Jeez, Blast! Here it is again. Somethin', somethin', somethin', this 38-year-old Russian fertilizer king just built himself a $300 million dollar yacht designed, in part, to fend off pirates and other armed yachts of other oligarchs. Read and SEE more here, if you can stomach it.

Anyone else think that hull is reminiscent of WW2 subs?

Fun looking boat though.

Yes! Made me daydream about torpedo tubes.

That knife-edge bow reminds me of the Nautilus submarine from the movie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I was half-expecting to read that it had a radar-absorbing/deflecting coating. Gotta keep those pirate mother ships guessing, y'know.

Aw crap, I hit "edit" rather than "reply" and accidently nuked your post. :-(
Can you repost the information?

Really, really sorry.
-Blast

Okay. I re-edited my original post with a close approximation of what I remember it to be.

Pretty slick. How much you wanna bet he cruises around Somalia just to tease the pirates.

How much ya' wanna bet he and his security staff can return fire with weapons and training better than the Somali pirates also.....

Was watching a 60 minutes episode about the Russian billionaire who's buying an NBA team and among his many toys was a custom made spesnaz rifle. I imagine Russian billionaires have access to just about any weapon made. So yeah, they probably have a mini-arsenal on board.

Although "Somali pirates" make for interesting reading, I wouldn't be surprised if all that security were for more sinister threats. You don't become a Russian billionaire by being a boy scout. I would put assassinations, kidnapping, espionage, etc. higher on the list of threats to this guy.

When you're in that league, you just call in an airstrike and put it on your AmEx card.

Speaking of airstrikes check out one of A's larger cousins the Eclipse

Ship Of Fools..that was in Russia also----

BEN! BEN! THIS IS THE ONE!

This is the boat for your Benjammin's Pirate-Baiting Cruises!

It's got everything!

Whoooo-hoooo!

Sue

And who wants to be that some of the "staff" is former Russian Spetsnaz and/or Marine Infantry?

"Kapitan, appears to be a pirate wessel off the port side"
"Fire phasers Mr. Chekov"

Still, looks like one heckofa nice ship. I wouldn't mind owning just one of the powerboats decked aboard.

For $12 million, albeit in 70s dollars, figure $24 million now, you could buy one of these for your pirate hunting fun:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tacoma_%28PGM-92%29

http://www.gunboatriders.com/theboats/general_spec.html

Even by today's standards the performance of the gunboat is impressive. Updated with a modern turbine and diesel, lighter, smaller, and more fuel efficient for the same output, they would be even better. Add modern computer controlled dynamic ballasting and roll-control fins so it is more stable and you overcome many of its design weaknesses. The fact that all its electronics were designed in the late 60s and 70s means you save space, weight, energy, and gain reliability when replaced by modern units.

At $24 million a pop $300 million will buy you twelve. He could have his own fleet.