| Prince Abdul Aziz (ex-Abdul Aziz) is currently the world's second biggest megayacht at 482 feet. Commissioned in 1984, the steel-hulled 5,200 ton yacht is powered by 2 12-cylinder 15,382 horsepower diesels and is the newest of several yachts used by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia up until his death and reportedly cost $184 million at the time she was built. She is berthed beside the King's palace, but has not left Saudi waters since 1995. Her accommodations include a fully-equipped hospital, a mosque and a cinema and she is manned by a crew of 65. |
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At 525 feet, this brand new yacht is the world's biggest megayacht and 43 feet longer than the previous record holder, Prince Abdul Aziz at 482 feet. This super huge megayacht was originally commissioned under the project name Platinum with Lürssen and Blohm+Voss in 1996 by Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei, the younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei. The build began with an Andrew Winch design, a price tag of $226 million and a projected 2000 delivery date, but work stopped in 1998 for lack of funds. In 2001, Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum purchased the steel hull and moved the build to his country's port Jebel Ali on the Persian Gulf. She is powered by four 9,625-hp MTU diesels, but specifics about her accommodations are still unconfirmed. There is reportedly one master stateroom fore and one aft, at least five VIP suites and an unknown number of guest staterooms. This 72-foot beem beauty was launched in Dubai in early April and should be delivered before the end of the year...and no one is sure what her final name will be!
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| The photo here was taken last summer when the yacht first emerged from Lürssen's build shed, shortly before sea trials; while her windows were covered and there was still some exterior work to do, she's no less an impressive and indeed imposing sight. Confidentiality agreements have kept everything from details of her design and engineering to renderings of her interior features from being released to the media. Even Lürssen would only refer to her as LE120, her project name: "LE" for Larry Ellison, "120" for her original length in meters. Those of you who are math whizzes have probably figured out that the LOA above doesn't equate to 120 meters; rather, it's 138 meters. Why'd the length change? No one associated with the project is permitted to speak publicly, but that hasn't stopped yacht-spotters worldwide from conjecturing that Ellison wanted to ensure that his yacht would be larger than Paul Allen's which was also being built by Lürssen around the same time. Whether or not that's the reason, one thing we're pretty certain of is that she's the first yacht to feature 20-cylinder, 12,000-hp MTU Series 8000s. If she has the four powerplants that we've heard she does, then she boasts an astounding 48,000 hp. She also has three tenders in the 40-foot range that were custom-built in New Zealand, two being traditional monohulls to carry guests and crew, and the third being a twin-hulled landing craft to carry a four-wheel-drive vehicle. But our favorite factoid about her comes from Melanie Craft, the novelist who's also Ellison's wife. She was reported by Women's Wear Daily as saying, "I tried to get Larry to call it Princess Melanie, but that got shot down pretty fast." |
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| Ah, the view of the port of Lahaina, Maui taken from the rear deck of "Barking Bananas". |
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