Scotland is not the type of place you’d expect to find the mega yacht crowd. But Le Grand Bleu has been hanging around enjoying the Scottish summer with us. From her AIS description she is 107 meters (350 feet) long and 18 meters (60 feet) wide. Enough room for lots of toys.

Many of the nicer anchorages here lack floating dinghy docks. This means dragging the dink up the beach, getting your feet wet in the process, and paying careful attention to the tides. Solution? Jet turbine powered executive helicopter.

Of course cruising yachts need a choice of dinghies, and a swim step cum boarding platform is a prerequisite.

How about a nice daysailor? We’d guess this one is 50 feet (15m).

Or maybe the breeze is light, ceilings are a bit low for the chopper, and the dock is too far for the RIB? In which case, a proper power launch is in order.

While this may sound wonderful, think of the maintenance headaches and personnel problems. Can you imagine what the paint job will run (and judging by the faded blue topsides and rust streaks she is due)? We think we will stay with our bare aluminum exterior.