who owns the octopus yacht now

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You can now buy paul allen’s superyacht – if you have $325 million.

If you’ve ever wanted to own a 414-foot luxury superyacht that once belonged to late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, now you can – for $325 million.

The Octopus, listed for sale by yacht broker companies Fraser and Burgess , was one of Allen’s three superyachts – he also owned the 301-foot yacht Tatoosh, and the 198-foot Medusa.

After Allen’s death in 2018, many of his iconic belongings and portions of his empire were put on sale, including the world’s largest plane , developed by Allen’s aerospace company Stratolaunch.

Last week, the Octopus joined the list, with the price listed at 295 million euros (about $325.2 million).

It’s one of the biggest private superyachts in the world, and can hold 26 guests and 63 crew members. It’s even comparable in size to US Navy destroyers.

Built in 2003 and refitted this year, the Octopus has all the typical luxury features – including a pool and hot tub, a spa, a bar and a gym. It’s also got some more extravagant perks, like a specially designed recording studio and cinema, a glass-bottomed underwater observation lounge, elevators and a basketball court, according to Fraser and Burgess.

Related article $15 million iPad-controlled superyacht goes up for sale

If you have yacht tenders, helicopters, underwater submersibles or even an SUV you want to take with you to sea, no problem – the Octopus has storage for all those vehicles. Want a submarine? The Octopus has that on board too.

With so many amenities, the Octopus has hosted celebrities and musicians – Mick Jagger has even reportedly recorded music in the yacht’s studio.

It also has a rich history. The Octopus is what’s called an expedition boat, designed to handle rough seas and remote travel. Because of its capabilities, it has been used not just for recreation, but also research trips and rescue missions.

According to Burgess, the superyacht has explored Antarctica, discovered the wreck of a WWII battleship in the Philippines and helped the UK Royal Navy retrieve the bell of sunken battlecruiser HMS Hood.

According to Fraser, the yacht is built to Ice-class 1A, meaning it can operate even through sea ice. It has a transoceanic range of about 12,500 nautical miles and can reach a maximum speed of 19 knots, or 21.8 miles per hour.

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126m Octopus Yacht Sold, Asking Price, and New Owners Plans

The renowned Octopus yacht sold earlier this week, an iconic Lürssen explorer yacht measuring 126.2 meters. Camper & Nicholsons recently added her to its charter fleet after she was listed by Fraser & Burgess. She will be chartered for the first time since her launch in January 2022, following winter at the yard. Her owner will offer guests the chance to travel the world with her for two years.

According to the last known information, Octopus had an asking price of €235,000,000.

The German shipyard Lürssen built the superyacht Octopus in 2003. Having been designed by Espen Øino , she was hailed as the first superyacht of its kind, a true ocean explorer with a 12,500 nautical mile range when she was launched. Even today, she remains the world’s largest explorer superyacht.

As one might expect, Octopus has it all, including two helicopters, which have a dedicated hangar on deck, a float-in tender bag at her stern accomodating a 1.9-mile range ROV, and a Hinckley tender called Man of War II.

In addition, she carries a Pagoo submarine that can accommodate up to eight guests and two crew members for up to eight hours. Scuba diving enthusiasts can also use the hyperbaric chamber at Octopus’ dive center. In addition to the large pool, there is an endless number of dining, lounging, and sunbathing spots on the deck, a place to enjoy every aspect of life onboard. 

The 26 guests onboard this yacht enjoy unparalleled privacy as they enjoy the luxury spread across her eight decks. Over the years, the details of the superyacht’s interior have remained extremely private, though a glimpse of them was captured in a video about the vessel released in 2019, shortly after she went on the market.

She has been extremely well cared for over the years, undergoing extensive maintenance every five years to ensure she is always in pristine condition. Blohm+Voss completed the most recent refurbishment in 2019.

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Mega yacht Octopus of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for sale

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Written by Rachael Steele

Lürssen mega yacht OCTOPUS , which belonged to the late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has been put up for sale at an estimated €295,000,000 (approximately $332,000,000 USD).

Paul Allen’s yacht OCTOPUS listed for sale

Allen, who passed away from cancer in 2018, owned a number of vessels but at a length of 126m/413ft M/Y OCTOPUS was his flagship and remains one of the world’s largest motor yachts, currently sitting at no. 22 in the overall rankings.

M/Y OCTOPUS was built in 2003 and from November 2018 to July 2019 she underwent an eight-month refurbishment at the Blohm + Voss facilities, including her 15-year surveys, to prepare her for sale. Her exteriors come from renowned designer Espen Oeino and the interiors from Seattle-based Jonathan Quinn Barnett , who had an impressive interior volume of 9,932 GT to furnish.

Although Paul Allen used the vessel as a recording studio and for private parties with the likes of U2, Sharon Stone and Mick Jagger, he is most well-known for his philanthropic endeavours and M/Y OCTOPUS was used as a research vessel along with several other motor yachts in his fleet, and was critical to the retrieval of the bell from HMS HOOD, which was sunk by the German battleship BISMARCK, as well as discovering the wrecks of the WWII Japanese warship MUSASHI.

Superyacht Octopus

The accommodation is designed for up to 26 guests over 13 spacious en-suite cabins, and in addition to the Master suite there is a VIP stateroom and a children’s cabin. The experienced crew of 63 is ready to pull off a glamorous party or to navigate to the farthest corners of the world for research purposes.

The private Owner’s deck (also the bridge deck) comes with the aforementioned recording studio with a floor designed with sound dampening properties, a Master suite with a walk-in-wardrobe and an alfresco dining area that has its own bar and whirlpool tub. The other guests are not left wanting as M/Y OCTOPUS is replete with entertainment options such as a cinema, spa with hammam and sauna, gym, basketball court, an observation lounge and a heated freshwater swimming pool with a glass retractable floor to become a flush entertaining space. The selection of water toys is also impressive and created as much for family fun as exploration of the environment, and among the collection is a 10-pax submarine.

Superyacht Octopus with helicopter

In terms of her technical specifications, there are eight MTU 16V 4000 M70 engines that provide a top speed of 19 knots and a cruising speed of 18 knots, however most notable is her impressive cruising range of 14,250 nautical miles.

She is built to ICE-Class 1A standards and is equipped with a helipad forward and aft, both of which have access to a hangar for storage.

Luxury yacht OCTOPUS can currently be seen moored at the Antibes marina as she awaits a buyer.

MORE INFO AND IMAGES OF OCTOPUS

Please contact CharterWorld - the luxury yacht charter specialist - for more on superyacht news item "Mega yacht Octopus of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for sale".

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Late billionaire paul allen’s yacht on sale for $326 million.

(Bloomberg) -- The late Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen’s 414-foot super yacht “Octopus” is on the market.

At 295 million euros ($326 million), the 414-foot vessel where the billionaire partied with U2 and Mick Jagger, and sailed to destinations from Venice to Shanghai, is listed at brokerages Fraser and Burgess.

Allen, who died in October at 65, co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975 and left in 1983. He turned his stake into a $26 billion fortune over the next three decades, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Through his family office Vulcan Inc., Allen acquired sports teams, real estate, art and invested in startups. Allen had no spouse or children to inherit his empire, though his sister, Jody Allen, is Vulcan’s chair.

He had a deep affinity for the German-built super yacht. When it was first delivered in 2003, Allen was overwhelmed by its size -- a third longer than a football field, according to his 2011 memoir “Idea Man.” At the time, it was the fourth-largest in the world, with the top three built for heads of state, he said.

‘A Spaceship’

“When I first stood on the bridge, I felt as though I was on a spaceship,” he wrote, adding that with features including a pool, basketball court, movie theater, a recording studio with ocean views, “all my passions come together in one moveable feast.”

The vehicle, currently anchored off Antibes, France, was far more than just a pleasure craft. Capable of scientific research voyages, Octopus was designed to venture into remote places.

The super yacht has gone through an eight-month refit, according to Fraser. There’s space for 26 guests in 13 cabins, and room for 63 crew members. It has two elevators, an eight-person submarine, two helipads and garage space for helicopters and an SUV, according to Burgess.

Fugitive Financier

One of the most prominent sales this year was the yacht formerly known as Equanimity, which was seized by Malaysia’s government from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, a central figure in the 1MDB scandal. It was bought by local gaming giant Genting Malaysia Bhd., which paid $126 million. It’s since been renamed Tranquility and was rented last month by Kylie Jenner for her 22nd birthday.

Other than Octopus, Allen’s estate also owns the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks and the National Basketball Association’s Portland Trail Blazers. The teams are worth more than $3 billion combined, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

At least half his assets were probably earmarked for charitable purposes after he joined the Giving Pledge, and an estate tax bill will apply on much of what remains as they’re liquidated.

Anyone buying Octopus is also getting a piece of popular cultural history. Jagger and Dave Stewart recorded tracks on the yacht, and U2’s preview for an album was so loud it burned out the speakers. Allen also has taken it for adventures that included what he described as his most memorable dive onto the deck a sunken aircraft carrier, as well as exploring an ancient Roman wreck in the Tyrrhenian sea.

“It’s less a Bentley than a Range Rover,” Allen said in the memoir, adding that “Octopus has realized every mission I had in mind for her.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Hailey Waller in New York at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at [email protected], Linus Chua, Steven Crabill

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Paul Allen's 414-foot superyacht is for sale for $325 million. Take a look at the late Microsoft cofounder's yacht, which has 2 helipads and a glass-bottomed underwater lounge.

• Paul Allen's former 414-foot superyacht is for sale for 295 million euros , or about $325 million, yacht brokerage Burgess told Business Insider.
• The Lürssen-built yacht, Octopus , has eight decks, an elevator, a cinema, two helipads, and a glass-bottomed underwater observation lounge.
• The yacht, which Allen reportedly paid about $200 million to have built, has been spotted cruising all around the world in places like Cannes , Hong Kong , Argentina, the Philippines, and even Antarctica .
• The late Microsoft cofounder was known to throw lavish themed parties on board that were attended by A-listers including George Lucas , Mick Jagger, Karlie Kloss , and Chloe Sevigny.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

A superyacht that belonged to late Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen has hit the market for 295 million euros, or about $325 million, yacht brokerage Burgess told Business Insider.

The 414-foot yacht, Octopus, has eight decks, an elevator, a cinema, two helipads, and a glass-bottomed underwater observation lounge. Allen reportedly paid about $200 million to have the superyacht built by Lürssen. It was officially launched in 2003.

Allen was known for hosting star-studded parties on his yacht during the Cannes International Film Festival in France. Guests have reportedly included George Lucas, Mick Jagger, Karlie Kloss, and Chloe Sevigny.

The vessel is one of several assets the late billionaire's estate has put up for sale since his death, including a $110 million Beverly Hills property and a MiG-29 fighter jet.

Take a look at Allen's superyacht and the places it's cruised, from Cannes and London to Argentina and Hong Kong.

Paul Allen's superyacht, Octopus, has hit the market for 295 million euros, or about $325 million.

The Microsoft cofounder, who died in October 2018 , reportedly paid about $200 million to have the superyacht built by Lürssen.

The 414-foot yacht, which was built in 2003 and refitted in 2019, has some truly lavish amenities spread out over its eight decks.

On its entertainment deck , the yacht has a cinema, gym, spa, and a basketball court. 

It also comes with a glass-bottomed underwater observation lounge and a hyperbaric chamber.

On its dedicated owner's deck, Octopus has a private elevator, a private bar, a hot tub, and an al fresco dining area.

The yacht can sleep up to 26 guests across 13 cabins, as well as 63 crew members in 30 crew cabins.

The superyacht has plenty of room for toys. Octopus comes with two helipads and storage space for seven tenders, two submersibles, and a large SUV.

It comes with a Pagoo , a submarine that can accommodate eight guests and two crew for dives of up to eight hours. 

Octopus is "one of the most well-traveled yachts in the global fleet," according to Burgess.

It's an ideal explorer yacht for those who want to travel to some of the world's most remote locations, according to the yacht brokerage firm. 

The superyacht has been spotted all over the world, from the coast of Turkey ...

... to London, England ...

... to Hong Kong ...

... to southern Argentina.

According to Burgess, the superyacht has also traveled to Antarctica, the Philippines, and traversed the Northwest Passage.

Allen was known for throwing star-studded parties on board Octopus during the Cannes International Film Festival in France.

The exclusive parties had a different elaborate theme each year, from Bollywood to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," as Raisa Bruner previously reported for Business Insider.

Guests reportedly included "Rolling Stones" frontman Mick Jagger, model Karlie Kloss, and Hollywood A-listers George Lucas, Mischa Barton, John C. Reilly, and Chloe Sevigny.

At the Bollywood-themed party in 2015, dancers performed musical dance numbers for the guests.

On va dire un groupe de #danse #indienne un peu particulier... Ils dansent sur la piscine recouverte pour la soirée... #Yacht #Octopus #PrivateParty #Cannes #Bilionnaire #Lifestyle #India #Bollywood A post shared by Céline Victoria Fotso (@celinefotso) on May 19, 2015 at 4:45am PDT May 19, 2015 at 4:45am PDT

For the "A Midsummer Night's Dream" party the next year, the yacht was transformed into an enchanted garden.

#enchantedgarden party aboard #myoctopus with a basketball hoop behind me and a #yellowsubmarine below and a helicopter in front! Thanks #paulallen for another incredible night aboard #octopus #cannesfilmfestival A post shared by DANIEL BENEDICT (@danielbenedict) on May 17, 2016 at 7:13am PDT May 17, 2016 at 7:13am PDT

Guests were given flower crowns and the vessel was decked out with floral arrangements and illuminated trees.

What a dreamy night thanks #PaulAllen for yet another spectacular evening. #octopus #superyacht #cannesfilmfestival #cannes2016 #festivaldecannes 🍾🍾🍾 thanks to @ivanbittonstylehouse @ivanbitton for styling me 💞💞 A post shared by Sheila Shah (@iamsheilashah) on May 16, 2016 at 8:20pm PDT May 16, 2016 at 8:20pm PDT

While performers were always brought on board, Allen was known to get onstage himself and rock out to some Led Zeppelin.

Paul Allen is really cool! Playing Led Zeppelin himself for guests on Octopus yacht A post shared by Vasily Klyukin (@vasilyklyukin) on May 17, 2016 at 6:56am PDT May 17, 2016 at 6:56am PDT

Allen's $325 million superyacht is among several sizable assets that have been put up for sale by the late billionaire's estate since his death.

The estate is also selling a $110 million plot of land in Beverly Hills that Allen owned for more than 20 years and his MiG-29 fighter jet.

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A billionaire got Paul Allen’s 414-foot-long Octopus megayacht to the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix and paid $138,000 just to moor it near the tracks and enjoy the race from the $285 million vessel

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OCTOPUS Yacht – $285M Superyacht For Charter

Measuring in at an impressive length of 126.2 meters the OCTOPUS yacht is the 21st largest yacht in the world.

With an estimated worth of $285 million, her owner is currently unknown.

This stunning vessel can comfortably accommodate up to 26 guests while having a crew of 57 on hand to cater to their needs.

Powered by Mercedes Diesel engines she can reach speeds up to 20 knots.

OCTOPUS yacht interior

The OCTOPUS yacht inter offers space for up to 26 guests in 13 cabins, including a spacious owner’s cabin and deck.

A well-trained crew of up to 63 crew members provides 5-star service onboard this luxury vessel.

OCTOPUS’ interior has several bars distributed across the different decks, a fully equipped spa, a cinema, a gym, a library, and even a basketball court.

The interior was designed by Jonathan Quinn Barnett, a well-known superyacht designer from Seattle, Washington.

OCTOPUS Boat Specifications

With a length of 126.20 meters (414 ft) and a beam of 21 meters (68 ft), the OCTOPUS yacht weighs in at an impressive 9,900 gross tons.

She is powered by 8 MTU engines producing a total of 19,200 hp (14,300 kW).

Her maximum speed lies at 19 knots, while her relatively slow cruising speed of 12 knots allows her to have a range of 12,500 nautical miles.

OCTOPUS is also equipped with the latest anchor and steering technology, which helps to maneuver the vessel.

OCTOPUS yacht has two helipads, one at the stern with its own hangar and one at the bow.

She has a total of seven tenders, one of which is 13 meters long and can almost be considered its own yacht.

The OCTOPUS superyacht also has two submarines on board, one of which is remotely controlled while the other can accommodate eight people.

The internal dock of the megayacht can be used to dry lay vessels of up to 20 meters for possible repairs. The mega yacht also has a large pool on deck as well as a jacuzzi and a spacious beach club.

The onboard elevator system ensures that guests and crew can move quickly between the eight decks.

For the entertainment of the guests, the yacht carries scuba diving equipment, jet skis, and other water toys.

OCTOPUS Price & Charter

The former owner of the OCTOPUS superyacht paid a price of US $200 million for the yacht in 2003 and she generates annual running costs between US $20 and 35 million.

As of 2022, OCTOPUS is available for charter for the first time ever since her launch. She costs approximately 2.2 Million Euro’s per week.

In 2022 in Summer she will be available in Central America and the Pacific while in Winter she will be in Antarctica.

For 2023 she will be located in the Mediterranean and the weekly rate is expected to remain the same.

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Octopus Yacht Uncovered: An Insider’s Look at the Luxury Yacht

Launched back in the year 2003, the Octopus yacht was built by famous shipyard Lurssen out of Germany. Lurssen has been behind numerous other superyachts such as Kismet and Dilbar and many more. The exterior design was handled by Espen Øino Naval Architects while the interior was handled by American designer Jonathan Quinn Barnett.

Who Owns the Octopus Yacht?

The Octopus yacht was owned by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. In addition to being a private pleasure yacht for Allen, the Octopus has served a variety of purposes over the years thanks to him loaning it out. It has served as an exploration vessel, been used for scientific research and has even seen use as a rescue vessel.

Allen died in 2018 and at that time the yacht underwent a refit at Blohm + Voss. In 2019 it was put on sale for a price of €295 million. The price was dropped by about 60 million and in 2021 it was picked up by an anonymous buyer. However, the anonymity didn’t last long and it was later revealed that Swedish billionaire Roger Samuelsson.

How Big is the Octopus Motor Yacht?

The Octopus more than qualifies as a superyacht coming in at an incredible 126.2 meters or 414 feet. While the largest yachts in the world are over 500 feet, the Octopus is clearly massive and could rightly be labeled a megayacht and one of the world’s largest yachts as well.

Aside from the incredible length of the vessel, it features a beam just shy of 69 feet across. The gross tonnage is 9,932.

How Much Did the Yacht Octopus Cost?

Paul Allen purchased the Octopus back in 2003. At that time the vessel cost him $200 million. Adjusted for inflation, that would work out to about $327 million by today, clearly making this one of the more expensive yachts in the world. That said, it still doesn’t meet the bar for one of the most expensive yachts ever by quite a bit.

Can You Charter the Octopus Yacht?

The Octopus is available for charter through the yacht firm Camper and Nicholsons but it’s definitely not available for most budgets. We’ve covered other yachts before that are owned by billionaires and are available for charter at some steep prices that often range around $1.2 million per week. The Octopus goes to the next level. 

You can charter the Octopus for about $2.2 million per week and that doesn’t include expenses. So you’ll be paying for things like food and fuel separately. Suffice it to say that this is not a charter for everyone but the option is there. 

Is the Octopus Yacht for Sale?

After its initial purchase in 2003 the Octopus was not available for sale until 2019 after owner Paul Allen passed away. There are currently some websites that claim the Octopus is for sale now and you can make an offer but the reliability of those sites is unknown and they do list the previous sale price from 2019 so they may not be current.

How Fast is the Octopus Yacht and What Engines Does it Use?

The Octopus has a cruising speed listed at 12.5 knots and a top speed listed at 19 knots. This is provided thanks to 8 MTU diesel engines that can generate a total of 19,200 hp. The yacht has an impressive range of up to 12,500 nautical miles at cruising speed thanks to her 1,034,000 liter fuel tanks 

What’s the Octopus Yacht Interior Like?

The Octopus covers eight decks and has room on board for a total of 26 guests and 63 crew. The guests can find accommodations in a full-beam master suite, two VIP suites, seven double rooms and three twins, one with an additional single bed.

The master suite is on a dedicated owner’s deck and features a king size bed, his and hers en suite bathrooms and a private observation deck that includes an al fresco dining area. There’s also a private bar and Jacuzzi There is also an owner exclusive private elevator for use. 

For years the details of the interior were a closely guarded secret while Paul Allen was still the owner. In fact, designer Espen Oeino said that this was the first yacht that ever required him to sign an NDA to keep its design secret. Since then he’s signed many more, but the Octopus was where it started. However, since Allen’s passing and the sale of the yacht, the transition to a vessel available for charter has allowed us to learn a lot more about the Octopus and its amenities and entertainment facilities.

Features and Amenities

The Octopus is an ice-class exploration yacht so it can go where many other luxury yachts cannot. It has two helipads as well as garages to house two helicopters. In addition, guests can find the following on board.

• There’s a large swimming pool to the aft of the yacht on the main deck. It features numerous loungers and its own cocktail bar. There’s also a retractable glass floor that covers the pool when not in use.
• A dance floor for parties
• A movie theater
• A well equipped gym for working out
• A relaxation spa that includes a sauna
• A large indoor/outdoor beach club area
• A large deck Jacuzzi
• A glass bottomed observation lounge
• A well-stocked library for those evenings when you want to curl up with a good book

For those who want to have some more intense fun out on the water, the Octopus has a number of toys that can be used.

• 59’5” Delta Powerboats 54′ Tender
• 30’8” Vikal Custom Limo Tender with a pair of 260 HP engines
• A 10-person submarine named Pagoo which we’ll talk more about shortly
• A dive center with a hyperbaric chamber and scuba gear
• A large swim platform
• A diving platform
• 4 separate 2 seat Yamaha FX140 Waverunners
• 2 separate 2 Person Hobie Pursuit Kayaks
• An Epic V5 Kayak
• 3 Windsurfers for a range of skill levels
• A stand up Yamaha jet ski
• 3 surfboards
• Kite surfers 
• Water skis and a variety of towable toys 
• Snorkeling gear
• Fishing gear

Octopus Rescue Work

The Octopus also features a not entirely typical on board submarine and also a very rare ROV or remote operated vehicle which is essentially a remote control sub. These had been used a number of times on rescue operations when Paul Allen owned the vessel.

The sub and ROV were used to help find a pilot and two officers who vanished off the coast of Palau, and even aided the Royal Navy in finding the bell from the HMS Hood which sank off of Denmark in WWII.

The Octopus has also aided in scientific research, most notably when researchers were studying coelacanth, a species of prehistoric fish thought to have been extinct for millions of years. 

What is the Octopus Yacht Deck Plan?

You can see the full deck plans here. The Octopus was designed to feature some things you would never expect to find on a yacht. For instance, it had a fully equipped recording studio where the band U2 did some recording. The studio also hosted Usher, Mick Jagger and Joss Stone. However, the studio has since been replaced with a bar and lounge area.

In addition to the studio the yacht was designed with a storm cabin to help minimize the effects of bad weather and a full medical center in case of emergencies. Many of these features no longer exist since the retrofit after Paul Allen’s death.

One extremely unique feature is the central clock. Braided stainless-steel shrouds from a sailing vessel were strung on either side of the grand staircase from lower to upper deck. The designer enlisted the aid of a 102-year-old German clock making company to help bring the idea to life. It also uses digital audio software so that on a regular basis the strings can play snippets from literally any song to indicate the passage of time.

The Bottom Line

The Octopus yacht was once owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen until his death in 2018. Afterwards, some of the yacht was redesigned and it was sold for close to $300 million to Swedish billionaire Roger Samuelsson. 

The Octopus is a massive exploration yacht measuring 414 feet making it large but nowhere near as big as something like the massive Azzam . It has been used for scientific research and rescue missions in the past and is now available for charter though at a steep price.

While it has many of the expected amenities of luxury yachts it also features some more exotic fare like the minisub with room for 8 passengers and two crew, as well as a stunning array of toys and other features.

My grandfather first took me fishing when I was too young to actually hold up a rod on my own. As an avid camper, hiker, and nature enthusiast I'm always looking for a new adventure.

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The superyachts owned by tech moguls

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is set to join the exclusive club of yacht-owning tech tycoons as the rumoured owner of Oceanco's mighty 127m sailing yacht . Though it should come as no surprise - other big names in tech such as the late Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and Paul Allen have been responsible for some of the biggest and most ground-breaking superyachts in the world...

The 127-metre Oceanco sailing yacht Koru, formerly Y721, was launched and reportedly delivered to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in April 2023. This three-masted schooner, meaning “new beginnings” in Maori, with an expected 33000 GT and a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, is the largest in the world and the longest built in the Netherlands at Oceanco. Knocking Lürssen's Eos , owned by Biller and Diane von Furstenburg, off the top spot, Koru harnesses design similarities with her black hull, white superstructure and classic lines. However, the intricate gold paintwork, scarlet bootstrap and elaborate figurehead on the bow particularly set her apart.

Larry Ellison

American business magnate Larry Ellison is the co-founder of the billion-dollar computer tech corporation Oracle. In 2004, he commissioned the 138-metre Lürssen superyacht Rising Sun (pictured), which stands today as the 15th largest yacht in the world. It was also the last yacht that ever came from the drawing boards of legendary designed Jon Bannenberg, sporting a military-esque profile with a lean destroyer-type hull and extensive use of structural glass . Rising Sun boasts 8,000m² of living space including a wine cellar and basketball court, with a crew of 45. One of her tenders, a catamaran, even carries the yacht’s 4x4 vehicle ashore. 

Ellison later sold the yacht to media mogul David Geffen and has since hosted a parade of Hollywood's glitterati on board including Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen and Oprah Winfrey – to name a few. 

In 2011, Ellison appeared to downsize and took delivery of the 88-metre Feadship Musashi . Not unlike Rising Sun in its appearance, structural glass features heavily throughout with a central glass lift, surrounded by a stainless steel and glass staircase that passes through every deck.

More about this yacht

The late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is responsible for two of the most iconic superyachts in the world. At 126-metres in length, Octopus is perhaps his most famous. Built by Lürssen in 2003, this ice-classed superyacht was designed for extended cruising to the most remote locations on earth with a range of 12,500 nautical miles. Home to a helicopter garage, drive-in tender garage, six tenders, and a submarine, she packs a serious punch within her 9,932GT – not to mention the cinema, swimming pool, recording studio, basketball court and spa. At the end of 2019, she joined the market for the very first time , having completed an eight-month refit at Blohm+Voss, and remains the benchmark for exploration yachting.

Tatoosh is another honourable mention and was built by German shipyard Nobiskrug in 2000, three years prior to the delivery of Octopus . At 92-metres, she's smaller than her successor, but to describe Tatoosh as "small" would be a severe understatement. Highlights include a six-foot-deep swimming pool, a pair of helipads, a crew of 30, and a custom 12-metre Hinckley powerboat that she carries on her top deck. Tatoosh is also listed for sale following a refit earlier this year. 

Yachts for charter

The 78-metre Feadship Venus was built for the late Apple boss and founder Steve Jobs. Built under the codename Project Aqua, Venus was launched to international fanfare in 2012, heralded for its extensive use of glass and pared-back design courtesy of Philippe Starck . Innovative features include a false top deck that conceals the communication and television receivers from view and a passarelle that, when opened, looks like the charging port of an iPhone. Venus ’s interior details have been closely guarded since its launch. Sadly, Jobs died a year before the yacht was delivered.

Charles Simonyi

Charles Simonyi led the team that built the first edition of the Microsoft Office software suite and was rumoured to have previously owned Lürssen’s iconic 71-metre SKAT .  Nearly two decades after her launch in 2002, she joined the market for the first time and now Simonyi is thought to have upgraded to the 89-metre Lürssen Norn . Both yachts, penned by Espen Onion, share similar design features. Standout features include an alfresco cinema and adapted depth pool floor with dance floor. Norn was delivered in May 2023.

Sergey Brin

Google co-founder Sergey Brin reportedly owns the high-speed SilverYachts superyacht named Dragonfly , after Google’s once-secret project to launch a censored search engine in China. Delivered in 2009, the 73.3-metre Dragonfly was hailed as the fastest, most fuel-efficient long-range cruising superyacht on the water with a transatlantic range at 22 knots and a fuel consumption of only 360 litres per hour at 18 knots, extending her range to 4,500 nautical miles. Dragonfly is said to have a dance floor and open-air movie theatre on board. The vessel was applauded for its contribution to the disaster relief effort in Vanuatu after Hurricane Pam devastated the island in 2015. The crew reportedly moved 62 metric tons of freshwater ashore, treated over 250 patients, facilitated three medical evacuations, and built shelters in multiple villages and cleared numerous helicopter landing zones for ongoing support.

Yachts for sale

Google’s billionaire co-founder Larry Page purchased the 60-metre explorer yacht conversion Senses from a New Zealand businessman Sir Douglas Myers back in 2011. The globe-trotting superyacht features interiors by Philippe Starck and can accommodate a total of 12 guests on board, with primary guests reaping the benefits of the master suite's gyro-stabilised bed. Senses also houses an exceptional toy box with three high-speed tenders, six wave runners, a jet board and a JetLev. According to the New Zealand Herald, Senses is currently undergoing a refit in Whangārei, New Zealand, after being sold to an unknown buyer in 2020. 

Barry Diller

The world’s largest three-masted schooner – also the third largest sailing yacht in the world – is owned by fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg and her husband Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia Group. The 92.92-metre sailing yacht, named Eos , was built in Germany by Lürssen and delivered in 2006 with a trio of masts that stand 61-metres tall. The sailing yacht has hosted the couple's star-studded group of friends including Andy Cohen, Gayle King, Bradley Cooper, Harry Styles and Karlie Kloss. The interiors were designed by Francois Catroux, who Vanity Fair named as “the super-rich's favourite interior designer" in 2016.

Mark Zuckerburg

The 107-metre Kleven superyacht Andromeda was built for serial superyacht owner Graeme Hart and delivered under the name Ulysses . In 2017, a year after its launch, rumours began circulating that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg had purchased the rugged, six-deck explorer (although a Facebook spokesperson was quick to stamp out the rumours and released a statement denying the claims). Andromeda can carry 36 guests and is equipped with an impressive inventory of toys and tenders, including six motorbikes, two ATVs, a helicopter and an amphibious rib. Five years after her launch, Andromeda still ranks among the largest explorer yachts in the world . 

Eric Schmidt

The former Google ceo Eric Schmidt backed out of the purchase of the abandoned 81.3-metre Oceanco Alfa Nero but has been said to have moved onto become the new owner of a 95-metre Lürssen. Kismet was sold in September 2023 to the billionaire as part of one of the biggest brokerage deal of the year. With the details shrouded in secrecy the yacht is now aptly known as Whisper . Espen Onio was responsible for her iconic exterior while inside was thanks to  Reymond Langton , achieving the original brief from the previous commissioning owner Shahid Khan of “caviar and champagne.” Standout details include the hi-tech, art deco saloon, a private observation platform and the Persian-inspired spa area.

The co-founder and former ceo of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, has been rumoured to own the 99.9-metre Feadship , Moonrise. The yacht’s clean and strong lines, penned by Chris Bottoms from Studio de Voogt , won the highly competitive class of best displacement motor yachts above 3,000 GT in the World Superyacht Awards 2021. Features include the helicopter landing deck and modern interiors by Remi Tessier . Accommodation is for up to 16 guests, and there are 32 crew members onboard Moonrise to attend to the guests' every need. The Ukrainian-American mogul is also said to own the accompanying support vessel Nebula.

Evan Speigel

The Silicone Valley ceo, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel has been reportedly said to own the 94.8-metre Feadship Bliss. Delivered in 2021 the motor yacht penned by Feadship's Studio De Voogt Naval Architects has most recently been spotted cruising Auckland in September 2023. Spiegel is rumoured to be Feadship's younger client. Bliss can accommodate up to 18 guests across nine staterooms; however little else is known about the 2983 GT yacht.

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The world's largest octopus sculpture has landed in NYC

And it’s brought along some friends.

It’s time to Oc-topi Wall Street!

Gillie and Marc, the renowned artistic duo known for a number of larger-than-life wildlife sculptures , are exhibiting an array of animal sculptures outside the World Trade Center, including the world’s largest octopus sculpture!

The exhibition named “Wildlife Wonders” includes three interactive bronze works from other pieces that feature their main two iconic characters, Rabbitwomen and Dogman, as well as sculptures of a range of endangered species. The spotlight, however, is on the giant octopus, which spans a whopping 36 feet and weighs around 7 tons. Woven throughout the animal’s eight tentacles are numerous endangered species, like rhinos and zebras.

It will be on display on the South Oculus Plaza from July 16, 2024, through July 31, 2025.  

RECOMMENDED : An Endangered tree kangaroo has been born at the Bronx Zoo

The creative pair are known for their celebration of wildlife conservation, where they prove that art can inspire positive change. While their sculptures are first and foremost to raise awareness about conservation they also welcome a playful response with their interactive qualities.

“In the last 50 years, wildlife populations have plummeted by 69% globally. We are now facing the world’s sixth mass extinction,” Gillie stated. “This crisis is beyond description, yet we remain hopeful and committed to witnessing change within our lifetimes. We trust that our art and the stories we tell can inspire people to engage in vital conversations and take meaningful action.” Their exhibitions both raise awareness and celebrate the beauty of wildlife. 

Along with the main piece “The Arms of Friendship,” the two others are titled “The Wild Table of Love” and “The Hippo Was Hungry To Try New Things With Rabbitwoman.” The former is a banquet scene with a bronze table set for both humans and animals. Like the tentacles, the sculpture welcomes you to sit and invites the viewer to join in on the festivities. All these whimsical scenes are made to put a playful spin on the discussion of wildlife conservation.  

Go check out these wondrous sculptures and remind yourself of the whimsy and awe of wildlife, maybe even sit on a tentacle or two.

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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Music and Concerts | The new Minnesota Yacht Club Festival enjoys…

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Music and concerts, subscriber only, music and concerts | the new minnesota yacht club festival enjoys breezy opening on harriet island, it’s the first major rock/pop festival on the site in a dozen years.

Fans listen to country singer Morgan Wade during the inaugural Minnesota Yacht Club festival at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul on Friday, July 19, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Country singer Morgan Wade performs during the inaugural Minnesota Yacht Club festival at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul on Friday, July 19, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Melissa Nelson from St. Cloud dances with a hula-hoop as she listens to Minnesota-based band Harbor & Home during the inaugural Minnesota Yacht Club festival at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul on Friday, July 19, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Fans of Gwen Stefani wearing "HollaBack" shirts dance and sing as they listen to country singer Morgan Wade during the inaugural Minnesota Yacht Club festival at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul on Friday, July 19, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

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Yacht Club, which continues Saturday, is the first major rock and pop festival on Harriet Island since Live Nation’s River’s Edge Music Festival in 2012. Despite promising St. Paul a five-year commitment, the concert promoting giant lost enough money to convince them to pull out after a single year.

Live Nation owns 51% of Yacht Club organizers C3 Presents, an Austin, Texas, company that’s also behind Austin City Limits Music Festival, Voodoo Music + Arts Experience and the modern-day Lollapalooza. But Live Nation apparently allows C3 to follow its own path.

Some concertgoers complained about food and drink prices, and long lines, but in terms of getting in and around the site, the infrastructure and general vibe, C3’s experience in mounting festivals became quite clear by late Friday afternoon, when Joan Jett and the Blackhearts played an hourlong set to a large, grinning and dancing crowd. (Organizers did not release an attendance number, but have said they expect more than 30,000 people each of the two days.)

On Thursday, Yacht Club’s social media announced reunited Southern rockers the Black Crowes had pulled out of their planned set at 8 p.m. Friday due to “illness in the band.” (The Crowes, however, did not address their absence online.) Rather than drafting an 11th hour replacement, the festival reworked the schedule and gave several acts more time on stage. Local band Durry got pushed nearly two hours later into the schedule for a set that started at 5:40, while Seattle indie folk act the Head and the Heart graduated to the Black Crowes’ planned 8 p.m. slot.

Local favorites Gully Boys opened the festival at 1 p.m. on the main stage followed by fellow homegrown act Harbor and Home on the smaller stage. From that point on, performances alternated between the two stages, with just minutes between bands.

Sets from buzzy country artist Morgan Wade and indie rockers Michigander paved the way for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, who earned cheers for their famous covers “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah),” “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Crimson and Clover” and “Everyday People” as well as band originals “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and “Bad Reputation.” They also covered the Replacements’ “Androgynous,” with Jett giving a shout out to the late Minneapolis band and their leader Paul Westerberg.

RELATED: What to know if you’re headed to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter took the stage prior to Gwen Stefani’s performance and asked the crowd to applaud the police and other city workers who helped make the festival happen. He also suggested it would return for a second year in 2025.

Stefani — who was promoted as a headliner along with Friday’s final act Alanis Morissette and Saturday’s main attraction the Red Hot Chili Peppers — performed with dancers and video at what sounded like a louder volume than the previous bands. She told the audience her brother-in-law is from Minnesota, so that sort of makes her a local. She then pulled out her husband, former “The Voice” coach Blake Shelton, to sing their current single “Purple Irises.”

It’s been some 18 years since her last substantial solo hit, but Stefani has remained in the spotlight thanks to her high-profile husband and the semi-regular duet singles they’ve released over the last eight years. Stefani and her band No Doubt reunited in April to headline Coachella to much acclaim, but have yet to announce any future plans together. Whatever happens, Friday’s crowd — which was heavy on geriatric millennials and Gen Xers with a smattering of boomers — gave Stefani a warm reception that matched the ideal summertime weather that graced the festival on Friday.

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I Put Up a Fence in Maine. Why Did It Cause Such a Fuss?

The goal was to shield our house from the road, but it soon turned into something much more revealing.

The author, Heidi Julavits, at her home, which was built in 1815. Credit... Fumi Nagasaka for The New York Times

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By Heidi Julavits

Heidi Julavits is a writer who grew up in Portland, Maine.

• July 15, 2024

When we bought our house in Maine 23 years ago, people welcomed us to town with tales of local mishaps and gaffes. Barns that almost burned down. Pipes that burst. The man a mile down the road who built a fence. This chatty imparting of intel functioned simultaneously as a gesture of hospitality and a comical how-not-to primer, containing valuable survival and etiquette tips. Our town of about 830 residents more than doubles in size during the summer, when part-time residents like me arrive. The fence story suggested what types of behavior on your personal property were, and were not, considered neighborly in a town where zoning ordinances are few.

Listen to this article, read by Kirsten Potter

“You won’t ever get rid of the magazine room, will you?” people asked. The magazine room is on our house’s second floor. It’s basically a vintage mood board, and more of a windowless crawl space than a room, accessible through what looks like a cupboard door. A much earlier resident, or successive generations of earlier residents, had patchworked the pitched, unpainted walls of the magazine room with clippings from what appeared to be fashion, adventure-story and homemaking periodicals dating to the first half of the 1900s.

We promised never to renovate the magazine room.

We promised to change very little about our house, at least what was visible from the road, including the 11-foot-tall deciduous hedge that ran the length of our yard and seasonally blurred our view of the traffic coming in and out of town.

But then the hedge began to fail. An expert from a nearby nursery arrived with a clipboard and pronounced our hedge an invasive, nonnative weed, not worth saving. But we loved the weed. We topped it. We fertilized it.

It was on the leisurely upswing when, 16 years after we bought our house, a woman driving a fancy S.U.V. jumped the culvert, plowed through the hedge, jumped the culvert again and sped off. Had the man behind her not followed her home, she might have tried to get away with her (as everyone agreed) very impressive stunt driving.

We weren’t in town at the time, and so could only view photographic evidence of the damage: the gouged earth, the long hedge like a smile missing some of its teeth. Our reaction was impulsive and in retrospect, baffling: We would use the money we received from the stunt driver to put up a fence.

Even one year earlier, we might have planted a new hedge, possibly even a native one. But the person driving over our front lawn felt like a slapstick escalation of a recent trend I had observed. Previously, living on our road was like living on the ocean, but with much lower property taxes; its perils could be charted and managed, like the tides. But then the unofficial speed limit outside our house increased from 35 m.p.h. to 45, even occasionally 50. At this time, I had younger children, and many friends with young children, and a trampoline in the backyard that, even if we weren’t home, was “open” to bouncing enthusiasts, which sometimes included middle-aged men when the neighborhood threw parties. The slight curve near our driveway made it difficult to see cars coming at higher speeds, which meant even adults, people arguably in possession of better judgment than a 7-year-old, were nearly hit a few times trying to leave on a bike.

At first, I accepted (even embraced!) the road as my problem to solve, and thus I indulged many energizing, problem-solving fantasies. I would pay my daughter to wear a cop costume and stand at the end of our driveway and point a hair dryer, which at high speeds would register as a radar gun, at oncoming cars. I would put up the sort of signs that make me slow down. FREE STUFF. YARD SALE. I would buy a baby doll, strap it into a stroller and leave the stroller in the middle of the road.

But I also felt resigned to a foregone fate. The intensifying situation on the road, I suspected, was the natural progression of an economic agreement struck more than a century ago between transportation advances and Maine as a nonexportable resource. The state’s slogan “Vacationland” first appeared on car license plates in 1936 and still appears on the Maine border sign that greets drivers as they enter via I-95, the state’s primary national highway. But Maine’s identity as a seasonal purification rite for urbanites dates further back than even the invention of cars, to the years following the Civil War.

I’m neurotically attuned (some might say) to this history’s lingering rumbles. I was born and raised in Maine, and so I’ve been versed since my earliest moments of sentience in Maine’s identity as something both staunchly fixed and, during the summer months, menaced from all directions, including the sea, by visitors — “From Aways.” While my parents moved to Portland in 1965, after which my brother and I were born, we were also, according to some measures of nativeness, invaders ourselves. Rather than “Mainers Who Can Trace Their Mainerness Back Through Many Generations of Other Mainers Who Lived Only in Maine,” my parents, and by eventual extension my brother and I, were the type of Mainer defined as “Year-Round Resident, Seasonally Irritated.”

Yet my father was and is Mainer enough that this history still irks him. He recently, while visiting, groused of summer people (to me, now technically a summer person), “They showed up thinking we should adapt to their ways, rather than them adapting to ours.” His frustration was not about “us” demanding compliance, and failing to get it, from part-time residents or tourists; he was reacting to the outsiders’ hubristic refusal to value local knowledge that a person might share as a form of wary welcome.

He and my mother still love to tell the story that they heard from friends of an 1980s invasion by the New York Yacht Club, when their annual summer cruise came to Maine. The story, which the Yacht Club denies ever happened, has to me the true-ringing feel of what was then a century’s worth of encounters between Mainers and summer people, efficiently condensed into a colorful how-not-to tale. The club members, ignoring the cautions from local bystanders, piled onto a dock as if it were a commuter-train platform and waited for a launch to take them to their individual yachts, presumably sailed north for them by hired captains. The dock float sank lower and lower and finally swamped, dumping into the harbor the club members, some of whom had flown to the Portland International Jetport straight from New York in their business suits and were still, when they hit the ocean, holding their briefcases.

During the summer of 2016, when the speed of cars driving past our house was frequently 10 to 15 m.p.h. above the posted limit, I did something I’d never done before. I complained. I visited the town selectmen, one of whom asked, “Are you related to Bill?” He and my father worked together, we eventually determined, back in the ’90s. This is how encounters tend to start in a state with just over a million people, in a town with just under a thousand people, when you have a last name that not even your close childhood friends can spell.

The selectmen were sympathetic to the speeding issue — I was not the first to complain, and nor were these complaints coming only from seasonal residents — but their message of thoughtful, if cautious, consideration reflected those I’d encountered in casual conversation. Possibly, the town’s attitude toward speeding was like the attitude toward zoning laws, or the ongoing lack of them — a respectful attempt to manage new civic challenges while preserving the state’s historical spirit of self-determination.

My husband and I honored that spirit after the stunt driver busted through our hedge. Our small son, when informed about our plans to build a fence, stared melancholically through the ragged gap, as if we’d just told him that we intended to continue the damage that the stunt driver had only begun — which in a sense, we had.

“Only depressed people build fences,” he said.

We didn’t lecture him on the difference between depression and anxiety, between anxiety and acute situational awareness, between acute situational awareness and instant, awful death, because first we needed to fully kill the hedge we had spent nearly a decade trying to save. Then we needed someone to install the fence. We settled on a fence company located a little over an hour away. The reviews were good. Their customers — whoever they were, and in whatever bizarre, fence-loving towns they lived — seemed happy.

But as we scrolled through fence styles online, none seemed like the obvious choice. My inability to know which fence was the right fence should have suggested: There was no right fence. True, I was not fluent in the language of fences. I didn’t know how tall a fence should be. I didn’t know what kind of fence would look best with our house, because our house, and most houses like it, did not have fences marking a property boundary. Maine was more of a “sign” place. This was how you knew you were crossing, or trespassing, a border.

Signs change, however; or maybe it’s more accurate to say that the messages on signs do. Despite what would seem to be its wild success, the “Vacationland” state slogan was updated in 1987 by Maine’s Office of Tourism to “The Way Life Should Be.” (A giant sign posted on I-95 near Kittery read in full, “Welcome Home/The Way Life Should Be.”)

This new slogan, while on its surface more breezily aspirational, caused perplexity, and signaled different things to different people. If, for example, a person had recently met with their local elected officials, they might think that Maine, as a matter of no-frills pragmatism (and increasingly, it seemed, as a marketing virtue) wasn’t hampered by the sometimes-unnuanced oversteps of federal governance. Others might find the slogan puzzlingly out of touch, given that poverty rates were on the rise; what, too, might the slogan imply in a state whose racial demographics were 98 percent white? Others might worry the slogan could risk insulting tourists, presumably the target audience, about their way of life.

“The Way Life Should Be,” depending on the song that happened to be playing in your car after you drove over the border and first beheld the welcome sign, could also thrum with minor-key warning: Don’t come here thinking that things need to change.

But one thing that kept changing was the state’s highway signage. Gov. Angus King, an independent who held office from 1995 until 2003, installed two additional signs flanking I-95, “Maine. Worth a Visit. Worth a Lifetime” — the equivalent of a person seeding your subconscious as you entered the state and then handing you a tempting real estate listing as you left. Later, in 2011, Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, sharpened King’s suggestive soft sell into what sounded like a deregulated fire sale by attaching, beneath the original northbound sign, a supplemental message. Now it read, “Welcome to Maine/The Way Life Should Be/OPEN FOR BUSINESS.”

Our choice of fence may have abided by some, all or none of these slogans. Seven feet tall, the fence was solid, not lattice-y, made of vertical cedar tongue-and-groove boards. (The invoice we received from the fence company bluntly itemized it as a “privacy panel.”) We had decided that if we were going to build a fence, we should seize the chance not to see cars, and to muffle the rise and fall of their engines. Before the stunt-driver incident, some friends were visiting with their dog when it ran into the road and was killed. (My father, standing in our yard at the time, said, “At least it wasn’t a kid.” He might have tabled this observation for a few hours or weeks, but he wasn’t wrong.) At that point, I was still hearing a large animal being struck every time a car drove by, especially because of what my father had said: The dog might have been a kid.

The fence we chose was topped by a mini-fence detail that ran the length of it, to visually soften the highway-sound-barrier vibe. The cap rail read “fence” in the way the fence did not, which further suggested: This fence was not only a fence. It was also an overreaction — a fearful response to what might have happened, rather than what did. And if the fence was meant to decrease the chances that a person might drive into the yard again, or that one of us might be hit on the road, it did not make us safer from either threat.

I wasn’t home the day the fence was installed. I left in the morning, and by the time I returned, it was there. It was far too tall for our tiny house behind it. It was an unweathered cedar slab, practically neon-yellow when the sun hit it. It gave me an awful feeling of remorse in the pit of my stomach from the moment I first saw it.

The fence caused an immediate stir, which I found highly distressing, but also affirming, because I agreed with the dissenters, some of whom were my dear friends. Other members of the community conveyed their feelings publicly, in writing. Our town is home to at least one, and maybe more, anonymous activists who express their opinions via handmade signs; they’re like an online comments section, posted high — often very high — in the air. One of these commenters posted a sign on the road, just north of our house, which, on the plus side, possibly caused the average speed limit to temporarily decrease. TRUMP’S BORDER WALL 1 MILE AHEAD. The sign was nailed to the top of an electrical pole; the inability to remove it without a bucket truck reinforced the permanence of the opinion.

At first, this message, much like “The Way Life Should be,” contained a multiplicity of possible readings. What might, however, initially be interpreted as a protest by a left-wing resident was in fact — at least I think it was — in 2017 a much more layered calling-out of our presumed liberalism, as city-dwelling From Aways. If so, I took their point. Look at these hypocritical people who are probably opposed to Trump’s wall, putting up a wall.

After the initial furor died down, circumspect friends would say, consolingly, “It’ll gray up eventually.” One or two congratulated me. I had every right to build a fence. Others refused to countenance my regret. When I shared my thoughts about future plants or bushes that might take the fence’s place, should it magically disappear, one person said, “I think you have to accept the fact of the fence.”

These varied responses summed up the paradox of the fence. It was the most From Away thing I could have done; it was also the most Maine thing I could have done. People were discouraged from building fences, but because it was our property, nobody had the right to tell us what we could do on it.

This also probably explained why no one vandalized the fence, even though it was a long, blank canvas that honestly might have looked a little cheerier with a hit of spray paint. It was my psychological boundary line made material. People respected it. In some ways, they respected it too much. The fence altered our social weather patterns. Before the fence, friends and acquaintances would stop by regularly. After we built the fence, these impromptu visits slowed. Some people started to text beforehand to announce they’d be dropping by, or to ask if it was OK; they suddenly felt they needed permission to see us.

As the summer wound down, acquaintances and friends would ask ribbingly, “How’s your wall?” Most people had an opinion, or a teasing-yet-not comment, which at a minimum illustrates how visible our house is and how many people drive past it.

Yet on the plus side, which I strove to see, we were becoming the future tale to be told to newcomers; our fence, and the community response to it, would be entered in the oral history, and we would be immortalized. It wouldn’t be the first time: After taking ownership of our house in 2001, we wasted no time starring in a cautionary story about arrivals to town who didn’t know much. Our very first winter, we turned off the breaker to the sump pump instead of the well pump, and then there was a violent rainstorm, then the basement flooded, then the furnace became submerged and broke, then the temperature plummeted, then the pipes burst, then the well pump continued to empty the well water into the dining room, and because our foundation slumps toward the woods, then the water flowed out below the roofline and formed a thick, frozen waterfall on the exterior wall that threatened to pull down the back half of the house.

Not for the last time, we were a source of comedic incompetence; we had failed to understand how winter works, and how water works, and how electricity works. But the story of the fence was proof of a different, more publicly visible failure to understand. Or worse: understanding, but not caring.

We did care. This made the fact of the fence inscrutable even to us. Not even a year after building the fence, my husband stood outside one evening, assessing it with a look of bewilderment. “I don’t know why we did that,” he said.

The following summer, we planted a row of native, climbing hydrangeas to cover the exterior of the fence in green so that, to those driving by even at moderate speeds, it might be indistinguishable from the previous hedge. The hydrangeas grew quickly, but not quickly enough. I found myself caught between guilt and annoyance when greeted by someone with another “wall” joke. If the people who lived in town weren’t thrilled with the fence, they had every good reason to feel that way, because we’d permanently altered their view; also, they had learned to coexist with the road without building a fence, so why couldn’t we?

I had less patience for the seasonal people who lived on the water, far from the busy road. They were cranky that their scenic drive to the grocery store had been changed; they could no longer be cleansed by the preindustrial beauty of Maine as they sped past our old farmhouse to buy food. I had to hold my tongue when a patrician summer person who lived on the coast, down two private dirt roads, announced to me, “It is a person’s community duty not to change the front of their house.”

Which sentiment I did not entirely disagree with. Our house, for example, was both ours and not. For nearly a decade, our house was referred to by the former owner’s name; for the FedEx delivery person to find us, we had to repeatedly clarify that we lived in their house. In our town, maybe in many small towns, the houses are a way of recording recent human history. Our house was communal property, in a sense; a public holding of the historical society.

This was also why we were so committed to preserving the magazine room. It functioned as a museum to the generations who preceded us. I often took visitors up to see the clippings, though the room had become harder and harder to access. First there were five, then 10, then 15 years’ worth of books and clothing barricading entry. Only the most agile person could squeeze past the threshold, or a committed, bushwhacking person like my daughter, who always found a new cache of clothes that interested her as the fashion trends in her present made renewably relevant the leftovers of our past, which we had stuffed into trash bags and taken to hurling from the doorway into the middle of the room.

Yet questions of preservation — and how a slogan like “The Way Life Should Be” might freeze a place in time, or raise questions of what should be, rather than what is — could, depending on your interpretation, suggest a widespread consensus that never existed. In 2019, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, replaced LePage’s “Welcome to Maine/The Way Life Should Be/OPEN FOR BUSINESS” with, simply, “MAINE/Welcome Home.” (Three months later Mills added back the 1987 slogan; the sign currently reads “MAINE/Welcome Home/The Way Life Should Be.”) This latest tweak might announce the state’s increased openness, not just to seasonal visitors but also to people relocating from other states and countries. It might be an exhortation for residents, new and old, to consider the state not as a fixed entity but as an increasingly porous and diverse one, built atop a sturdy foundation of resourcefulness and autonomy.

The responsibilities a newcomer might have, or not have, in a place they call home, even for part of the year — these are questions that I think about constantly. When is inaction in the name of respect, or preservation, an abnegation of civic duty? When is preservation used as noble cover to forbid new people’s access to a place? When is a newcomer’s confident sense of what should be actually an imposition of their values?

But “Welcome Home/The Way Life Should Be” is also the epigraph to every person’s childhood memories, assuming they associate home with happiness. That nostalgia — also the sense of melancholy or outrage — can intensify in direct proportion to the amount of change that has happened to your home since you left it.

The fence is seven years old now, but it is still occasionally a source of friendly teasing. Last winter, I drove up alone, and arrived after dark, and left my car in the road so I could move a branch that had fallen across the driveway. A friend pulled up beside me and said, smiling, “Are you locked out of your compound?”

Each passing year also deepens a paradox; to add more months to the time I’ve spent in Maine adds more months to the time I’ve spent not in Maine. If time is the singular measure, the longer I live in Maine, the more of a From Away I become.

Yet even when I’m not in Maine, I represent a demographic causing an increasingly dire housing crisis. Mills’s welcome sign became prophetic; during the pandemic, people from out of state bought places that had been on the market for years, in some cases more than a decade.

In 2019, the average sale price in our county was down about 25 percent from the previous year. But between 2020 and 2021, the average sale price increased by almost 41 percent. Our house, for years a depreciating-to-stagnant money pit, was suddenly worth so much that we might have nearly broken even had we decided to sell; but the price point would dictate that buyer would probably be a From Away, and a well-off one.

This trend extends beyond our county. In May, Portland, my former hometown, was named the “hottest luxury housing market in the United States” for the third quarter in a row, its prices up 22 percent from 2023. And yet, despite the rise in housing costs and the state’s evolving national appeal — from wilderness idyll for those who enjoy freezing water, no-sand beaches and insect sieges to a differently commodified version of escape — certain local numbers might suggest that little has changed. The number of children in the public elementary school has remained roughly the same. The town voting rolls haven’t increased much; there were, however, 30 or 40 more car registrations during the pandemic.

Some in town seem invested in change, and more of it may be on the horizon. Given that the community isn’t a monolith and never was, these shifts are not unanimously viewed as either losses or improvements. A committee formed to consider hiring a harbor master. The anonymous sign-posters were busy again when the selectmen decided to no longer allow an annual ritual in which people drag busted docks and boats and appliances into the center of town and host a gathering late into the night, after which, at dawn, a man with a crane takes the junk pile to the dump. Some of the signs were historically indignant: “100+ YEAR … TRADITION.” Others, hung on top of electrical poles, were more taunting: “NICE TRY SELECTMEN.” Others spoke to a broader crisis: “WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO?”

The town installed a permanent speed monitor, which I believe is meant to flash when a person is driving above the posted limit, but it’s hard to know for certain. The current monitor is actually the second of its kind, because the original sustained a fatal shooting, and the new one soon acquired half a dozen bullet holes, and so doesn’t work either. The monitor, in alerting nobody to anything save someone’s opposition to it, was maybe more a public referendum on speed management than a speed-management strategy.

Other things are changing, too. The magazine room, like the hedge before it, is failing. Allowing a thing to simply be, it turns out, is a slow path to its extinction. The uninsulated space heats up these days to what must be over 100 degrees during the summer, and for that reason I tend not to go there, and so was surprised to find, while we were supposedly preserving it, that the magazine room is in ruins. The glue is decomposing; the desiccated clippings, when touched, turn to dust. Someday, the walls will be bare.

Our fence, meanwhile, has weathered to a medium-dark gray. The climbing hydrangeas look like goofy, bungling creatures, their paws pushing through the railings on top of the fence, so that I can see them even when I’m behind it. Their invasion is a welcome one. I’ve started to wonder whether if, in the future, the person who owns this house decides to take the fence down, such a decision will prove controversial; might the fence, a once-glaring newcomer, be considered part of the town’s history and thus, like the magazine room, qualify for protection? If nothing else, and in the meantime, will people wish to preserve the tradition of teasing us about it?

I might even wish to preserve that tradition. The familiar ribbing — “How’s your wall?” — is practiced by fewer and fewer people, to the point that now it feels like an affectionate and even nostalgic way of greeting me after I’ve been away. The once-habitual exchange preserves a record, the way the historical society preserves photos of buildings and residents that no longer exist, of the occasional challenges of coexistence, even or especially among well-meaning people who like and respect one another.

One day last summer, as I was standing at the end of my driveway, a woman I’d never seen before walked by. She might have been a new resident, or someone’s guest, or a person on vacation. I experienced an odd mixture of relief and sorrow when she smiled at me and said, “That is such a beautiful fence.”

Heidi Julavits is a writer whose recent memoir is “Directions to Myself.” Fumi Nagasaka is a photographer in New York whose work over the last few years has focused on documenting America. For this assignment, she traveled to three different towns in Maine.

Read by Kirsten Potter

Narration produced by Emma Kehlbeck and Krish Seenivasan

Engineered by Lance Neal

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