Unidentified floating saucer

Andrew Edwards

The strange craft floating in the waters of Newport Harbor looked

like it might be more at home in the Sea of Tranquillity or maybe

Roswell, N.M.

The white, round boat looks like a flying saucer, no doubt, but

the craft has its origins in France, not another planet.

The craft, called an Anthenea Studio, was designed by France’s

Jean-Michel Ducanelle, who was inspired by Hollywood espionage rather

than science fiction.

“It was based on ‘The Spy Who Loved Me,’” Newport Beach’s Vili

Boyadjiev said. “That’s how everyone else is calling it -- a James

Bond pod.”

In the film, Bond and a friendly KGB agent used a floating pod to

escape from the sinking aquatic headquarters of supervillain Karl

Stromberg.

Boyadjiev, 55, sold the Boat and Breakfast in the Lido Marina

Village, which she had owned for 12 years, to become France-based

Anthenea’s sole representative in the United States.

She started working full time at her new job about six months ago

in a small office overlooking the harbor.

Working independently is just fine, as far as Boyadjiev is

concerned.

“I do not like to work for other people, and I’m sure other people

would not like to work for me, because I’m stubborn,” Boyadjiev said.

Boyadjiev said her “stubborn” nature comes from a desire to finish

any task she begins. Her friend Art Downs, owner of Victoria

Charters, Ltd., said Boyadjiev might be the only person around who

can make Anthenea a successful venture.

“If it can work, she’s the one that can do it,” Downs said.

He noted that the craft is catching eyes around the harbor.

“I thought it was a very interesting concept, because it’s

definitely an original,” Downs said. “It definitely gets attention.”

Boyadjiev hopes to cultivate clients around the world, from

Vancouver, Canada, to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, to Hong

Kong.

Antheneas are versatile craft, Boyadjiev said, and come in three

sizes. The model floating in Newport Harbor is the smallest of the

three. About the size of a small room, the craft features a couch

that wraps around the vessel, a mini-bar and an entertainment system.

The craft can also be used on land.

“This is a habitat,” Boyadjiev said. “It can go in the land, it

can go in the lake, it can go in the mountains.”

Boyadjiev planned to fly to Montreal today to talk to a potential

customer interested in using an Anthenea as a bar. She also has been

contacted by a potential customer near Tucson, Ariz., who has talked

to her about building a UFO city in the desert, she said.

Boyadjiev was born in Bulgaria and defected when it was still

under Communist control, she said. She paid a $15,000 bribe to a

Bulgarian official to make sure her daughter, Louisa, could leave

with her.

In 1980, she made it to Norway and toured as a singer while

engaging in a bureaucratic battle with immigration officials to gain

entry into the United States. She came to California in 1984 and

lived in San Francisco.

While in the Bay Area, Boyadjiev said, she worked as an executive

for a boating company and got the idea for the Boat and Breakfast

when she realized how many empty boats were moored off the San

Francisco coast.

Boyadjiev moved to Newport Beach in 1991 and started the Boat and

Breakfast about a year later, she said. When one of her customers

showed her a picture of an Anthenea, she was inspired to get back

into the boating business.

“A customer of mine showed me a brochure, and my eyes popped,” she

said. “It was unusual, and I like unusual things.”