This is a headline that I never expected to see:

Sources: Boeing corporate yacht Daedalus sold for $13M

Boeing had a corporate yacht.

Boeing has had several rounds of layoffs.  According to Boeing, they expect the bloodletting to end sometime in 2021 with a total reduction in force of 30,000 since the beginning of 2020.

Boeing’s goal for this year was to cut 16,000 jobs.  They cut 12,600 from the Seattle area this year already.

After all of that did they finally decide to get rid of the yacht.

Why did they have the yacht in the first place?

The Boeing yacht has been used for entertaining and hosting the airplane giant’s corporate customers, strengthening corporate relationships and philanthropy. In the summers, the Daedalus was often based at Vancouver Island, where its primary role was as a small floating hotel, providing a way for Boeing sales teams and airline customers to get away for fishing trips and conversations in a private setting.

Translation: It was a place where corporate executives could step out on their wives without leaving a paper trail at a hotel.

I can just imagine the conversation in Boeing’s bard room:

Exec 1: “Our major projects have failed.  We are hemorrhaging money.  We need to cut costs.”

Exec 2: “Do you know what time it is?”

Exec 1: “What time is it?”

Exec 2: “It’s RIF o’clock.”

Exec 3: “How about we sell the corporate yacht before we fire people?”

Exec 2: “Fuck you, Gary.  We’re not selling the floating pussy palace.”

Exec 1: “Yeah, Gary.  Do you really expect me to bone my mistress at the Four Seasons like some common day trader?”

Exec 2: “Besides, do you remember how we got the Starliner contract in the first place?”

Exec 3: “Yes… I remember.”

Exec 1: “That was a hell of a blowout, wasn’t it?”

Exec 2: “Man, I remember how you looked at those Congressmen and said (mimics drunken slur) ‘Gentlemen, all aboard the SS Bang Barge, toot toot.'”

Exec 1: “If we don’t have a taxpayer-funded party barge for members of the appropriation committee, how will we ever get another contract every again?”

Exec 3: “I dunno, maybe we could deliver quality products, on time, and on budget.”

Exec 1: “Fuck you, Gary.”

Exec 2: “Yeah, I second that.  Fuck you, Gary.”

Exec 1: “We’re not getting rid of the yacht until it is absolutely necessary, and that’s final.”

Exec 2: “Yeah!  Speaking of… you guys up for hookers and blow on the yacht?”

Exec 1: “Yeah, hookers and blow on the yacht.  Let me call my wife and tell her that I’ll be working late this evening.”

End Scene.

And so, months after several major rounds of layoffs, they quietly sell the yacht.