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Little sign of credit crunch in Monaco
Matt Rudd reports in the Times Online on how the credit crunch is hitting Monaco - well, hardly, it appears. He says: "You would think this might be a good time for the superloaded to be less brazen in their conspicuous consumption. But they aren’t. At a Grand Prix party on a superyacht hosted by Revoworld, a club that can provide supercars, yachts, jets and anything else a bored playboy could dream of to its 200 or so members, everything is just dandy. "
He continues: "I decide to speak to someone else. George Fortune, a Monaco yacht broker (with a name like that, you could say he was born for it), explains what the downturn means in the boat world. “In the 1980s, the biggest yachts were 100ft long. Now, they’re 300ft plus. The market is booming. There’s a drop-off for 70ft and under, but if you want a really big boat, you’ll have to join the queue.”
"The one Revoworld has chartered for the weekend (for a cool £100,000, plus an undisclosed, but undoubtedly frightening, fee to park it right by the race track) is actually for sale for £8m. Aha! So the Norwegian owner is selling his assets? Don’t be silly. He’s upgrading to something that will go with his nice new 100ft sailing ship. "
"Our partying is modest compared with some of the other efforts in the harbour. I find myself admiring the 12 young Italian things having a civilised silver-service dinner on the slightly bigger, slightly plusher boat next to us. Two days, and already I have yacht envy.
"Across the quay, three of India’s richest businessmen have moored their super-super-superyachts (aka ferries) side by side. The one in the middle, with the glass elevator and the infinity pool that turns into a helicopter pad, has four Rolls-Royce Phantoms parked in a line outside. Because one is never enough. Another has a flowered entrance with pirouetting models to welcome guests. "
The Grand Prix may be over for another year, but life in Monaco goes on. Less of a struggle, it appears, than for most as the credit crunch hits, but then again, it helps to live in an income tax free Principality, and a glorious one at that.
This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Bob Cartwright. If you know of an interesting European travel related news story, please get in contact.
