While testing new navigation systems today on our ship's launch in preparation for a two-week voyage of discovery into northern waters I took some friends past this most clever vessel. A well-placed friend of mine designed the generator installation in this vessel when it was built by Dakota Creek in 1999. Length-- 70'. Beam--- 36'.
The owner, an extremely wealthy individual with ties to a global software giant, owns property on this lake as well as on an island to the north. Both communities prohibit helicopter operations to and from residential properties.
Focusing on the keywords "prohibit," "to," "from,"and "residential," this particular person realized that there was nothing in the statutes prohibiting helicopter operations from a location that wasn't his residential property.
So he had this vessel constructed. A fully functioning vessel, its sole purpose is to serve as a floating helicopter pad. Normally moored in front of the owners house in the location depicted here, friends and business associates can helicopter in and out at will without breaking the letter of the law.
When necessary, the vessel, appropriately named Dragonfly, is motored off the lake and north to the islands and anchored in a small bay just off its owner's property.
An ingenious albeit expensive solution to an inconvenient problem.
The owner, an extremely wealthy individual with ties to a global software giant, owns property on this lake as well as on an island to the north. Both communities prohibit helicopter operations to and from residential properties.
Focusing on the keywords "prohibit," "to," "from,"and "residential," this particular person realized that there was nothing in the statutes prohibiting helicopter operations from a location that wasn't his residential property.
So he had this vessel constructed. A fully functioning vessel, its sole purpose is to serve as a floating helicopter pad. Normally moored in front of the owners house in the location depicted here, friends and business associates can helicopter in and out at will without breaking the letter of the law.
When necessary, the vessel, appropriately named Dragonfly, is motored off the lake and north to the islands and anchored in a small bay just off its owner's property.
An ingenious albeit expensive solution to an inconvenient problem.