Most of us can only dream at having enough money to buy a Steinway grand piano and have the space large enough on dry land to house it and properly care for it, but in the world of Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison, it’s no problem to have it installed on his $490m superyacht “Rising Sun”.
Weighing in at 1,300lbs (590kg) and having specialised requirements to keep it in working order, it’s not simply a matter of pushing it on board. The Steinway concert grand, itself costing around $220k, had to be manoeuvred on board by six people, and is installed in a constantly air-conditioned room to assist in keeping the environment in the right conditions for the piano to stay in good condition.
Even with this in place, the piano still needs monitoring daily to check for possible corrosion from moisture and resultant corrosion or even rusting of strings caused by the unique characteristics of salty sea air.
Understandably, the piano also needs to be fixed in place so that it doesn’t move, but Ellison didn’t want to see the usual fittings under the instrument which would achieve this, so instead Steinway installed special fixings directly into the three legs.
Read more at Luxury Launches.
