What do you do when you have over a billion dollars? Consider buying yourself a vintage yacht to restore, like Bitcoin billionaire and former child star Brock Pierce recently did.
Pierce is best known for appearing in Disney movies like The Mighty Ducks (1992), D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994), and First Kid (1996). Since then, he’s made it big in the cryptocurrency industry and currently sits as the Bitcoin Foundation’s chairman.
With an estimated net worth of upwards of $1.1 billion, it’s clear that he has the resources to spend on the finer things in life. Pierce recently decided to try his hand at renovating. But rather than opting for something traditional like a house or car, the businessman set his sights on a yacht.
Fox Business reports that Pierce paid a cool $1.9 million on a vintage Portuguese yacht, which spans over 500 feet. He plans to fully restore the vessel in order to transform it into a luxury hotel and museum.
So far, he’s spent more than $6.4 million on restoring the yacht, though there’s plenty of more work to go. More than 180 people are currently employed to work on the project.
The yacht is better known as 1961’s MV Funchal. It served as Portugal’s official presidential yacht beginning in the 1960s. In the ‘70s, for instance, it was used to carry the ashes of Brazil’s King Pedro I, known for securing Brazilian independence from Portugal in 1882. In recent years, however, the ship has been wasting away in a scrap yard.
Speaking to Page Six, Pierce explained that he immediately became interested in the vessel when he learned it’d been abandoned. In fact, the ship was preparing to be sold for scrap. If this happened, it would’ve been melted down and its parts used for raw materials.
"This sounds like [the renovation] could be difficult, but I would like to learn about maritime law, that’s interesting,” he explained of the project. “You never know when you’re going to need an ark.”
Pierce plans to keep the cruise ship permanently in Lisbon, and it will eventually be open to the public. The former actor says he’s assured the Portuguese government that his intentions are to “preserve and save the vessel.”
Pierce told Page Six he’s passionate about “preserving national treasures and relics […] I do it around the world.” He added that he’s currently working on a similar project in the United Kingdom, and has already done historic restorations in both Spain and Amsterdam.
Sources: Fox Business, Page Six,