In recent weeks, the final stretch of Via Laietana from the Cathedral towards the sea very clearly announces the proximity to the port. Three enormous masts are framed between the Post Office building and the headquarters of the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat, which occupies the former headquarters of the Trasmediterránea shipping company.
This rigging, which reaches 61 meters in height, belongs to an enormous sailboat moored at the España dock. It is on the side of the commercial basin, a space granted by the Port of Barcelona to Marina Port Vell, where enormous recreational boats call and, above all, winter, attracted by the city, its services, and also by the proximity of MB92, a reference shipyard in the sector.
A German yacht
The ship in question is called Eos and, in addition to three masts, it is 93 meters long, making it the second largest private sailboat in the world. It was built in 2006 at the German Lürssen shipyards, a historic creator of vessels that in recent times has received commissions from figures such as Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates; Alisher Usmanov, a Russian magnate of Uzbek origin; or the American David Geffen, a music and theater producer.
Another magnate who commissioned his ship from these German shipyards was Californian Barry Charles Diller. A name that may not be as familiar as the giants of finance, technology, or the rich families of the Persian Gulf, although his career has been transcendent in different areas that have directly affected a large part of ordinary citizens.
Paramount and Fox
Barry Charles Diller, who turned 80 on February 2, is the one who greenlit the production of legendary films of the 70s and 80s such as Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (and its sequels) or Beverly Hills Cop. All of this happened while he was at the helm of Paramount Pictures Corporation, which under his executive presidency also produced highly successful television series such as Taxi or Cheers.
The owner of the sailboat Eos is also the one who brought a legendary animated series like The Simpsons to light, since, in the late 80s, when Diller was president and CEO of Fox, he believed in James L. Brooks and Matt Groening's project about a strange, dysfunctional yellow family that, in 2022, is already in its 33rd season and has surpassed the 700-episode mark.
The Diller influence
The Californian magnate has always been a restless man, and even specializing in the world of communication, he has always been interested in diversifying his fields of action. Just as in his early years he is credited with the paternity of telefilms (films of about 90 minutes intended to be released directly on TV), he also saw an interesting vein in the online tourism sector, taking over the presidency of Expedia, whose business is the booking and sale of airline tickets, hotel stays, cruise trips, vehicle rentals and vacation packages.
Under Expedia's enormous umbrella are well-known brands: Hotels.com, Trivago, Venere.com, Travelocity or Top Rural, websites that are actively used to find travel and accommodation deals around the world, leisure time for people who, perhaps, are also users of other products that are or were until recently under Diller's supervision. And it is that he also presides over IAC/InterActiveCorp, from which dating apps Tinder and Match.com, or Vimeo, the website for sharing and watching videos, considered the elegant Youtube, hung. He is also a member of the board of directors of The Coca-Cola Company, where he coincides with the president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín.
From paper to digital support
In January of this year, on the verge of turning 80, the magnate gave an order that many expected: the end of paper in several publications of the Dotdash Meredith publishing house, as Diller has decided to stop publishing the print editions of six titles. The best known are Entertainment Weekly, InStyle and the Spanish edition of People. In April, these publications will be in paper version for the last time, an unstoppable trend that the Californian businessman says he will compensate by investing more in the digital editions of the 14 titles he owns.
A yacht for his non-retirement.
Diller commissioned the Eos in 2006, when he was 64 years old. The shipyards built the boat with maximum secrecy, as usually happens with almost all megayachts: there is always speculation about who the owner might be and, if there are confidentiality agreements, this is only discovered with a photo or a revelation from those who were not obliged to keep silent.
Diller commissioned the Eos in 2006, when he was 64 years oldThe sailboat touched the water for the first time in 2009. Then, designer Bill Langan breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the owner was satisfiedwith his new houseboat, which had a cost close to 150 million dollars, about 131 million euros. Since then, the Eos has traveled all over the world with its owner and his wife on board, spending more or less long periods. Sometimes alone and on other occasions accompanied by 14 people, becausehas capacity for up to 16 guests, attended by a crew of 21 people, who live permanently on board in two rotating shifts and who are 100% only when sailing with passengers.
A figurehead for Diane
Those who approach Marina Port Vell these days will be able to perfectly distinguish the Eos by its length, its three masts and its elegant blue hull. Those who also pay attention to certain details will be able to see that the boat is impeccable, as the crew, like that of the rest of the superyachts in the marina, is permanently attentive to the maintenance and cleaning of the sailboat, as if the owner were to arrive at any moment.
The person who is permanently present on board is Diane von Fürstenberg. In her case in the form of a figurehead, because, although it is a boat built in the 21st century, Diller wanted to maintain the tradition of the decorative figure on the bow of the boat by requesting the installation of a statuette that reproduces the head and body of the designer, in homage to his wife since 2001: Diane Simone Michelle Halfin, who adopted her current name when she married Prince Eduard Egon Peter Paul Giovanni von und zu Fürstenberg.
The marriage of Diane and Egon, both designers, was brief: two and a half years, although the divorce was cordial. So much so that the prince allowed his ex-wife the right to use his name and title so that with its weight she could do business such as, for example, her luxury prêt-à-porter brand DVF.
These days in the port of Barcelona one can look at the Eos and see it simply as a spectacular yacht or, if one pulls the thread, one can connect in the same berth The Simpsons, Tinder, the German Swabian noble house of Fürstenberg and John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. One can also see the relationship between Fox News, Indiana Jones, luxury fashion, publishing houses in transition to digital and hotel booking portals. One can also see there the benefits of a video website, a dating portal, the elegance of a Belgian designer naturalized American and the floating home of a Californian who, when he started as a messenger boy, wanted to conquer the world... and he succeeded.