"Ship" for the desert^^

the letters, 1 country. UAE,
and thats all i gotta say about that.

But it ain't got no helipad?!

Actually, I believe the "desert superyacht" concept may indeed have a great future. For me, indulging in flights of fantasy is a regular weekly occurence - every Friday when I choose my EuroMillions lotto numbers for example. For the purposes of this thread, I've decided to imagine that I'm a Saudi prince and potential customer...

Obviously, I already have a superyacht in the south of France which I use for 3 to 4 weeks during the summer. Although it does have a trans-Atlantic capability, I prefer to just dawdle about between Sardinia, the Balearics and the coast of Spain usually. Also, for at least a week in July, I simply must have the yacht anchored in the bay of Cannes along with a whole flotilla of other superyachts owned by fellow princes. Of course, I have a villa there too, so I won't actually be sleeping aboard. But every afternoon, my guests and I will go aboard my own or another of the yachts, where we shall attend to 'important matters of state' or share philosophical discussions well into the early hours before returning to the villa.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Al-Mamlakah Al-'Arabiyah As-Sa'udiyah, as I know it (Saudi Arabia to the ignorant), has a land mass of 868,000 miles² or 2,248,000 km². Compared to the Mediterranean sea which has a surface of 970,000 miles² or 2,510,000 km². There's not a great deal of difference really, is there? And if I consider it worthwhile keeping a $40m fully-crewed yacht at my disposal merely to use it for a month each year in just one tiny part of the Mediterranean, why wouldn't I seriously think of having say a $20m souped-up motorhome for use 'back home'?!

In fact, I can already picture it: quite a few times each year, one or other of the princes (there are over 2,000 of us), will decide to have a 'traditional get-together' in the desert. Where we will all arrive in Range Rover convoys, sleep in air-conditionned tents and ride camels for the weekend. But just imagine if one day, I was to turn up at one of those in my "desert superyacht" - verily, I do believe that the desert will resound for many years afterwards, as people recount the legend...

Until the day of course, that all the other princes want their own "desert superyachts". As far as the overall concept goes, I think the indoor swimming-pool is too extravagant. I'd prefer to have an air-conditionned stable for my favourite thoroughbred stallions and camels. And I'd willingly sacrifice the 50kph top speed for say, 12 knots and a comfortable ride for when I'm asleep between wadis.

And reliability / redunduncy - Allah forbid if we were ever to break down in the desert and needed a tow...?!

airship's progressive Saudi prince, whom we shall call Sheik Yerbouti, proves to be a forward-thinking kind of guy who also reads these posts, and borrows Stan's idea ( as well as Rene's suggestion) of large escort ships, the choice of which turns out to be...dirigibles !

Blown engines and gensets on the ground-based vehicles are replaced rightnow with new ones dropped off by the hovering fleet of, say, twenty or thirty blimps, or two per Desert Yacht.
Flat tire? No problemo with a blimp-assisted lift. Stuck in the sand? Same deal.

The air fleet maneuvers in formation to form a comfy 95 hectares of shade all day long over the camel jockeys.
Sandstorm approaching? Mr. Yerbouti and his compadres decamp to the cool & calm of 8000 feet aboard their airborne support vessels.

In the spirit of competition, airship (no, not you) races ensue.

One thing leads to another--faster, larger ( gosh, where have we seen this before?)-- and eventually Sheik Yerbouti, et. al., eschew their Land Yachts in favor of Desert Dirigibles and who, to escape the desert-based crowds, join up in an annual regatta over the Red Sea.

Good one Loren. On a slightly more serious note: With the huge sums that are being thrown around on mega-yachts, I would think a private airship is not out of the question. And I'm a little puzzled that nobody has made that move yet ....

lighter than air Kelly

... That's a great idea: at some stage though, I think it'd become cheaper to have a "space-shadow yacht" in the guise of a satellite in geo-stationary orbit unfurling gigantic sails...?!

Another great advantage of the satellite over "shadow yachts" or multiple airships is that it could (should) be fully-automated and wouldn't need employment of additional crew. Having said that, I remember that there was at least one superyacht (who shall go unnamed) which employed some Nepalese nationals on contracts which allowed them leave only once every 3 years (they were ex. British Army Gurkhas, and those are also the standard "holiday terms" for Gurkhas serving with the British Army today...), so it might be worthwhile putting a few Gurkhas on the satellite. Unlike Laika, at least they'd be able to wield a screwdriver for unforseen maintenance.

Indeed it is not out of the question. If some Saudi prince wishes to engage me in order to realise his wildest "yachting" fantasies, I'm currently open to offers in excess of $250k pa and 6 months paid vacation on an exclusive basis. Obviously, the problem with the modern airship is that it has little substance: a tiny cupola suspended under a huge balloon-like structure filled with helium. A huge improvement on hydrogen surely, but 'good for a laugh at best' - what a waste of space (or bandwidth some might ask)?!

PS. I hear that it can get quite chilly in the desert at night, so I've packed a woolly jumper too.