Here is a rough deck layout. Remember, it is 1.5 football fields long and over 3/4 field lengths wide.
The tender saddled up sideways to a set of stairs at the stern of the yacht and we disembarked onto a 40 foot wide stairwell with plenty of crew to help with the bags and stabilize us as we moved from the tender to the ship.
Upon walking up to the second deck everyone was aghast at the space. The At 200 feet wide and 100 feet deep, this open deck area was enormous. And that didn't include the submarine and tender sets on each end (one tender was in the water still).
Rows of sunbathing chairs, a massive hot tub, lots of casual seating and a gorgeous 30 place table made from light cherry stained, matched, AAA grade, waterfall bubinga wood panels with a deep, high gloss, urethane finish. The table was lined in dark teak and the deep cushioned chairs were made of dark teak. There were smaller, matching, 6 person tables scattered around the overhang.
The two submarines were TRITON 3300/6 subs configured for 4 passengers and a pilot for increased comfort. They were capable of diving down .6 miles beneath the surface which was more than enough to enjoy most of the world's reefs.
The deck was light teak and looked to be of real wood panels. The walls matched the table and the whole expanse spoke of true decadence.
I looked at the family, whose mouths were on the floor, and said, "I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."
Mom merely whispered, "No shit."
The manufacturing rep walked up, introduced himself to us and began his introduction of the ship, "This entire ship's communications are hardened fiber optic and the entire ship is made of cross layered Carbon Fiber. She can be controlled by the Bridge, by individually highly secured tablets, or from the armored safe room in the 4
th
deck master suite. Each and every room has multiple hidden cameras as well as being wired for sound. And there is 360 degree exterior coverage with proximity alert...that includes underwater coverage."
"The hull at the waterline and below is reinforced with an inner layer of 2 inch thick Titanium with the hull and outer walls above the waterline with 1 inch thick Titanium that is laminated with 1.5 inches of carbon fiber. This lady has a 7.5 foot waterline and the bow of each hull is raked at a 60 degree angle to cut through the waves with minimal resistance. Each individual hull is made to semi plane on the water at high speeds and built in air cavities in their bottoms reduce water friction at any speed."
"The hulls have a special coating of Aluminum, Boron and Magnesium along with titanium boride which results in a substance that is just the third hardest material in the world coming after diamond and cubic boron nitride. This coating makes the hull more slippery than Teflon and nearly as hard as diamond. It almost eliminates marine growth of all types and allows the Yacht to slip through the water like a ski boat, which is only a very slight exaggeration."
"This hull is made to be beached without any harm to the outer layers or structure of the ship."
"The Yacht doesn't actually have engines. Instead, she is powered by stacks of 10,000 KWH combined heating and cooling gas turbine generators; each of which is activated individually as power or air conditioning needs dictate and they are fully computer controlled. These turbines provide air conditioning, heating, and hot water to the Yacht."
"They run at nearly 98% thermal efficiency, and have a combined output of 1,000,000 KW. These generators provide the electrical energy to run the ship as well as the two dozen state of the art, proprietary, 4,000 HP electric motors that are connected to 6 hydraulic transmissions which turn 6 internal variable pitch water jet type screws (four motors per transmission, one transmission per screw, three screws per hull, two hulls). This girl can go from stationary to full throttle in 5 seconds flat."
"The main fuel tanks are underneath the crew spaces in each hull, along with the two ancillary tanks in front of the engine spaces. They hold a combined 287,250 gallons of fuel which can power the ship for 94 days at 8 knots or 30 days at 20 knots or 8 days at 60 knots. As a comparison, your typical marine diesel has a thermal efficiency that tops out at around 51%. This propulsion system has an overall thermal efficiency of approximately 80%."
"Total screw output can range from 500 to 96,000 horsepower with overwhelming redundancy and vital component isolation between the three hulls. Each exterior hull has hydraulic thrusters distributed in the bow, amidships, and stern respectively and the ship has no anchors as it is kept within 1 meter of its position through GPS integration with its propulsion and positioning systems."
"The water plant is in engineering and is capable of providing 6,000 gallons of water a day. There is a 3 day holding tank of fresh water."
"All passenger rooms have adjustable California King sized beds with en-suite restrooms sporting walk-in tubs/showers and fabricated stone counter tops with gold filigree fittings, large cedar lined closets, private televisions, individual blue ray players, high speed internet, the latest gaming computers, gaming consoles, and loads of storage."
"Each room is insulated to the point of being sound proof and the walls sport rare wood panels such as waterfall bubinga, snake wood, figured maple, cocobolo, figured sapele, leopard wood, padauk and the like. All internal flooring is teak or high traffic, easy clean, marine carpeting."
"But one of the most intriguing things about her is her self defense suite."
"This girl has 2 sets of 2 groups of Mk 57 Peripheral Vertical Launch Systems, one group each in the bows of the outer hulls, that house 8 SM-6 Block IB missiles in each group. She also boasts 4 programmable VLWT torpedoes in four launch launch tubes with another 12 torpedoes in auto loaders in the bow of the center hull. And as a point defense grid she boasts 4 pop up 20 mm Vulcan Sea Whiz Gatling guns at the four corners of the Yacht."
Dad asked, "How was this possible?"
The builder rep replied, "The ship yard had nothing to do with it. We built the enclosures to specifications supplied to us and the manufacturers of those weapons installed them. We had nothing to do with it beyond that. We didn't procure anything. We were told it was a national defense issue and to keep our mouths shut. It was all very curious, too since we were paid extra to expedite the changes. Everything was installed only last week as the different manufacturers came in and took over. Everything they had was modular and fit right into the housings they had us make."
Dad asked, "Did you see the Department of Defense Authorizations?"
The rep handed Dad a copy of the paperwork. I looked over his shoulder and it was all in order. Every order was even signed by the President of the United States and the Joint Chief.
Just then Dad's special SAT phone rang. Dad looked at the Captain, "You are semi-retired Navy aren't you?"
Captain Barns just smiled, "Not even retired, on special assignment."
Dad motioned for the Captain and me to follow him to another room and he answered the phone. "Yes, Mr. President?"
"Ahh, there you are! I take it you have figured out we have some things to discuss?"
"One or two things, Yes-Sir."
