Grand Ambition
An Extraordinary Yacht,
the People Who Built It,
and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It
by G. Bruce Knecht
Simon & Schuster
Yacht. The word elicits images of tanned billionaries, clinking flutes of Cristal champagne, smiling models in G-strings and maybe a Greek shipping magnate or two — but there's a dark side, even what's been called a "yacht curse," attached to these monster vessels.
Along with the constant upkeep, the soul-crushing taxes, the crew of people who depend on you and your boat for their livelihood and the unpredictability of the sea — there's also the fact that almost everyone else in the world would like to see you fail, too.
Doug Von Allmen named multiple yachts after his wife, Linda.
There's even a saying that goes along with first-time boat and yacht buyers: "The best two days of a boat owner's life is the day he buys his first boat and the day he sells it."
Still, how tough is it for someone who plunks down millions for what is ostensibly a silly toy?
Though he won't likely be getting any sympathy points from any of the 99%, Doug Von Allmen, a multimillionaire private-equity investor, knows all too well the curse that is yacht ownership. His experience was so trying that the story of his prized Lady Linda, a $40 million, 187-foot yacht, and its construction is the subject of a new book "Grand Ambition" by Wall Street Journal senior writer G. Bruce Knecht.
Before losing substantial capital in the recession and then investing $100 million in a Ponzi scheme, Von Allmen envisioned Lady Linda, his fourth multimillion-dollar yacht, the "ultimate embodiment of his success."
This entailed $6.8 million in rare wood paneling and bespoke furniture, $800,000 in marble and onyx floors and tabletops and many other over-the-top niceties.
Yet dreams would be a source for nightmares as hurdles, delays, and a financial disasters made Von Allmen "question whether he could actually afford to be the yacht's owner."
As the son of a milkman, Von Allmen, now 71, came from humble beginnings, a "very common" attribute in yacht owners, author Knecht tells The Post.
He was a sickly and frail child in the landlocked state of Kentucky. When his family moved to Miami, he dropped out of high school and took up various blue-collar jobs, including selling reconditioned tires, window washing and working in a box-making factory. After a near-death car accident, Von Allmen returned to high school and made the decision to become an accountant.
"Why an accountant?" his mother asked.
"Someone came to school last year and said that people who made the most money are lawyers, engineers and accountants. I am not good enough at English to be a lawyer, and I'm not good enough at math to be an engineer, so I'm going to be an accountant," he replied.
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