He was still a student at Grand Valley State University when he approached his parents about the idea in 2013. This is factually inaccurate. But, grooming aside, they seemed to have come out the better for it. The country’s Shipping Registry confirmed to us that Seaquest’s official Cayman Island’s vessel number is 740641.

The transition periods between presidential administrations are known to be sensitive. My mission for the past three years as the creator of the architectural humor blog McMansion Hell has been to unpack what makes mansions like DeVos’s so terrible, from both an architectural and social standpoint. Wasmiller, on behalf of R.D.V. When Dalton DeVos was in elementary school, his parents took him out of school for a month so they family could spend time traveling with his grandparents, Rich and Helen DeVos,  on their yacht. Even after the economy recovers, advertising alone will never be enough to support it. DeVos was 23 when he began the trip making him the youngest Nordhavn owner to circumnavigate the globe -- and the 12th time the ocean-going trawler-style motor vessel has lapped the world, the California boat maker pointed out in a press release. Seaquest was built in 2008, so it’s possible its purchase price was lower than $40 million. So the Americans for Tax Fairness meme is also false on the grounds that it claims Betsy DeVos registered “her family’s fleet of 10 yachts in the Cayman Islands,” but in reality nine of those vessels are registered in the United States, and the one that is registered in the Cayman Islands is not managed or owned by Betsy DeVos. When Dalton DeVos was in elementary school, his parents took him out of school for a month so they family could spend time traveling with his grandparents, Rich and Helen DeVos, on their yacht. But as he got closer to starting his career, he couldn’t keep his cruising dreams to himself any longer. I heard him say something to the same effect after anchoring in Musket Cove. Next came Mitch DeVries, who Dalton had known since elementary school. "I wanted somebody who was young and adventurous," said DeVos, who gave Smith control of the boat and the route they would take.     U.S. Office of Government Ethics. It’s unsurprising that she doesn’t want to forgive the student loan debts of those defrauded by for-profit colleges considering that she got her net worth of more than $1 billion from her husband’s company, the multilevel marketing giant Amway, which is often described as a cult. Luck was on their side: In short time the leak miraculously stopped. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click here. After selling Reliance to an owner in New Zealand, the crew parted ways. There is a 6,200-, Motor Yacht Seaquest is the 4th hull of the successful, She has a range of 5,000 nm at 10 knots. That was Chase, a charismatic, experienced South African. When Dalton’s family called to tell him of his grandmother’s passing, Reliance was setting off on the final leg of the journey, from Tonga to Fiji, and the sat phone’s connection was horrible. According to federal records, the yacht is owned by RDV International Marine, which is an affiliate of the company that controls the DeVos family’s fortune. If you have already made a contribution to Vox, thank you. The claims contained in the viral memes we listed are based on several assumptions, made without sufficient evidence, and contradicted by spokespersons for Dick and Betsy DeVos and Richard DeVos. View our online Press Pack. And some smaller motor yachts and several sailing yachts. 7 August 2018. It got me thinking about another opulent display of wealth owned by DeVos: her 22,000-square-foot nautical-themed summer mansion, located in Holland, Michigan. “They do it not for fame, but for personal satisfaction.”, The last time I spoke with Dalton he was decompressing from the trip. The home attempts to play on the historical American school of architecture known as the shingle style. They praised him for dreaming big. That scrutiny continued in August 2018, when the investigative web site Capital & Main published a report detailing the registration and management of a yacht associated with the DeVos family: When someone untied a yacht owned by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s family, Fox News portrayed the episode as an illustration of uncouth anti-Trump sentiment. In boating terms, it’s a widely recognized flag — a significant benefit when traveling internationally, thus the registration of Seaquest there. "The whole point was to find places you can only go by boat -- that are dangerous and remote," DeVos said. There is the current Seaquest, a Westport 164 from 2008. So, in principle at least, if you own a yacht that is habitually docked or sailed in Michigan, that is likely to be regarded as storage or usage, and you would owe the state of Michigan use tax of six percent of the price of the yacht. The figure of $2.4 million represents six percent of $40 million, which is the estimated value given to Seaquest in several news reports, including Capital & Main’s investigation. Alex had started his own marine maintenance and repair business, Diesel Marine NZ, in Auckland.     Snopes.com. I had heard about the Reliance crew’s undertaking purely by chance, and immediately became fascinated with it. The weather in Musket Cove was overcast, but peaceful, with a gentle head sea and pastel clouds. “Dubious Conspiracy Theory Links Putin’s Daughter to Russia-Trump Collusion.” What’s worse is that obscenely wealthy people like him waste all their money building pseudo-castles and other eclectic tragedies, all while wagging their finger at the rest of us telling us to eat cake. The Westport yacht Seaquest Photo by Jack Salen. Richard DeVos cofounded Amway in 1959 with his friend Jay Van Andel. It was there on the Antarctic Peninsula that Mitchell (his friends call him Mitch), the youngest of the crew, had celebrated his 23rd birthday. Nowadays Amway realizes US$ 9.5 billion in sales. We can’t find any information about the first yacht Enterprise. There is also a Family Assembly, which includes 16 grandchildren and their spouses. Section 205.93 of Michigan’s Compiled Laws states that: There is levied upon and there shall be collected from every person in this state a specific tax, including both the local community stabilization share and the state share, for the privilege of using, storing, or consuming tangible personal property in this state at a total combined rate equal to 6% of the price of the property or services …. The DeVos family owns and has owned many boats. While Betsy DeVos does not personally own or manage Seaquest, it is possible that its registration in the Cayman Islands, as opposed to the United States, might have allowed its owner, Richard DeVos (via RDV International Marine) to avoid incurring certain taxes (though this is not certain), as Capital & Main reported: If the vessel were registered in, say, Grand Rapids, Michigan — the state where RDV is located and that has in the past made an effort to compel yacht owners to pay use taxes — the SeaQuest would likely be subject to Michigan’s six percent use tax. The boat Kitsune is based behind Dick and Betsy’s mansion on Lake Macatawa. Dick DeVos Dick DeVos is the son of Richard DeVos. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Right-wing activists and commentators, including President Trump's sons and lawyers, targeted an elections technology employee in November 2020. Das, Anupreeta, and Jean Eaglesham. “While the first circumnavigator (Magellan) and the most famous one (Joshua Slocum) and many recent ones (round-the-world racers) want the world to know what they’ve accomplished, most round-the-world mariners are very happy to be private and unpublicized,” he wrote. Nine of the vessels listed as DeVos assets in a Wall Street Journal article are registered in the United States. He hired the first captain he interviewed. He is a brother of Dick Devos. The family is based in Michigan. "It was a joy to see him completely in his element aboard the boat and, for Maria and me, getting a chance to participate in that was a significant moment. They tore down the old home an built a new US$ 10 million mansion at the site. The owner, as I would find out later, was Dalton, grandson of American billionaire and Amway cofounder Richard DeVos. The closest they got to disaster happened when an anchor chain snapped as they were preparing to go to ashore to explore one of the Marquesas Islands. When Reliance set off from Fiji in 2015, the crew left with little fanfare. The yacht SunQuest is a Pacific Mariner 85 (. Investments include Electra-Therm, Boxed Water and AOBiome. The yacht was delivered in 2008 to her owners the DeVos family. Mitch had always struck me as a humble guy, one who was fortunate, if not incredibly lucky, to have gone on the adventure of a lifetime. First-person essays and interviews with unique perspectives on complicated issues. He told a mentor about the plans he secretly harbored. Do you have a story to share? One of the voyage’s biggest supporters was Dalton’s grandfather, Richard DeVos. Westport is now building the 14th hull in the series. What do the rich do with all their money? The luxury Amaryllis has raised eyebrows after mooring at the James Watt Dock. One of the voyage’s biggest supporters was Dalton’s grandfather, Richard DeVos. They had returned to Port Denarau, Chase’s home port (his father owns a brokerage and repair center there), and in celebration, the night’s festivities had run longer than expected. But now, at the end of the trip, Dalton had received some terrible news: His grandmother—Richard’s wife, Helen—had passed away suddenly. It would have been easy for me to explain away their adventure as a rich millennial’s flight of fancy. UPDATE: We found two more yachts. It was an experience that would shape him forever - like it did my dad - and I think it has," Doug DeVos wrote in an email to MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. In his youth, Richard had sailed a 38-foot schooner with his friend and Amway cofounder Jay Van Andel to the Caribbean, despite neither knowing how to sail—an undertaking that became part of …