Hi,

...No sooner do those guys take delivery of their new 190-footer, than they're commissioning a new 230-footer... Whenever the latest and greatest new launch appears as a cover feature story in the glossy magazines, guaranteed it will be in the brokerage section within 12 months... The building of the 282-foot CAKEWALK is a classic example, largest yacht by volume ever built in the US. the "culmination of the owner's lifelong Dream", blah, blah, blah... Results in the bankruptcy of the builder Derecktor, and the owner puts her up for sale a year later...

I believe I recommended the book GRAND AMBITION here awhile ago... It's a fascinating read, some very entertaining insight into the large yacht industry...

http://www.yachtworld.com/boat-content/2013/03/grand-ambition-by-g-bruce-knecht/

The story I'd love to know more about, is what really went down with the Lyman-Morse build 5 years ago of the Chuck Paine designed NEW MORNING... It was one of the latest & greatest "Globe Girdlers" that everyone went gaga over, rating cover stories in CW, among others...

http://www.cruisingworld.com/sailboats/boat-reviews/up-and-at-em

The guy began having some problems early on, particularly with the curved solar panels that had been integrated into the deck and doghouse roof... Needless to say, they never got close to sailing around the world, and the boat has been listed for sale for awhile, the asking price keeps dropping... Probably cost in excess of $2 million to build, I believe the price is now down to around $900K... Ouch...

But what is REALLY interesting, is that if you visit Lyman-Morse's website, and look at their gallery and index of all their builds over the last decade or more, there is no reference whatsoever to NEW MORNING, its existence has been completely scrubbed from their gallery of recent builds, almost as if it never existed... Actually, if you google Lyman-Morse New Morning, you can find it - but I can't find a way to navigate to that page from their home page, and it is definitely absent from their gallery of projects going back to boats built WAY before NM was...

Hmmm, do you think KIWI SPIRIT might be next? (grin)

best regards,

Jon