agents and developer. "This transaction has furthered the vision we have at ACI Real Estate, which is to bring world class luxury living in Dubai. The Ferretti Group is a leading luxury brand for decades. We at ACI Real Estate want to blend Ferretti's expertise into our real estate projects and provide our customers with the best of both worlds, "said Robin Lohmann, Managing Director of ACI Real Estate.
luxury yacht interior
Vincenzo Cannatelli, CEO of Ferretti SpA, added: "The whole world is coming to Dubai and most-ACI Real Estate we have found our match. This strategic venture is a result of mutual professional admiration and recognition of our common values."
speed boats
In the twin tower Ferretti Luxury Beach Residence and Pershing Luxury Beach Residence will offer one channel yards and sea views, pool, fitness center, sauna and jacuzzi, but something else: eight luxury yachts will be permanently based on each property for residents to hire at preferential prices. These yachts will be purchased by ACI Group. In the twin tower Ferretti Luxury Beach Residence will have over 44 floors each, while the Pershing Luxury Beach Residence will have over 41 floors, along with individual retail units at ground floor of each tower. Ferretti Yachts and Pershing Yachts designers are planning to design common areas of the towers.

Nice naked womens on luxury yacht
As far as I can remember, this is the first time a boat maker has ventured ashore in this way and I can only hope that their standard sales gimmick of three bikini-babes covered as standard equipment with every new yacht will be applied to condominium .

Seabourn Spirit 2009 Food & Wine Cruise - Doing It The Iamboatman Way

Note:  As the internet was effectively non-functioning during most of the cruise I have posted a number of blog entries all at once.  Be sure to start at the bottom and work you way up to this one.

The next day, our last, was Trieste, Italy. I had booked a tour which was to highlight some castles and local wines, but I was pretty toured out after our Slovenian guide, Montenegro being such a disappointment and Otapaji being just OK, so I cancelled and went with another couple for a walk around town.

Trieste is a beautiful town with wonderful architecture, lots of cafes and shopping. In a typical Iamboatman manner, we looked at this café and that café for a place to have a coffee. And then I saw “the place”. It was an ancient wine bar called La Tecia which was oozing: rounded brick ceilings, wooded arched supports and tiny tables crammed into dimly lit spaces. We ordered two local wines (Fantin Nodar Friulano Tocai - a white; and Lis Neris Bottigua - a cab) and a platter of salami, prosciutto and fresh ham and another of a variety of cheeses.

There we sat for a couple of hours thinking, “This is the best”. It was. I had another great food & wine moment and it was with my wife and good friends happened upon by accident and enjoyed feeling just a little bit like a local.

A bit of power shopping thereafter (always dangerous after drinking wine for two hours!) and it was time to return to the Seabourn Spirit to pack and for a final soak in the forward spa watching the world go by and talking about nothing.

A final excellent dinner with great service and wonderful food (duck breast), coupled with a nice Cote de Rhone and it was off to the Club as it was a bit too windy for the Sky Bar. David, a proper butler (and a quirky, but charming young man), prepared my final cigar – and he is magic with it – and it another memorable moment on deck, watching the seagulls and terns fishing in the water lit by the lights of the Seabourn Spirit as we sailed out of Treiste.

It was, alas, time for the 2009 Goldring Travel Food & Wine Cruise to come to an end.

I will provide some final thoughts separately.

Seabourn Spirit 2009 Food & Wine Cruise - Food, Wine and, ummm, Music

The second part of our day in Koper, Slovenia was the private Ensemble Experience which was a tour of Piran followed by a wine tasting at Santomas vineyards. The town tour was hampered by a guide that talked way, way, way too much. That, however, became a distant memory when we arrived at the winery. Santomas is breathtakingly beautiful and, remarkably, the present facility is only two years old (and a labor of love by its owner). Everything from the pressing area to the restaurant where we had our tasting was done first class.

Not expecting much, I was really blown away by the quality of these moderately priced wines. I won’t bore you with the varieties other than to note that each of the five wines (one white, three red, one dessert) were interesting in their own rights and were presented with a really nice offering of prosciutto, a variety of cheeses, olives, local bread and, for the dessert wine, pastries.

A first class experience.

There was one funny/frustrating aspect: The tour company provided us with a Slovenian folk music trio that sang and played a bit too loudly for the entire tasting. When the tasting was over they hopped in their car and headed to…the Seabourn Spirit for the barbeque. That resulted in our group listening to about three hours of Slovenian folk music…and a serious headache! But I digress.

We arrived back at the ship just in time to wash up and hit the deck for the always great Deck Barbeque albeit we were still at the dock. The highlight was the Fonda sea bass. It was so good (and I am a picky fish eater) I shunned most of the offerings and had two fish! Give credit to the fish and to the Seabourn galley staff. They could have easily ruined the fish by being fancy or not giving it enough respect. Instead, with Bjoern’s guidance, it was perfection!

After a bit of the Rock the Boat show on deck, I called it an early evening retreated to my suite for about 45 minutes just to have some quiet. Like I was being set up, at returned to the Sky Bar at 11:00 pm for the sailaway…and like a bad joke the Slovenian folk music started again. Fortunately, the ship was starting to move and the music faded away. A nightcap under the stars and all was right with the Seabourn world.

Between visiting the Fonda aquaculture farm, the Santomas wine tasting and the Deck Barbeque it was a truly fantastic day.

Seabourn Spirit 2009 Food & Wine Cruise - Its About The Fish!

Chef Bjoern arranged for a private inspection of a aquaculture farm outside Koper, Slovenia. Having a background in marine biology and worked as a biological aid for the United States’ National Marine Fisheries Service I was quietly very excited for this. I think the others were more like, “OK. That’ll be ‘interesting’”.

Our “guide” for our journey to the Fonda aquaculture farm in Piran, Slovenia, Irena Fonda, was a bit quiet at first, but this charming woman with a doctorate in molecular biology, came alive when we reached what we would learn is her family business. We boarded an ordinary 10 passenger pontoon boat with a bag of fish food, some water and what I thought was three bottles of champagne improperly iced upside down in a bucket of ice along with a very nice blue shopping bag.

The process of raising the fish(sea bass or locally known as branzino), which takes five (5) years was explained and it was emphasized that the nets are free of all antibiological agents which would kill organisms trying to grow on the nets, that would also introduce poison to the fish. As such a very labor intensive process of net replacement and manual cleaning is required. Also, rather than the fish being fed lots of low quality feed and artificial colors which would cause them to get fat (and thus to market weight, but at low quality, quicker) and look pretty (think color added to farmed salmon), these fish are fed less more often and the amounts eaten are measured every day. (My wife now understands why I have always said do not purchase farm raised fish: It isn’t terribly healthy, it looks funny to me and it doesn’t taste that good either.)

After stopping at the large round nets (each of which were pristine) with increasing larger fish we had a surprise: a very rare sighting of a young sea turtle. They were more excited than we were as they had never seen a sea turtle in their waters. Just a little bonus and a harbinger of the magic that was about to happen.

Tied off to one of the nets a presentation was made. The bag contained a Styrofoam box with a nurtured five year old sea bass fish beautifully presented and protected all of which was explained as to everything from the wrapping to the date tagging (so you know the fish is fresh) to the frozen gel used (as ice would melt and injure the meat). While the fish was then being prepared for some sashimi tasting (which was incredible) we savored gently smoked sea bass.

Oh, yes, that upside down champagne was actually a great treat. It was a Refusco wine prepared in a champagne style. The cool thing about the wine is that it is not purged in the process as is done with champagne, so the sediment is allowed to settle in the neck of the bottle, which is then opened. underwater (quite a feat!). It was a delicious and paired, surprisingly, well with the fish. (Those of the “You don’t drink red wine with fish” really have it wrong!!)
Then as we started to have the sashimi it was explained that Fonda also presses its own olive oil from its private grove and it also uses salt from the salt farm right next door…and it was all being served to us.

After a tour of the salt farm, which still produces the salt by hand processes that date back hundreds of years, Bjoern, the Seabourn chef then arranged for some sea bass to be delivered to the ship for the Deck Barbeque that evening.

What an experience!

Seabourn Spirit 2009 Food & Wine Cruise - Split, Croatia: Shopping With the Chef & Chilling Out Seabourn Style

Unfortunately there was a failure of the motherboard for the internet satellite system on board, so posting my blog as it was happening just wasn’t possible. Nonetheless, here it is…and know that it was, in the end, one of the best cruises I have ever taken.


We started our day in Split, Croatia, after a very pleasant breakfast at the Veranda, Shopping With the Chef. Because the interest was so great, Seabourn expanded the number that could go to about 30, which was a bit much, but which also had Seabourn arrange for a guide to give us a short walking tour. After a brief orientation it was off to the fish market.

It was a bit lean in the smallish fish market with clear signs of overfishing taking its toll. It was especially sad to see small soles that haven’t had even a chance to breed being offered for sale. The Chef purchased some sea bass and sardines as there wasn’t much else of interest. (The sardines wound up in the Veranda for lunch the next day and the sea bass became part of the Chef’s Tasting Menu.)

It was then a short walk through the really interesting and pretty walled city to the vegetable and fruit market. Things were much more robust there and it seemed that everyone was selling tiny Italian plums. (Local grapes were delivered to everyone’s suites later in the day.)

We thanked the Seabourn staff as it was time to explore more of Split, a town I would readily come back to. It really just felt like a very friendly place to be and it was just enjoyable. We stopped in a café and noticed that the food really wasn’t very exciting, consisting of some pretty standard fare…and pizza was offered everywhere. (I had given, as “pillow gifts”, a book on Croatian cooking, so I knew it was not going to be a world class experience, but rather more one of comfort foods.) We ordered some Croatian beer (I do not recall the brand) and, to be honest, it was awful. The aftertaste stayed with me literally for hours. That pretty much shot any chance at discovering the Croatian wines (and I heard from others on the tour I was originally going to take that the wines really were pretty ordinary).

After a very relaxing day in a beautiful place we headed up to the forward whirlpool – having joked with Jaco, the bar waiter, very early in the day that we would be there at 3:30 p.m. – and at precisely 3:30 p.m. he arrived with glasses and a bottle of champagne. A few of us spent the rest of the afternoon in the forward spa. This was followed by another bottle of champagne and the ever important supervision of the locals fishing (and watching one particularly curious cuttlefish who seemed interested in everything). And then it was time for the sailaway. It was, simply, a Seabourn afternoon.

I received a note when I returned to my suite that the ultra-luxury wine tasting and lunch at the best restaurant in Kotor, Montenegro has been cancelled due to lack of interest and, with virtually no time to arrange anything else, I was kind of stuck. But, alas, I had a plan…and would be very happy if it worked. It was then a wonderful dinner and an evening sitting under the stars enjoying it all with friends…a great Seabourn evening.

Seabourn Spirit 2009 Food & Wine Cruise - Meeting Up With The Big Sister & Chef's Surprises

The next day in Kotor, Montenegro, started out with a bit of excitement. When I stepped into the Veranda for breakfast the Seabourn Odyssey was berthed right behind us. It was great to see her again and also to say hello to some of my clients who were enjoying a cruise on her.

An interesting note for those of you who think she is too large: I have two couples sailing with me who thought the same thing…until they saw her in person. They are now very excited to cruise with her on the 2010 Goldring Travel Food & Wine Cruise. And those on the Seabourn Odyssey concerned that their experience would be less personal came away with a very positive and personal experience.

It was then off to walk around the old city and, possibly, walk up the incredibly steep hillside to a church and fortress. My first impression while I was walking through the local market was one similar to that I had when visiting the Ukraine: It could be really nice, but there is just a sort of slightly not maintained, slightly dirty, less than energetic, feel about the place. There was not a restaurant or café that attracted me and the shops were very ordinary. Others complained about beggars, though I didn’t see any.

We did start the climb up the absurdly steep hill, but we knew starting out making it to the top is something you have to really want to do. When we reached the point where it said 2€ per person, we stopped and quickly retreated to level ground and a more comfortable walk.

Now for my plan: I decided to try to make my own wine tasting and gourmet lunch at the restaurant we were to visit. So we walked over to it and it was allegedly all booked out for a group that was not for the Seabourn Spirit or the Seabourn Odyssey. Curious...and I am looking into this.

At that point I didn’t want to further impact my day, so we returned to the Spirit for a nice lunch at the Sky Bar, a sleep and a soak in the forward spa. After beating my head against the wall, not knowing of the seriousness of the internet issue, it was time for a an exceptional Chef’s Tasting Menu for dinner.

The next day was a late rise as it was a Marina Day in Truike Bay, Croatia. After a dip in the marina’s pool, it was a banana ride followed by kayaking where a friend and I somehow wound up pulling our wives’ paddleboat around the bay. It was then a Sky Bar lunch.

My group was then given a private tour of the galley with Bjoern, the executive chef, and some very nice wine and caviar. Really having the time to understand all that goes on in the galley puts things into some perspectives you would never think of. I will write more about this another time, as it really is a topic unto itself, but just know that I will never arrive for dinner at 9:00 p.m. again as it really puts the galley into chaos. (It is not improper, but it just isn’t something I would do because I would feel guilty.)

After our tour it was a bit of relaxation and boy would we need it for our day in Koper, Slovenia was jam packed! Bjoern let us know we had another surprise in store: An early morning private experience before our afternoon Ensemble tour.