Can you put your feet up and join me in a different world with its own different problems for a few minutes – just to refresh our brain cells? The entire boating world is changing. There are 2000 mega-yachts today over 120-feet long and 200,000 people jumping up and down to buy one. There are impatient people in that waiting line that are willing to buy an interim yacht simply to wait with. And the waiting line is expected to grow dramatically as it is like a virus in Russia. I know it doesn’t feel like it to you or to me but there is an incredible amount of disposable money in the world at the moment.

Click here for my photos of the mega-yachts of the superrich.

Many of these superrich people are from Russia, the Ukraine or India and the five largest mega-yachts are owned by Middle Easterners: The “Dubai” is 531.5 feet. The Russians are catching up with more new-builds than any other country and Roman Abramovich is said to own the brand new “Eclipse” and it is 531.5 feet too. Oneupmanship sparkles in the boat world but it appears that nobody has won the “mine’s bigger than yours” race as of now. The rumor circuit says the most talked-about new yacht coming down the chute is an amazing-looking 387-foot ship designed by Philippe Starck — some say for the two heads of Google – others say the linens have a big “A” initialed on them and it is really another Abramovich boat. I hear that it looks like a cool copy of the navy’s $100-billion stealth combat ship - without the guns. It tickles me to think that maybe the Google lads and Starck are way out in front with a completely new approach to boat design at a time when the Russians and Middle Easterners hold the oil cards (a boat’s greatest expense these days is fuel). But Abramovich is gutsy and knows boats! Another rumor has it owned by the owner of a Latvian bank! Boats like these can cost $250 million.

Massive boats are like private cruise ships — 250- to 500-feet long. They have infinity pools (some have two), gyms, spas, complete theaters, stunning bars, submarines to play with as well as sailboats, helicopters to view the world in, newspapers printed from anywhere in the world and the largest Sonys on the walls for news, huge party platforms, private owner’s apartments with custom-designed walk-in closets, cars, tenders that are really serious boats – some of them are air-conditioned.

You know, big isn’t always comfortable. Many of these mega-yachts are really business yachts or ego yachts. They cram as much as they can for as many people as they can into them and the objective is not necessarily good boat design. The boats get taller and taller with more layers and rely more and more on stabilizers for stability. I have been on them and even with all the stabilizers they can rock-a-bye-baby all through dinner.

The purpose of the mega-yachts has changed from the day when there were few boats over a hundred feet and people went out on them as if on a glorious picnic. Everybody actually swam in a clean sea, then stretched out in the sun and allowed the sailing boat to dry them. There were no submarines on boats, no movie theaters – people enjoyed the beautiful clean coves to swim in and they enjoyed lounging, reading books, talking, feeling healthy and fresh and good in the beautiful world. It was a world of peace. They felt safe then — safe from Jet Skis, safe from jellyfish (which have multiplied drastically in dirty seas), safe from the sun – the new boats are being built with more and more shade. And they felt safe from attack. Some of the biggest yachts provide a high degree of privacy and security and, with the huge improvement of electronics, technology and the reliability of engineering, people can run a business from them. The independence factor has great appeal when you are conducting mega-business or are a megastar.