Bill Gates knows how to vacation in comfort and style.
Puget Sound Business Journal is reporting Gates, who’s worth an eye-popping $76 billion, is reportedly with wife Melinda and children Rory, Jennifer, and Phoebe on the trip, are sailing around Sardinia, Italy in a yacht owned by Russian Stolichnaya vodka titan Yuri Scheffler. Gates’ rental yacht, dubbed the Serene , an extravagant $330 million yacht with its 24 staterooms and very large indoor saltwater pool, two helicopter landing platforms, and storage for a large submarine and tender, is a nice playground for someone who has everything.
According to the Daily News , the Gates family regularly use the chopper to travel for tennis matches at the nearby Porto Cervo.
The Serene has hot and cold Jacuzzis, and a jet stream exercise pool. The upper-deck pool is 50 feet long. There are lounges, bars, spas, elevators, a powder-generating “snow room” for kids, a cigar lounge, hair salons, many galleys and wine cellars, a theater, and a room they call “Nemo” that has a glass bottom to view the waters beneath. There’s a grand dining room, smaller dining areas and a plethora of pizza ovens and grills. And somewhere in all that is a spiral staircase that reaches six of the seven decks.
Business Insider reports that The Serene is the third most expensive yacht in the world.
Gates rented the yacht for only $5 million a week. No word on how long Gates will have use of the rental.
superyachts.com gives more information on Gates’ rental yacht: “The Fincantieri is a 134 metre (almost 440 feet) motor yacht which was launched in 2011 by Fincantieri Yachts. The elegant vessel’s exterior design and engineering are the work of Espen Oeino. The yacht features interior styling by Reymond Langton Design. Work began on the yacht in 2007, and it is believed to be one of the most technically advanced superyachts ever constructed. The Espen Oeino designed exterior has seven decks and has a generous beam of 18.5 metres (almost 61 feet). She features two helicopter landing platforms, storage for a large submarine and a huge internal sea water pool, which can be adapted to be used for tender docking.”
“The Fincantieri 134m was built according to SOLAS rules and regulations.”
Though he does not own a yacht himself, Gates seems to be a fan of them. In 1994, Gates was married about a yacht belonging to his fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Allen famously bought his own mega yacht a few years ago for $200 million, the Octopus .