Grand Ambition: An Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It.
G. Bruce Knecht, 2013
Simon & Schuster
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781416576006
Summary
Doug Von Allmen, a self-made man who grew up in a landlocked state dreaming of the ocean, was poised to build a 187-foot yacht that would cost $40 million.
Lady Linda would not be among the very largest of the burgeoning fleet of oceangoing palaces, but Von Allmen vowed that it would be the best one ever made in the United States. Nothing would be ordinary. The interior walls would be made from rare species of burl wood, the floors paved with onyx and exotic types of marble, the furniture custom made, and the art specially commissioned.
But the 2008 economic crisis changed everything. Von Allmen’s lifestyle suddenly became unaffordable. Then it got worse: desperate to reverse his losses, he fell for an audacious Ponzi scheme. Would Von Allmen be able to complete Lady Linda? Would the shipyard and its one thousand employees survive the financial meltdown?
The divide between the very rich and everyone else had never been greater, yet the livelihoods of the workers, some of them illegal immigrants, and the yacht owners were inextricably intertwined. In a sweeping, high-stakes narrative, the critically acclaimed author of The Proving Ground and Hooked weaves Von Allmen’s story together with those of the men and women who are building his yacht.
As the pursuit of opulence collides with the reality of economic decline, everyone involved in the massive project is forced to rethink the meaning of the American Dream. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Morristown, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.A., Colgate University; M.B.A., Harvard
University; Reuters Fellowship, Oxford University
• Awards—Human Rights Press Award; University of
Misouri Journalism School Award
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
A former senior writer and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, G. Bruce Knecht is the author of three works of nonfiction—The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race (2001); Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish (2006), and Grand Ambition: An Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It (2013).
After joining the Journal in 1993, he wrote about the banking industry and pursued investigative projects until 1995 when he began covering publishing—books, magazines, newspapers, and the press. In 1998, the Journal nominated his articles, about how advertisers and retailers secretly influenced the editorial content of major magazines, for two Pulitzer Prizes. The same stories won an award from the University of Missouri Journalism School.
In 1998, Bruce moved to Hong Kong to become the Journal’s Asia Correspondent. His article about children of American servicemen who were still living in Vietnam won a Human Rights Press Award.
He was a London-based free-lance writer from 1991 to 1994, focusing on business and economic topics, particularly those involving the collapse of the Soviet Union. His articles have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, tNew York Times Magazine, Barron’s, Conde Nast Traveler, SAIL, Smithsonian, The Independent (UK), National Review, and Men’s Journal.
Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Bruce received a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and has served on the board of directors of its alumni corporation. He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University and was a Reuters Fellow at Oxford University.
An avid sailor, Bruce raced across the Atlantic Ocean in 2005 aboard Mari-Cha IV, which broke the 100-year-old transatlantic race record. He is a member of Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club and the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Illuminative and utterly engaging.
Wall Street Journal
Bruce Knecht is my kind of reporter—a master storyteller with a great eye for the tales of our time. Grand Ambition is centered around the building of a huge yacht, but it is ultimately about our bipolar society—the rarefied lifestyles of the very, very rich and the day-to-day realities of blue-collar laborers who have never worked indoors or been paid more than $20 an hour.
Tom Brokaw
If this lively book doesn't "lift your boat," nothing will!
Steve Forbes
A meticulous account of the building of one of the largest American-made yachts since the Gilded Age. Royal families have long enjoyed large pleasure vessels.... In modern times, yachts have been the playthings of Russian oligarchs, Greek shipping magnates and Arabian sheiks. In the United States, the leisure vessels became a hallmark for a new kind of nobility, including J.P. Morgan, in the gilded 1890s and remain so for today's self-made entrepreneurs. This readable account tells the story of a former milkman's son, Doug Von Allmen, now a successful private equity investor in his late 60s, and his experience building a mammoth $40 million, 187-foot yacht.... Revealing and well-written.
Kirkus Reviews
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