Billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison run in tight, elite circles where they mingle at famous venues and destinations. Once a year, though, some of their prized possessions are even more attached at the hip than their owners.
Luxury Launches reported on the plutocrats' superyachts' wildly expensive R&R at France's La Ciotat Shipyard. Every fall, the "ultimate superyacht spa," as Luxury Launches put it, takes in a who's who of megayachts all at once.
These ships, like Bezos' Koru and Google co-founder Sergey Brin's Dragonfly, turn heads and frustrate people around the globe. The cheapest yacht on-site comes in at around $160 million (cheaper support yachts are allowed). The whole fleet comes out to a whopping $1.6 billion.
La Ciotat Shipyard at this point is a well-orchestrated machine with state-of-the-art boat elevators, launchpads, and shiplifts. They take the yachts out of the water to undergo extensive maintenance and servicing.
Luxury Launches asserted that it costs each billionaire anywhere between $3 million and almost $11 million annually for this maintenance. Of course, that incurs minimal damage to the massive wallets of these ultra-wealthy owners.
If only the same could be said for their superyachts' impact on the planet. These floating palaces come with an enormous pollution cost that has led them to be characterized as a form of "ecocide," per Bloomberg.
Professors at the University of Indiana attribute two-thirds of the top 20 richest billionaires' pollution to superyachts, as DW related. That undoubtedly is due to the enormous amount of fuel required to operate them. And the ships at La Ciotat really put the "mega" in "megayacht."
The fact that these yachts cost up to $11 million while docking thousands of miles from their owners crystallizes the wealth inequality on display. Some families struggle to put together $4,000 in a month of making income. That's a day's worth of pump operation costs to a boat like Koru during its La Ciotat stay.
Superyachts have become a huge trend for the ultrarich, which could increase demand on shipyards like La Ciotat to provide expensive yearly maintenance.
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