If today is your birthday: A greater sense of well-being, understanding and wisdom will arise within your world. The vagaries of an unfair past will be left far behind. Born today: Oscar Peterson, 1925. Died, 2007.
Leo (July 23 — Aug. 22)
No matter how much energy or effort a situation is taking up, take heart. Improvement is on the way, partly through your own effort and partly through the intervention of serendipity.
It's a big fish in a big pond.
The pond? Lake Ontario. The fish? The stately, 197-foot (59-metre) motor yacht Calixe, which has been drawing a steady stream of gawkers and photographers to the marina at John Quay marvelling at how the Other Half lives since it docked recently behind HTO Park.
It has its own speedboat, a lifeboat and – here's where the "luxury" in "luxury yacht" comes in – a helicopter on the top aft deck. The boat dwarfs every other private vessel in Toronto Harbour, no doubt leaving local sailors in its wake stricken with yacht envy.
Over at the Island Yacht Club, for instance, manager Paul Cadieux can no longer claim bragging rights to what he thought was the most impressive craft on the lake this summer, a motorized, 80-foot Northern Marine monster owned by a wealthy American who prefers to remain anonymous.
"I would venture a guess, out of all the boats at yacht clubs in the Ontario region right now, that (the 80-footer) is probably the biggest. I can't think of any member boat that's as big as that," he had said.
Enter Calixe, the property of a California newspaper publisher named Wendy McCaw, who has money to burn since receiving a $460 million (U.S.) divorce settlement from cellphone mogul Craig McCaw 12 years ago. Given the number of lawsuits recently sent her way by several dozen fired employees of the Santa Barbara News-Press, it's likely become a convenient excuse for staying away from home.
By Great Lakes standards, the boat's size is huge, albeit not unheard of in this port.
John Quay actually caters to "mega-yachts" in the 100- to 200-foot range, says Helder Melo, the Harbourfront Centre's director of site operations. The non-profit centre advertises around the world in hopes of bringing in lucrative docking fees.
At $2.50 (Canadian) a foot, Calixe is racking up $492.50 a night.
"That is definitely one of the largest," says Melo. "This year, I think, this is our fourth or fifth mega-yacht. It hasn't really been a strong year for them. I guess it depends on the economy."
Owners such as McCaw rarely actually travel with their yachts, dispatching the crew (12 people, in Calixe's case) from port to port and coming and going via plane, train and automobile – or private helicopter.
Despite its apparent opulence, in the my-boat-is-bigger-than-your-boat world of luxury yachts, the Calixe is but a minnow.
The boat made Power & Motor-yacht magazine's list of "America's 100 Largest Yachts" in recent years, coming in at No. 31 in 2008. But it doesn't make the world's top 100 – No. 100 came in at 213 feet last year, says the magazine's mega-yacht expert, Catherine Pearson.
The Calixe is notable, though, for having a female owner, says Pearson, since the rather phallocentric pursuit of enormous luxury yachts is generally limited to men.
"There's certainly nothing discreet about having a boat that's, say, 300 feet long – there is absolutely some showmanship involved," she says. "But I'm not sure that length is necessarily as important as the overall design and craftsmanship."
For everyday boaters such as Gord Hines, commodore at the Etobicoke Yacht Club, gigantic vessels such as the Calixe can be annoying, since they reinforce the public image of yachting as the exclusive province of the rich and powerful.
"It's fiction. That's one of those myths that's pretty easy to break by looking at a set of classifieds," says Hines, bobbing on the lake in a friend's 38-foot motorboat amidst a sea of elementary-school-age sailors. "You could get into a 24-foot boat on an ownership basis for $6,000 to $8,000.
"And if you come down here on a Saturday night, you'll see how un-snooty it is."
Would Hines, who has a 22-foot Mirage sailboat and a 17.5-foot motorboat, consider moving up to a 197-foot mega-yacht given the chance?
"I don't know what I'm missing," he laughs.
But there is a downside to having a boat so big – and it's not just price. (Mega-yachts of about 200 feet are currently trading online in the $75-$105 million U.S. range. And that's used.)
Their movements are limited.
"A 197-foot boat can't come into our harbour," says Hines. "We have a 10- to 12-foot depth at the entrance to our harbour. I don't think that boat is coming in."
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