Today, New York Times columnist Gail Collins tackled the tricky subject of billionaire Florida Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene. She calls the man's 145 party boat the Summerwind the "Levi Johnston of Yachts" because it's "an embarrassing, headline-making connection." Riptide has regrettably been sleeping on the yacht-troversy as of late, because really we didn't think it got any better than the fact Lindsay Lohan was once on board. So, here's every single controversy we can dig up about Greene and his big boat: some you've maybe heard about, others you haven't.
- Convicted rapist and former boxer Mike Tyson traveled through Europe aboard the Summerwind with Greene in 2005, and recently had to clarify that he did not do drugs while aboard the yacht. Though he did do drugs during the trip, in Amsterdam, just not he claims, on the boat.
- Back in 2005, the Belize government claimed that Summerwind caused major damage to coral along one of the country's most economically important coral reefs. Greene denies knowing anything about the incident.
- In 2007, the Yacht broke the embargo by docking in Cuba. Greene claims it was for emergency maintenance, and he took the opportunity to visit Cuban synagogues. The St. Pete Times says of the stop, "everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on."
- Sharyn Peach, a Fort Lauderdale woman who used to work as a stewardess for Greene aboard the yacht, recently wrote of her time aboard for our sister paper: "Working on Greene's 145-foot Choy Lee yacht was like being 'locked' in Studio 54 in its prime. It was nothing short of 'Sex, Drugs, and Techno Music.' Celebrities, 'hired' party girls, mayhem, and debauchery. I saw more tits and ass in one night on Jeff Greene's Summerwind than I have for the past seven years on South Beach ...The real partying started in Sag Harbor, New York. That's when a deckhand and Mr. Greene would go to a place named the Sex Castle and come back with new women almost daily. ...Shortly after that party, I found four lines of cocaine in Mr. Greene's stateroom bathroom marble vanity."
- A 2009 account of Greene's yacht habbit in The Greatest Trade Ever went like this: "Greene brought two Ukrainian strippers on board to make a cameo appearance and hired stewardesses from coastal towns to serve as his crew. Some doubled as massage therapists, which came in handy after a day of scuba diving, Jet Skiing or kayaking."
- Several former employees of the yacht describe Greene as just a horrible, horrible boss.
- Just this past New Years Eve, Lindsay Lohan was a guest on the yacht while in St. Tropez.
Greene, for his part, is threatening to sue both the St. Pete Times and The Herald for some of their reporting concerning the yacht.
As for Summerwind himself, we can only hope that soon he knocks up Bristol Palin, posses mast-less for Playboat, and gets a reality show out of all of this.
