Lots of $50M+ yachts to ogle at from the reporters at BW Online, who are obviously getting tired of writing about stock option backdating. And if you wanna burn a few more minutes, take the poll over at dealbreaker.com to establish your yacht creds.

But smart money doesn’t buy a super-yacht (unless you sold the vineyard and are looking for a new way to flush money). It’s all about shared useage these days. Do the math:

Cost to build a super-yacht: $1M Euros per meter – hey, these things are all built in Europe. Translation: about 400 grand per foot (of yacht).

Cost to operate a super-yacht: about 7-10% of acqusition cost annually, or about $6million per year for a 50 meter (160 feet) yacht.

Number of yachting days per year: maybe 20? Ouch.

There are about 2100 mega-yachts around the world, but about 70% are used exclusively by the owners. The rest are offered for rent through a network of high-end yacht brokers – most of whom make their money as soon as you sign the rental agreement. There are some alternatives, such as PrivatSea, who offer their members (you have to apply) four different levels of the super-yacht lifestyle. Entry level membership is around $200,000, and for that you can get one week on the Med in late June on a 50 meter yacht, that will include provisioning (food and booze), crew (you get to drive the jetski), a SunSeeker as tender (taxi boat) and more.

Training wheels for all this: take a look at Yacht Share, now operating out of Florida and Maryland.