If you follow the threads at the Megayachts forum hosted by Power & Motoryacht (which I also moderate), then no doubt you’ve seen the recent “is it real or not” discussion concerning Octopus’ submarine. If you haven’t, then in a nutshell, megayacht-spotters on one side of this big blue marble we live on saw the sub docked in a marina, only to find out that fellow yacht-spotters elsewhere also saw it, firmly in place in its special tender bay aboard Octopus. This in turn led to a debate over which one was the dummy (the sub, not the yacht-spotters) and why the owner, Paul Allen, would do such a thing.
While that rages on, something that’s definitely not in question is the fact that personal submarines are catching on aboard megayachts. U.S. Submarines is about to deliver its first ABS-classed sub approved for yacht-charter use to Mine Games, a 164-foot Trinity. The yacht’s captain, JD Ducanes, has been getting special training to operate the model, a Triton 1000, shown here. He’ll be able to take two other people down to about 1,000 feet and move the Triton around at 2 knots—which sounds slow, but should actually be ideal for checking out exotic fish and plants that guests probably have never seen other than in a nature program on TV.
U.S. Submarines anticipates starting construction on four more three-passenger models soon. Pricing begins at $1.44 million.
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