Hope Floats
Your Own Private Cruise Ship

Summer: not exactly around the corner.

You've got months of unintentional ice luging and fireside toddy-sipping before beach bunnies start asking you to apply lotion to their hard-to-reach places.

But that doesn't mean you can't start planning now...

Introducing the Nantucket Lightship, a historic former Coast Guard vessel converted into your next floating private paradise, taking reservations for the warmer months right this moment.

In short, this is a 128-foot summer party house that will ferry you and up to nine friends, mistresses or senators (more on this later) wherever you please. You'll have the run of the ship: wood-paneled suites, a formal dining room (and galley-sacking privileges), and an entertainment room with flat-screens, a poker table and a foosball table (nothing embodies the elegance of yachting like foosball).

They'll dock the ship in your port of choice (New York, Montauk, Boston, Newport, etc.) and you'll head out to sea, plotting your course in advance (although there's room for spontaneity). In between rum-soaked hammock-lounging sessions, you'll make time for goodwill kayak excursions to local beaches, where you'll discreetly study native customs (e.g., volleyball, flirting with natives while playing volleyball).

Regarding the ship's sea cred, you should know that in 2004 Senator Ted Kennedy booked it for his family and a bunch of other senators after the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

So, don't take this cruise if your party has an election coming up.