Illinois residents, take heart: there are places on earth with governors more outlandish than yours. Blago might have had the ethical fortitude of Boss Hogg, but at least he traveled in tasteful private planes and chauffeured SUVs. Apparently, such relative restraint is unheard of in one Russian Federal District just north of the nation of Kazakhstan.
An unnamed Siberian governor decided it would be a good idea to convert a 1970s Soviet high-speed ferry boat into a personal luxury watercraft. "The time of reconstruction, including the development of the project was just six months!" gushes exoticboat.ru, a build time that's a tremendous feat considering what the boat used to look like when it was a passenger ferry.
Exterior modifications were extensive: The bow appears to have been inspired by the nose of a first-generation Oldsmobile Toronado, while the decks were festooned with those glass sunrooms they advertise on daytime TV. Still, nothing beats the interior -- which can only be described as the physical manifestation of an Isaac Hayes album.
The vessel started life in the 1970s as a Metor hydrofoil, the most famous model of passenger ferry to operate behind the Iron Curtain. With legendary reliability and a top speed of 40 mph, numerous other Meteors remain in service in former Eastern-bloc countries. This particular boat was taken off ferry duty and converted for private use in 2005. Before and after floor plans show that the boat's passenger seats and snack bars were replaced with sitting areas, a full kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, and a swimming platform. The only non-cosmetic renovations were new "de Laval" style exhaust nozzles meant to increase the boat's top speed.
Even with that added thrust, this boat can't escape good taste. The public areas are stylish enough for an evil genius in search of a chic hideout, but that's where the design philosophy begins to crumble. Animal skins, white leather couches, and shag carpeting reve
al a fantasy of a Soviet teen who, after reading smuggled copies of Playboy, built his boyhood dream of what a Nixon-era American bachelor pad looked like. Judging by that cat-astrophic leopard-print master bedroom, we think the boat's new name of "Faithful" is meant to be ironic.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, January 31, 2009
and is filed under
Ferry,
Gitanjali Luxury Style Fest,
lifestyle,
Luxury Yacht,
travel
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