Floating aboard luxury

For $12 anyone can get a taste of the celebrity lifestyle at the Newport Boat Show.

The luxurious, the fast, the expensive ? it’s all here.

The boat show, open through Sunday, lures thousands of boat lovers ? some who are just looking and others who come ready to plunk down millions to buy a piece of yachting heaven.

One step aboard the 88-foot Helios, a Pershing yacht, and it’s easy to imagine a life without worries. The wood gleams and the sundeck with its plush lounge seating seems to promise afternoons of bikinis and Bellinis.

“It’s a sophisticated boat,” said JR Wills, yacht and brokerage manager for MarineMax, a Newport-based dealer of Pershing yachts.

This blue-and-gray power yacht can hit up to 42 knots, but for the super-rich, this boat isn’t even meant to be the main attraction.

Yachts of this size are often used as a tender boat for a larger yacht, Wills said.

Although it’s a stunner, Helios isn’t the biggest boat at the boat show. The 98-foot Reverie, a Horizon yacht, is the largest new boat at the show, said owner Jim Baum.

The boat, custom built in Taiwan, towers above the rest. It features spacious cabins, each outfitted with flat screen televisions and a full-size kitchen with a gourmet gas stove.

The boat’s navigation system is comparable to that of a commercial jetliner ? after all, it was designed by an aeronautical engineer. The boat is also equipped with an up-to-the-minute satellite weather forecasting system.

For anyone willing to wait 18 months and pay around $5 million, a boat like Reverie could be more than just a daydream.

Although the big power boats tend to steal the show, the Newport Boat Show is also home to sailboats that can rival them all.

“This is to go anywhere around the world,” said Bob Bergman, service manager for Suncoast Yachts, sitting on the deck of an Island Packet 485, a 51-foot cruising sailboat.

There are less expensive sailboats, but one like this is for sailors who want to embark on cross-ocean adventures without sparing any luxury, said Capt. Greg Nickols.

Amid all the large, expensive boats at the Newport Boat Show, retailer Steve Elliott and his tiny fleet of inflatable tenders were unique.

Priced less than $1,600 and just short of 8 feet long, Elliot’s Apex yacht tender ? a boat used to come and go from another, bigger boat ? just might be the smallest and most affordable item at the show.

“You can take it and smack it up against your great big yacht without having to worry about scratching the paint,” Elliot said.The console of an 88-foot Pershing yacht, on display at the Newport Boat Show, is equipped with enough buttons and knobs to run a jumbo jet. dpt.05-water-dl-CPhotoInfoKG1QL3PA20060505iyrk2jncPHOTOS BY DON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)The aft deck of an 88-foot Pershing pleasure cruiser leaves plenty of room for guests. It’s on display and for sale at the Newport Boat Show. dpt.05-water-dl-C.1PhotoInfoKG1QL3NR20060505iyrk4cncPHOTOS BY DON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)The aft deck of an 88-foot Pershing pleasure cruiser leaves plenty of room for guests. It’s on display and for sale at the Newport Boat Show.