Navy Pier, “the People’s Pier,” has a new attraction — but strictly off limits to the grubby-fingered masses.
For the last few days, a 207-foot-long superyacht has been moored at the west end of the pier, one of the largest private boats docked in the city in recent memory.
Jay Alix, a Michigan corporate turn-around specialist and philanthropist, is the boat’s owner, a source told the Chicago Sun-Times. Alix could not be reached for comment.
“This is crazy. I’m shocked. Until now, you’d only see this type of yacht in Miami. He should be in Monaco, not here,” said Moe Goseph, 37, who lives in a high rise near Lake Michigan and is himself in the yacht industry.
Goseph, like dozens of selfie-snapping visitors at Navy Pier, wondered what that yacht was doing here.
“Unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to discuss those details; it’s a private boat,” said Mark Stevens, the general manager of the Navy Pier Marina.
A crew of young, fit-looking people were seen Thursday hosing down the decks and loading up supplies, including parchment paper and boxes of disposable gloves for chefs.
“I’m sorry, I can’t talk,” a crew member told the Sun-Times.
The crew wore gleaming white T-shirts with the name “Satori” emblazoned across the front.
“Satori,” it turns out, is a luxury yacht built by Seattle’s Delta Marine in 2018, according to boatinternational.com. It comfortably accommodates 12 guests in six suites. It flies a Cayman Islands flag.
Because of its size, Satori can’t dock at just any place along the city’s waterfront.
“It would be very limited. Perhaps the only other place would be Burnham Harbor,” said Kelly Gordon, a superyacht captain based in Chicago from 2019 to 2021.
Randy Podolsky, the founder and developer of Navy Pier Marina, said: “We are happy to have our first superyacht at the marina. This is why we built Navy Pier Marina, to make more opportunities for the local boating community and around the world like this.”
Gordon said the yacht appears to have traveled from Parry Sound in Canada to Chicago, arriving here June 30.
The sight of the superyacht, with Lake Michigan’s sparkling water reflecting off its steel hull, drew dozens of curious passersby.
Angela Sonnenberg, 54, was there too, cell phone in hand. It looked as though she was mesmerized by all of the gleaming luxury.
“How long do you think he’s going to feast on that thing?” said Sonnenberg, in town from Indiana to visit her adult daughter.
Sonnenberg actually had her camera lens trained on a seagull obsessively picking at a dead, bloated fish floating in the water with the “Satori” looming behind.
“I wasn’t worried about the boat at all,” Sonnenberg said.
