Yachts in Port Angeles
This article was originally written by Chuck Marunde and published in Pacific Northwest Home magazine. In light of the stressful economic and political climate lately, we thought you might enjoy some light and enjoyable reading about Yachts.
If you could live anywhere in the world, and you could choose your home, what would you choose? What if you could live in a gorgeous home and take it with you on your travels? We have written a lot about homes and land, buying homes, building homes, the real estate and mortgage markets, and the gorgeous view properties available on the Northern Olympic Peninsula. We’ve published articles about vacation getaways, home design, and remodeling. We’ve even written about Yurts!
Our focus has been mostly homes on land. This should be no surprise, because most of us live on Terra Firma. But today we take a look at how the rest of the people live, albeit a lesser percentage of the population. Today we consider the ultimate water view, homes on water. Port Angeles is home to two yacht building companies, Westport Yachts and Platypus Marine. With the Port of Port Angeles on the calm waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, this is an ideal setting for the shipyards and manufacturing plants of these yacht companies.
Can a person live on a yacht? Yes, and there are small yachts comparable in price to a nice home in Clallam County. We do have great docks in Sequim and Port Angeles, and for those with a passion for water and boating, living on a boat could be the ideal lifestyle.
Westport’s Port Angeles facility builds the largest yacht in their lineup, a 164 foot model first launched in early 2006. According to the company, the mould is the largest composite production mould ever built for the yacht industry. While most of us are driving our cars from gas station to gas station lately, this yacht has a 20,000-gallon fuel capacity and a displacement of 690,000 pounds, which gives it a cruising range of around 3,700 nautical miles. It has a full-beam (30 feet 10 inches), a master suite with its own office, plus four staterooms and is driven by twin MTU-DDC 16V4000 3650 hp engines.
While some folks use a yacht to travel periodically, most of us would consider one of these yachts a luxury home on water, and maybe heading south to warmer waters would be just the place to go as the temperatures begin to dip and snow is showing up on Hurricane Ridge.
Port Angeles is also home to Westport’s furniture and woodworking factory, which itself is a very large facility. The photographs tell the story of the quality and luxury of the furniture and fixtures in a yacht. Another model, the Westport 130 tri-deck has five staterooms, and by using high-tech, sound-deadening technology, the yacht is extremely quiet. The 130 is driven by a pair of MTU/Detroit Diesel 12V4000 engines, enabling a cruise speed in the mid-20 knot range with a top speed of 28 knots.
Most of us have seen homes being built. There’s the excavation work, and then the foundation and concrete, framing, roofing, siding, sheetrocking, and the finish work. Finally, the landscapping. Voila! A home can be built from scratch in six months, more or less. But what is it like building a yacht?
It takes a year to build a yacht, and the customization for each yacht requires extraordinary detail in the design and manufacturing process. You can’t just buy generic cabinets or appliances from Home Depot. There must be precise scheduling of the manufacturing and delivery of components, and all must fit exactly within the construction timeline consistent with the progress of a highly specialized work force. If a worker is injured or ill, you can’t just go down to the union and hire someone. The employees are very specialized, and there are not very many in this line of work.
Most of us will never live on a yacht, and few will be entertained on a yacht, yet this is big business around the world. The largest yacht in the world is the 525 foot Platinum owned by Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai. The rumor is that when the ship is completed, it will have cost $300 million. Bill and Melinda Gates own a 177 foot yacht. Paul Allen owns three, the largest being the Octupus, a 413 foot cruiser with a crew of 60 including a team of security experts and former members of the U.S. Navy Seals Special Forces.
Not everyone wants to own a yacht. You can lease one from a company like American Safari Cruises, for a trip around Washington’s San Juan Islands or British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. How about an eight-day dream Alaskan or Hawaiian itinerary. The cost? $248,000, but you get world class cuisine and premium wines, massages on call, all necessities from SCUBA equipment to sailboats, and a 2-to-1 ratio of uniformed crew, including a full-time baker and a naturalist/expedition leader. The cost covers up to 35 of your closest friends. Sound fun?
By international convention, a super yacht is any private vessel more than 98 feet in length. A few years ago, there were only a handful, but today there are thousands of them, and amazingly demand is on the up. But what about smaller, more affordable yachts? With the price of waterfront property and a nice home exceeding the cost of many small yachts, the live-aboard concept is becoming an option that more people are beginning to consider.
Yachting is certainly a unique lifestyle. You have the option of tossing lines and going in search of a new view, but no matter where you are, you always have a water view! Whether you live on water, or live on land, both require maintenance. Would you rather polish, paint & varnish, or spend your weekends cutting, clipping & weeding? Most of us find that water and the gentle slapping of the waves has a therapeutic affect. In light of what has been happening in our economy and to retirement funds, therapy sounds like a good idea.
The maintenance costs of a yacht compared to an equivalently priced home is going to be somewhat higher. With a home you have property taxes and insurance, and for a yacht you have dock rent and insurance. In many cases around the country, dock rent can be roughly equivalent to property taxes on a home of the same value. The same could be said for the cost of insurance. Apart from these costs, other physical maintenance costs of a yacht are normally higher than a home.
While the demand for yachts has been increasing, I suspect the vast majority of homeowners are not making plans for a 1031 type exchange for a yacht. For most, a yacht is still only a dream. Still, it is intriguing to look at photos and imagine. Isn’t it?
