Englishman in Dubrovnik - Billionaires Can Buy Almost Anything – But They Can't Buy a Past

There are weeks in Dubrovnik when the Adriatic looks less like a sea and more like the car park at a billionaires' convention. This was one of them. Within a few days we had Moonrise, the almost 100-metre floating palace belonging to WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, lurking around our coastline. Not far away was Avantage, another enormous superyacht reportedly owned by Kazakh billionaire Bulat Utemuratov. Between them, you're looking at something approaching $400 million of boat. And then, almost apologetically, along came Kalizma. She is 45 metres long. Practically a dinghy by modern billionaire standards. But she's the one I would choose. Don't misunderstand me. If Jan Koum rings tomorrow and asks whether I'd like a week aboard Moonrise, I'm not going to lecture him about conspicuous consumption. I have principles, but they become surprisingly flexible around deck Jacuzzis. Koum's yacht was recently near Mljet, where Jeff Bezos and media billionaire Barry Diller reportedly visited him. This is a social circle where saying, "Come over for a drink," apparently requires maritime coordinates and possibly a helicopter. But then Kalizma appeared between Dubrovnik and Lokrum. And suddenly all those floating skyscrapers looked rather... new. When 45 Metres Comes With 120 Years of History Kalizma was built in Scotland in 1906. Exactly 120 years ago. Think about that for a moment. When she first touched water, there was no WhatsApp, no Amazon, no Facebook. There wasn't even television. The first iPhone was still 101 years away. And Donald Trump's "tech bros" weren't yet comparing the lengths of their superyachts. Kalizma has survived two world wars and even served with the Royal Navy during both of them. Then she became part of one of Hollywood's greatest love stories. Richard Burton bought her for Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s, and they renamed her Kalizma using the names of their daughters Kate, Liza and Maria. Taylor and Burton filled her with paintings by Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso. Guests included Tennessee Williams, Rex Harrison, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco. Now that's a guest list. No offence to the tech billionaires, but I'd rather spend an evening listening to Tennessee Williams after his third martini than discussing algorithms with someone who invented an app. And that, I think, is the difference. You Can Buy a Bigger Yacht. You Can't Buy Time Modern superyachts are extraordinary feats of engineering. They have swimming pools, cinemas, gyms, helicopters, submarines and probably machines that apologise if your champagne is half a degree too warm. They are designed to make their owners want for nothing. Yet Kalizma has something they cannot order from a shipyard. Time. She has wrinkles. Her decks have carried people who are now history. She has crossed oceans while empires disappeared. She was already 58 years old when the Beatles arrived in America. And perhaps that is why she appeals to me more these days. As I get older, I find myself increasingly drawn to things that carry a few scars. Maybe because I'm collecting a reasonable number myself. Age does something strange to you: suddenly 'old' stops sounding like an insult and starts sounding like an achievement. You can build a bigger yacht. You can build a faster yacht. You can cover the bathroom taps in diamonds if that's how you choose to spend your Tuesday. But you cannot build a 120-year-old yacht. The Luxury Even Billionaires Can't Buy It reminds me of Coco Chanel's wonderfully cutting observation: "Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity." And perhaps that's why, given my completely imaginary choice between these vessels, I'd take the old Scottish lady. Not because she's more expensive. She isn't. Not because she's bigger. Not even close. But because when Kalizma sails past Dubrovnik, you don't wonder what she cost. You wonder where she's been. And in a world obsessed with having the newest, biggest and most expensive everything, perhaps that's the one luxury even a billionaire can't buy. A past. Kalizma And perhaps that is the real luxury: not arriving somewhere faster, richer or more extravagantly, but leaving something behind worth remembering. The sea has seen plenty of billionaires come and go. I suspect the old Scottish lady will outlive them all. About the author Mark Thomas (aka Englez u Dubrovniku) is the editor of The Dubrovnik Times. He was born and educated in the UK and moved to live in Dubrovnik in 1998. He works across a whole range of media, from a daily radio show to TV and in print. Thomas is fluent in Croatian and this column is available in Croatia on the website – Dubrovnik Vjesnik @dubrovnik_times The mega yacht Moonrise, owned by WhatsApp founder, sails away from Dubrovnik #dubrovnik #cavtat #croatia ♬ original sound - The Dubrovnik Times