I was chatting this week with J.D. Ducanes, the captain onboard the 164-foot Trinity motoryacht Mine Games. He had some exciting news: His training onboard the yacht’s Triton 1000/2 personal submarine is nearly complete, and Mine Games is still on track to become the first charter yacht in the world to offer a sub as a water toy for guests.

Ducanes told me he’s already been to 1,000 feet below sea level as part of his training, and that the two-person sub is built to withstand depths of 4,000 feet. Charter guests won’t go that deep–300 to 500 feet will be the norm–primarily because it takes a long time to get to 1,000 feet and, as Ducanes said, “It’s pretty dark down there.” He told me that a 300- to 500-foot submarine dive will take about four hours round-trip from the yacht, after which the sub needs to be recharged at the surface anyway.

The yacht’s owner has not yet decided whether to include use of the submarine in Mine Games‘ weekly base rate of $220,000 for 12 guests, or whether to charge extra, as some yacht owners do for the costlier water toys like fishing boats and scuba diving.

Either way, Ducanes says there are a good number of charters already on the books for this summer in the Mediterranean, so if you want to get in line to be one of the first in the world to enjoy a submarine ride while on charter, the time to book is now.

Mine Games is part of the International Yacht Collection fleet. Contact any reputable charter broker to learn more.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 8:53 am and is filed under Charter Yachts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.