Chapter 43: The Friedlich

It was love at first sight!

Captain Alfred, Archara, the twins, and I, had flown out of Paris on one of our private jets, another Gulfstream G650, shortly after Jeanne and her mom had left for Florida, where Jeanne would drop off her mom before continuing on to Martinique. She had the longest flight, so she got the larger plane. I found myself wondering just how many planes the Foundation had in its fleet.

Jeanne and I had spent most of the night, last night, saying our goodbyes, so I simply kissed her once as she boarded her plane. Then ten minutes later, Captain Alfred, Archara, my twin security guards, and I were on board the Gulfstream headed to Antalya, Turkey. We had an appointment to meet with the founder and president of Bering Shipbuilding at noon.

We were meeting with Alexey Mikhailov, who founded Bering Yachts in 2007, and now had offices in Monaco, Florida, Antalya, and Limassol. Their primary shipbuilding site was the Free Trade Zone in Antalya, Turkey. This was an area set up by the Turkish government to attract more shipbuilders by offering untaxed trade concessions, including full exemption from taxes and customs duties to anyone who imports raw materials and builds a finished ship-related product.

Bering Shipyards currently occupies seven buildings inside the Free Trade Zone. Being a Sunday, I didn’t expect to see so many workers, working on so many different hulls. Everything from a pair of 65’s to a giant 145. With two 70’s, a 71, and three 75’s in various stages of competition. We were told he had orders for another eighteen yachts, but just couldn’t find the space to get them started yet.

After a quick tour of their main shipbuilding facilities by Alexey (he insisted I could not call him Mr. Mikhailov), we were led back to a modern looking office complex, three stories high. These were the administrative, research, and design offices.

There he amazed both me and Captain Alfred with his philosophy on making yachts safer by making them exceed current written specifications. In fact, his 24 meter yachts were all built to the much more stringent 50 meter specifications.

He explained in patient detail how making yachts heavier and stronger, made for a much more pleasant and quieter ride. With their extra-large fuel tanks, the majority of his under 24 meter yachts could travel over 4000 nautical miles without stopping for fuel. And each yacht was equipped with the advanced radar and satellite communication systems usually only found on the mega yachts, so you were never out of touch anywhere in the world.

Finally, after checking Captain Alfred’s papers and a quick skype call to Herr Oberland to confirm, Alexey shuttled us out to the marina at the edge of the Free Trade Zone and took us on board the ‘Friedlich’, which I was soon to learn meant ‘peaceful’ in German.

Like I said, it was love at first site. The Friedlich was a Bering 75 and the most beautifully finished yacht I had ever seen.

I expected a five minute tour, but Alexey must have spent over six hours going over every detail of the Friedlich, especially the engine room, which I found fascinating. He started one of the engines and said to let it run over night, so we would be ready to go in the morning. He showed me how to start the watermaker and the water heater, along with the A/C if we needed it. And I won’t even get into how the entire electrical system is run on inverters, complete with solar panels on the roof.

Alexey even arranged dinner in the dining room on the main deck and promised to have a driver at our disposal in the morning to get us provisioned.