Affordable Yachts

The recession has forced all of us to downgrade. Maybe we get our groceries at Safeway now instead of Whole Foods. Maybe we get our shoes at Payless instead of Prada. Now, Bloomberg reports, even the wealthiest among us have made some concessions.

Without the cushy bonuses that once fed the yacht business, penny-pinching millionaires are using timeshares to get their luxury liner fix. One boat, called the Ocean Emerald and built by yacht maker Rodriquez Cantieri Navali SpA, is partly owned by a former Goldman Sachs managing director and an investment banker from Nomura. The part-owners can book up to five non-consecutive weeks for cruising around the Mediterranean or Caribbean.

It's a far cry from 2006 when a yachting arms race had the wealth-watchers at Forbes counting down the biggest billionaire boats. Since then, net worths have fallen precipitously. Bloomberg reports that millionaires' assets decreased by 20 percent last year.

Luckily, yacht makers have responded to the downturn and for cost-conscious millionaires, the price of retaining a piece of luxury is a mere $3 million. Now the millions saved can go towards the necessities — like that new $100,000 Tesla Roadster.

Photo courtesy of D_VDM, via Flickr.