Shipwreck: Kerry's Luxury Yacht Built in New Zealand

Not only did Massachusetts Senator John Kerry dodge helping feed the children by skipping out on his state taxes, but now we discover the Good Ship Lurch wasn't even built in the United States. He obviously doesn't care about helping struggling American families while throwing his sugar mama's money around.

New England boat builders say shame on Sen. John Kerry for buying a $7 million New Zealand-built luxury yacht while local ship makers struggle to find work.

“Darn, that would have been a wonderful job for a Maine builder,” said Jane Wellehan, president of the trade group Maine Built Boats. “If someone comes to build a $7 million boat that would employ half the population of some towns for a year or two. Boat building is such a critical component of our coastal economy.”

Gregory Egan, who owns the Crosby Yacht Yard in Osterville, said Bay State boat builders must feel cut adrift by Kerry as well.

“I’m confident that anything constructed in New Zealand could be constructed here in the state,” he said. “From a political perspective, it seems to me he could have thought twice about that one.”

News that Kerry was docking the 76-foot custom-built sloop in Newport, R.I., was first reported in the Herald Friday. Sources told the Herald the yacht cost $7 million, meaning Kerry would owe the state more than $500,000 in excise and sales taxes.

The Isabel has two VIP main cabins, a glossy teak interior and a wet bar and wine storage in the pilothouse. It is billed as a “departure from the norm in the opulent world of yachting” and designed to be piloted without a crew.

With the nation enduring a nasty economy, painful joblessness and extreme belt-tightening, word of the luxury yacht’s foreign construction - as Americans yearn for work - could create a political tempest for Kerry.

“The message is, ‘The American boat builders aren’t good enough, and the Massachusetts people aren’t good enough to maintain it.’ It’s just a bad message all around,” said Connecticut boater Steve Potter, who docks in Charlestown.

The commenters at the link are having a field day.

Howie Carr weighs in.

This is the most amusing story of the summer, by far. Great work, Inside Track. You can tell how devastating it is by the way the Globe is giving it a good leaving-alone, with wire copy. Yes, the Globe, the same dying broadsheet that railed for days about how two small-fry pols named Christy Mihos and Jack E. Robinson were trying to avoid paying their, uh, fair share of taxes on boats that were basically dinghies, at least compared to the Botched Joke.

Of course the difference was Mihos and Robinson were Republicans. Liveshot is one of the Beautiful People. Nothing to see here folks, move along. Filthy-rich Democrats refusing to pay their taxes isn’t news. Just ask Charlie Rangel, or Tim Geithner, or Tom Daschle.

Do as I say, not as I do. Taxes for thee but not for me. Just like when the Kennedys were allowed to file Rose’s will for probate in low-tax Florida, even though she hadn’t left Massachusetts for the last 12 years of her life.

John Kerry was for higher taxes before he was against them.

If he doesn’t like the name Botched Joke, perhaps Liveshot could take a hint from an old Beach Boys song and call it the Sloop Tax Free. Or go further back in musical history and lift the title of an old Louie Prima tune - the S.S. Just a Gigolo. Or the S.S. Manny Ortiz, or the S.S. Flip Flop.

Or maybe the S.S. Do You Know Who I Am?