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The Miller-Maxwell Mistake

In the Friday ‘Lectronic we made a major blunder by identifying Robert Maxwell as the owner of Mari-Cha III and Mari-Cha IV, both of which raced in the Pacific Cup. We want to thank Greg Swart and others for pointing it out that it was actually Robert Miller who owned the two great yachts.

The massive Mari-Cha IV blasts out of the Bay in 2004 en route to Oahu.

latitude/Andy
©2014 Latitude 38 Media, LLC

How could we have made such a blunder? It was easy. 1) We’d gone into the Time Machine at midnight when our mind wasn’t too sharp, and 2) Maxwell and Miller both loved boats, they have the same first name, and they share the same first letter of their last name. How could we not confuse them?

In all other respects, they were very different. Maxwell escaped Nazi occupation in Czechoslovakia, fought with the British Army, became a member of Parliament, built up a massive media empire, lived flamboyantly, sued frequently, and disappeared off his beloved 180-ft motor yacht Lady Ghislaine in the Atlantic in 1991 under suspicious circumstances. Some say it was suicide, others say he was murdered. Following his death, it was found that he’d looted hundreds of millions of dollars from his companies’ pension funds, and his business empire collapsed.

Miller, on the other hand, was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, the descendant of several Mayflower passengers, and notes that his ancestry includes Henry II Angevin, Louis IV the Carolingian, and William, King of the Scots. Five years after attending Cornell School of Hotel Management, he co-founded Duty Free Shops, starting with the exclusive concession to duty free shopping in Hawaii and Hong Kong. It was the first step on the road to becoming a billionaire.

While Maxwell had sons, Miller had three beautiful daughters with his Ecuadorian wife Marie Chantal, after whom his greats were named. In society, the daughters were known as ‘The Miller Sisters’, and all married well. Pia married Christopher Getty, grandson of Jean Paul Getty; Marie-Chantal married Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, and is known as the ‘Crown Princess of Greece’ and also ‘Princess of Denmark’; and Alexandra married Prince Alexander von Fürstenberg.

Miller, now 80, became a British citizen and is based out of Hong Kong. But as you might expect, he has residences around the world.

We hope we’ve cleared that mess up.

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In addition to last week’s disappointing news that San Francisco is no longer being considered for the Finals of the 35th America’s Cup — this writer is admittedly San Francisco-biased — AC fans were also treated to the exciting news of the official launch of what promises to be a formidable threat to Oracle Team USA’s potential three-peat.