Too many toys

Siracusa, Sicily, Italy

As we sail around the Mediterranean, we count ourselves fortunate to have a nice “yacht”. We feel Berkeley East is luxurious by sailing boat standards, with a water maker, washer dryer, microwave, electric winches, etc. We struggle with space, where to store everything and even miss some of the conveniences of home, but overall feel we have it pretty good.

Occasionally, we see the “other life” of mega-yachts. Last year in Malta we got to go aboard the Maltese Falcon (the 2nd largest sailing yacht in the world at 289 feet) and see how the other half (or .1%) live.

But in Siracusa, we came across a new level of luxury: “ACE,” a 280-foot super-yacht with five decks above the waterline, room for 30 crew and 12 passengers. We run across super-yachts like this from time to time, but ACE has something special that we have never seen before, “Garcon”.

Garcon is a 220-foot “fast support yacht” purposely built to haul all of the toys that anyone might want or need when on ACE, including a submarine, helicopter and landing pad, Donzi offshore speed boat, fishing boat, jet skis, two rigid inflatables boats…

We also have a “fast support craft” for Berkeley East, but ours is a 13-foot dinghy that hauls us, boat parts and groceries to and from the shore.