Hearing that Link's private yacht has arrived, Claire pulls Neil from work early to Ozet.

Link's private yacht is going to arrive at around six p.m., and not only Claire is interested in his yacht, but even Hannah decides not to paint at Alyssa's today when she hears that he is going to see the big ship.

Link asks Jessica if she wants to go along.

Jessica is already pregnant. She doesn't care about her body and mind, everything is for the sake of the child in her belly. Anything that might be bad for the child, she won't touch. Although looking at the yacht should not be too much of a problem. But she still pushed it in case she stayed at home and prepared dinner for them.

Link and the others arrived at the docks at the mouth of the Quileyut River. Today, there are fourteen fishing boats at the pier. Some of them are operating at sea, but six of them are parked in the harbor.

For the safety of the yacht when it first enters the port, all the fishing boats staying in the harbor have sailed to some places upstream of Quilayute to moor.

It was the first time Claire had come to this pier. He got out of the car, saw the berth at the dock, smiled and said loudly to Link: "Maybe your yacht is not outstanding among the world's yachts, but I think your private port must be one of the best in the world." ”

Link smiled as he walked over to the dock leading Hannah, "But, this is actually a fishing dock. ”

Claire looked at the port, which was clearly divided into two different berths, and said with a smile: "That's also the largest private fishing wharf." "This marina is clearly not just built for fishing boats. He knew that Link had fourteen fishing boats. But the berth requirements for fishing vessels are not high. Depending on the width of the harbor, these fishing boats have to take advantage of two small berths, and then think that the harbor basin can be accommodated in two rows.

The berths closer to the coast are long, and the various dock facilities are supposed to be designed for large ships.

Because of the sea breeze, Neil spoke a little louder than usual: "Claire has always wanted a yacht of her own. But he was always just talking. ”

Link was a little strange and said with a smile, "He could have already bought it." ”

Claire said, "I thought I could afford it, too. But when I tried to buy it, I found out I couldn't afford it!" he said, spreading his hands. "I wanted to build a yacht the way I wanted it. But it's too expensive. The initial estimated design budget is $400 million, and the cost may be higher after the order is placed. That's obviously not something I can afford to play. ”

Neil was right, he did want a yacht. But not those 150-foot "mega" or "superyachts". If he wants to play with such a yacht, he can just rent one. What he wants is a real superyacht of at least four hundred feet.

He looked very helpless and said, "You know, before you want to own a 400-foot yacht, you have at least a net worth of more than five billion dollars. And I've never been more than $2 billion on paper. ”

Four hundred feet is actually not very long, just over 120 meters.

Link's custom-built yacht is only one hundred and nine meters long. And the yacht that Claire wants is one hundred and twenty-five meters to start. Link had to give him a thumbs up for his thoughts.

Of course, the private yachts of the world's super-rich are now getting bigger and bigger. At present, the largest one is about 180 meters, with a full load displacement of nearly 20,000 tons. It was nothing short of a private cruise. But those cruise ships actually have special purposes, such as entertaining guests, or for business entertainment.

"Although it has been suggested that the price of a yacht should not exceed 10% of a person's assets, that is not necessarily true. He remembered a Russian named Abu who once owned three superyachts, each worth more than half a billion euros, and the highest one seemed to be 700 million euros.

"Man, do you think it's you?" Claire said with a wry smile. "Generally speaking, after many people make money in the stock market, they will convert part of the profit into fixed assets, such as buying airplanes and yachts. But that doesn't include those of us who specialize in speculation. We will never have enough money in the speculative market. ”

They said as they walked slowly to the edge of the dock. Claire hasn't finished yet: "Moreover, most people's money is just numbers. You're different, your money is all real money. ”

There is a very pretentious saying that goes like this: "When you have more money, it's just a number." ”

That's actually a very true statement. The money of the vast majority of the richest is really just a number. Their wealth may be fixed assets, it may be the par value of shares. Those are all money, but they can only be represented by one number. There's actually no way to get your hands on it.

Not only are the wealth represented by stocks just numbers, but even the assets of stock speculators are just numbers. They don't know when their money will suddenly shrink. Neil and Claire's sudden bankruptcy is proof of this. Therefore, it is very wise to take out the money earned in the stock market to buy fixed assets. The money in the stock market, only what is used is your money!

"If you buy a yacht that big, how much does it cost to maintain and consume each year?"

"There's no definite number, it depends on how you play. However, a single refill should cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is also a high salary to hire a team to help you drive and maintain the yacht. Well, it certainly won't be less anyway. ”

So superyachts and mega private jets are real rich man games. Link wants to keep the private yacht he bought, and even if he doesn't use it, it costs millions of dollars a year.

"That's your yacht," Neil said, pointing to the boat that had entered the channel of the estuary. "It looks like a yacht. ”

The boat is still very vague, but from the outline it is clear that it is certainly not a fishing boat. And it's either Link's fishing boat or the yacht that can come into this port.

Link took one look and said, "It's it! It's the Ozette." ”

"Is that our big ship?" Hannah stared at for a moment, pulling Link's hand to get his attention. She exclaimed. "But it looks so small! just as big as a fishing boat. ”

When Link heard this, he picked her up and said, "It's because it's still far away." "The little guy knows that things at a distance look smaller. But she couldn't tell the difference in size between the two different ships at long distances.

At this moment, a melodious whistle sounded.

Carlisle smiled and said, "Did you say the captain of the Ozette had already seen us?"

There is also that possibility. The channel has been widened, but it is still not wide. Such a ship still needs to be careful when entering port, and it is possible for the captain to look through a telescope.

The speed at which the yacht entered the harbor was not very fast, and they waited for about ten minutes before the ship entered the harbor. By this time, they could clearly see the appearance of the ship.

"It's a beautiful boat!" exclaimed Claire. "No wonder they say that the United States can build a supercarrier, but it can't build a top-of-the-line yacht. Although the United States has absorbed the experience of European yacht manufacturing, the best yachts are still in Europe. Eight of the ten largest yachts in the world are now European-made. ”

Claire's sentiment is not untargeted. American-made custom yachts are perhaps already the world's first – the world's largest in terms of overall length. But real superyachts and supercruises are made in Europe. And those 160-foot mega yachts in the United States may only need $100 million. A superyacht may be worth a billion dollars, and the largest yacht is now only 600 feet long, but it is worth more than a billion dollars. Perhaps the person who came up with the idea of proving that the United States is the number one in the world for custom yachts with a total length may have changed careers in the production of train cars.

Superyacht manufacturers in Europe are often designed exactly to the customer's individual requirements, from the exterior to the interior layout and finish.

And some well-known yacht brands are usually mass-produced. Perhaps at most, the equipment and interior on board can be customized by the guest, but the shape and layout are uniform.

That is for the wealthy who can afford to buy a superyacht, they need the unique, not the unified.

For example, Link's Ozette had the shipyard hire someone to design the exterior and interior. The shape of the yacht has a very beautiful streamlined shape. The building has three floors, the top deck is wide, and there is a helicopter parked at the back of the top. The bridge is at the rear, supported by a pillar, and when viewed from the front, it looks like a low water tower. And behind the bridge there was a radome.

"Is this ship really only three hundred and fifty-seven feet? "Neil is sensitive to numbers, and he looks at it and thinks the width of the boat is wrong.

Link nodded and said, "Because the tonnage is exceeded, in order to reduce the draft, the hull has to be widened during the design." "The hull is widened, and the speed is limited.

The hull and keel of the Ozette are made of military warship steel plates, and the top deck is more than five stories high to lower the center of gravity. At the same time, in order to withstand the harsh sea conditions. The keel steel plate is not only thickened, but also a steel beam steel frame is installed inside the keel. The shipbuilding building mainly adopts aluminum alloy to reduce weight.

The ship is equipped with two thrusters, which can reach a top speed of 30 knots.

"Oh, it's coming to shore!" Claire saw the yacht's propeller spraying water to one side.

That's when the ship's pod-type thrusters adjusted the angle. That kind of thruster is now used by major large yachts. It's not a new technology anymore. A ship with such a thruster installed will be more maneuverable when entering a port.

The stern of the ship is parallel to the dock due to the afterburner of the thrusters. This is a yacht dozens of meters away from the marina. When the angle of the boat is adjusted parallel to the berth, the bow of the ship also sprays water to the same side. That's the side thruster in the bow at work.

When the front and rear sets of propellers work together, the boat can make a 180-degree U-turn directly on the spot, so that the boat can also turn around in narrow water. Of course, you can also think of the Ozette slowly panning like this, and finally land directly on the shore.

However, installing such a thruster on such a "small boat" cost Link a lot of money.

The hull of the Ozette did not drift outside except the bow, and when it came to shore, the crew of the ship began to come out to work. They need to check the position between the hull and the dock, and whether the buffer layer in the middle is in place.

Claire was right, this berth was originally intended for the Ozette, and there were twenty buffer blocks more than a meter thick embedded in the pier. The length of the buffer block is three meters, and the height and width are one meter. The outside is a ten-centimeter-thick tire steel wire rubber, and the inside is hollow packaging. This kind of protection, even if a large ship of tens of thousands of tons is docked, it can ensure that the ship will not hit the hard objects on the dock.

With such a protective block, the yacht is safely attached to the dock.

After the yacht was moored at the dock, Link was greeted by the captain and representatives of the shipbuilder, and Claire boarded the boat from the stern.

Captain Laurel Magee was hired by Martha, but it wasn't the first time Link had met him. This captain served Link while the ship was still under construction. He was required to supervise the construction of the ship, and he was also the link of communication between Link and the shipyard. So he is also very familiar with this ship. He was directly responsible for taking on Link's introduction to the yacht.

They were on board from the stern, and the introduction, of course, from the stern.