Well, well, well. Not everyday does a $300 million dollar mega yacht stop by the San Francisco Bay Area! The creatively named “A” yacht is owned by 38 year old Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and his lovely supermodel wife Aleksandra! Andrey made his money in fertilizer, banking, and energy and is worth a reported $4.4 billion dollars. Interest alone on $4.4 billion at 4% is over $178 million a year! The “A” looks like something out of a James Bond movie. Can you imagine all the crazy parties on this bad boy? Wow! I rode my bike to the very north end of San Francisco to take a look and boy oh boy is it big.
Some nice mouth watering yacht stats for all you billionaire wannabes out there!
* 25,000 square feet of total living space
* 2,500 square foot master bedroom suite
* 160 foot long main hallway
* 62 feet wide
* 6 cabins in addition to the owner’s master bedroom suite
* 3 speed boats
* 3 mini swimming pools
* A crew of 37 and staff of 5
* Can outrun pirates (or the Russian IRS) with a top speed of 24 knots
* Costs $500,000 to fill up the tank of gas
* Costs $20 million a year to operate
* A secret escape pod to outrun the pirates or the Russian IRS
* A secret “nookie” room for indiscretions with other super models
TOTAL INSPIRATION
Some people might say this $300 million yacht is an absolute monstrosity and that $300 million could have been spent helping save the world. Yes, Andrey could have spent the $300 million on someone else, but shouldn’t he have the right to occasionally indulge? Andrey already donates millions of dollars a year to charity and he’s living the dream because he can.
Million Dollar Yachts
So, you believe the money for yachts is a blessing from God. Well, before spending it on quarter million dollar yachts, let alone 250 million dollar yachts like Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen's Octopus (photo), consider this: for one dollar, one Bible can reach a Christian in a country where they are banned, and every Bible that reaches such a place results on average in 5 new Christians.
For the price of one of the quarter million dollar yachts, 250,000 Bibles can reach such a place and 1.25 million souls saved. For one of the million dollar yachts, a million Bibles can reach it and 5 million souls saved. The number rises to 50 million souls for a 10 million dollar yacht; for the half-billion dollar Gigayacht, 500 million Bibles can reach the lost and 2.5 billion souls - 40% of the earth's population - saved!
As mentioned earlier, a yacht is by definition a boat of pleasure. Will God, in whom you believe, be pleased with you spending His money on a (multi-) million dollar pleasure toy while millions of Christians around the world are without Bibles? If you truly can't do without a yacht, why not pick a small yacht and invest the rest in eternity?
I will have one a maybe even two...