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AL RAYA Yacht – Exclusive $250M Superyacht

The ship had a selling price of EUR 250 million.

AL RAYA yacht interior

The AL RAYA yacht accommodates 16 passengers and 47 crew members. She accommodates an impressive number of passengers and offers them many amenities across the length of the 110m(360.9ft) yacht.

The interior of the AL RAYA yacht was designed by Alberto Pinto . He is a renowned photographer and interior designer based in Paris, with an impressive portfolio that includes apartments, corporations, hotels, yachts, and jets.

The French interior designer has left his mark on the impressive interior. AL RAYA boasts a large pool and cinema area, a sauna, a steam room, a massage room, and a hospital. There is a saloon containing a grand piano.

The owner’s deck boasts a large office and conference room. There are accommodations for 16 passengers and 47 crew members in 21 crew cabins and four staff cabins.

The crew has access to their own gym. The captain’s cabin includes a dressing room and an office. The impressive yacht also boasts a security room to monitor the entirety of AL RAYA.

The Al Raya features an exterior design by Tim Heywood Design. The build was executed by Lürssen Yachts in their shipyard based in Germany.

She was delivered in 2008. She has a steel hull, an aluminum structure, and teak decks. AL RAYA features underwater lighting and is one of the biggest yachts in the world .

Specifications

The AL RAYA yacht reaches a length of 110m(360.9ft), a beam of 16.3m(53.5ft), and a draft of 3.2m(104.98ft). She displaces a volume of 5148GT and can reach a top speed of 21kn, with a cruising speed of 18.2kn.

She reaches these speeds with 2 MTU engines. She features an Underway stabilization system that reduces the roll of the boat to experience a smoother experience aboard the boat.

She was built to Germanischer Lloyd 100A5 CMCA MOTOR YACHT AUT classification society rules. She has a ($15-$25) million running cost per year.

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Once commissioned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, the $250 million superyacht Al Raya, now owned by the King of Bahrain, is fit for royalty. As long as 5 tennis courts, the vessel boasts a pool, a cinema, a conference room to discuss state affairs, and a hospital.

The King of Bahrain owns Al Raya Yacht-

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, owner of the Al Raya Yacht, has a net worth of an astonishing $5 billion, according to Superyachtfan . The ruler of Bahrain is also a sports enthusiast, with interests ranging from falconry, golf, and fishing to tennis and football. Horses are another of King Hamad’s passions, leading him to establish the Amiri stables in June 1977. In addition to Al Raya, the royal also owns another yacht, Alwaeli, as well as two private Boeing 747 jets.

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Bahrain’s Hidden Economy

“A distinctive characteristic of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates: is the prevalence of the rentier economy.” ( Bahgat , 1995)

Ever since the discovery of vast reserves of natural resource wealth in the Gulf, the spotlight of the world has shifted towards the East, where new power structures quickly emerged. Wealthy ruling families cashed in on the discovery of oil and gas, and began a long term goal of capital projects aimed at improving the standard of living and strengthening the security apparatus of each state in an increasingly unstable region of the world. However, the division of wealth, or lack thereof, soon became the dominant factor in these countries, with significant swathes of state revenue going toward funding the lavish lifestyles of the region’s monarchs. Concurrent to this was the fruition of systematic corrupt business practices on the part of ruling families, which only served to exacerbate the inequitable governing strategies of the Gulf countries.

In each of the GCC countries, a majority share of government revenue is derived from foreign rents from natural resource extraction, meaning these countries are heavily reliant on these revenues to fund short and long term projects.

“Living like a king”

The exuberant lifestyles enjoyed by Bahrain’s ruling family has become a generic attribute of Gulf royalty across the board. Comparing and contrasting the wealth enjoyed by a privileged fraction of the population to the remaining majority highlights the unjust and unsustainable nature of authoritarian kings and their families.

According to estimates , between 1926 and 1970 Bahrain’s ruling family received about a quarter of the nation’s wealth. The combined amount of money they received together as a family always represented “the largest item of recurrent expenditure.”

The AlKhalifa family owns a collection of multi-million dollar luxury goods, including the yacht “Al Salamab,” one of the world’s largest by volume. Once on the market for an asking price of $314 million, it was handed as a gift to the Crown Prince of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the family’s aircraft fleet consists of six aircraft, a Boeing Business Jet BBJ2, two Boeing 747-400s, a Boeing 767-400ER, a Gulfstream G-IV private jet, and a Bell 430 helicopter. The Boeing 767-400ER alone is valued at $250 million.

In 2018, the Guardian reported that Sheikh Hamad Isa Ali AlKhalifa, a cousin of Bahrain’s king and nephew of the country’s deputy prime minister, had been accused of reneging on a promise to pay $35 million to meet 26 Bollywood stars for whom he had an “unbridled desire and fantasy.” The sheikh denied the allegations, and insisted he only expected to be “charged “$30,000 to $50,000 for private meetings” according to the report.

Division of Wealth

Measuring the division of wealth and individual economic return in Bahrain is an invaluable indicator of the many layers of corruption that plague the small island nation. The flow of money between government, businesses, and everyday Bahraini men and women demands transparency and accountability.

It is estimated that 12.2% of Bahrainis live on less than $5 per day, with that number being attributed mainly to Bahraini women, Shia, and foreign workers. The wealth disparity in Bahrain is indicative of the extent of economic corruption between the ruling AlKhalifa family and the people they supposedly govern. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the richest 20% of the population owns 41.6% of the total income earned, reflecting the persisting social inequality in Bahrain.

While the Kingdom of Bahrain ranks particularly well on the Human Development Index, their position is not representative of a significant portion of the population, and is used as a cover to the economic hardship experienced by Bahrain’s majority Shia community. The economic underrepresentation is mirrored in the broader lack of political and judicial representation of the Shia population. A majority of official positions in the Council of Ministers, the Shura Council, and the Council of Representatives, and all of Bahrain’s judges, are appointed by King Hamad, who exhibits a strict bias towards Sunni Muslims within the governing structures of the state. As of 2013, members of the AlKhalifa dynasty held 14 out of 35 Cabinet-level positions, while Shia individuals held only six. The king also maintains the exclusive right to appoint judges and judicial officers. As a result, Shia individuals accounted for just 12% of the judiciary in 2013.

Large imports of weapons and ammunition for Bahrain’s extensive security sector are made at the expense of social housing and economic development, and those same munitions are also routinely used to repress dissent among the politically marginalized Shia majority population. The lack of transparency and accountability over the security sector, as well as its role in the Bahraini government’s broader repression, allows the kingdom to largely resist both internal and external calls for democratic reforms. With a growing level of societal discontent with the Bahraini monarchy, and an inequitable division of wealth to accompany it, the continuation of large domestic defense expenditures without a clear security strategy further delegitimizes the regime.

The exception; routine royal corruption

According to Transparency International , Bahrain scores 36/100 in terms of public sector corruption, 0 indicating highly corrupt, and 100 meaning very clean.  As the case studies below will highlight, there seems to be no existing state apparatus that regulates the procurement of government contracts, as well as responsible spending practices by government officials in Bahrain.

In 2014, Alcoa Inc. (an American aluminum company) was charged with bribery by the United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due to their dealings with smelteries in Bahrain. The investigation had found that Alcoa Inc. was bribing Bahraini officials, including members of the royal family, with roughly $110 million over the course of years and that this extensive corruption occurred because Bahrain houses one of the largest aluminum smelters in the world, and Alcoa Inc. would send their raw materials there for refinement, exposing the company to the high levels of corruption found in Bahrain’s private sector.

In an attempt to create the appearance of accountability and transparency when it comes to corruption, the National Audit Court (NAC) was established in 2002 by the King. The NAC was mandated with cracking down on corruption in Bahrain and increasing Bahrain’s dismal standing in the World Corruption Index. However, the ruling elite quickly stripped the NAC of its enforcement competencies, ultimately making it powerless in its fight against corruption. The Alcoa Inc. scandal was never mentioned in any of its reports, further undermining its effectiveness and ability to act independently of Bahrain’s ruling cadres.

In 2014, the Financial Times reported that $40 billion worth of Bahraini public land had been given to private investors without any return payment to the state. Through extensive land reclamation projects, multi-billion dollar real estate developments sprung up around Bahrain’s coastline. The report notes that since 2003, 65km² of public land was transferred to private ventures, worth an estimated $40 billion, or the equivalent of twice of Bahrain’s GDP. However no payments were made to Bahrain’s Treasury. This expensive real estate endeavor was also done at the expense of affordable housing.

Another example is the Bahrain Bay project. This $2.5 billion development that juts out on to what previously was an expanse of water is, according to activists, “a symbol of inequality in a country marred by human rights violations and sectarian strife, where an acute housing shortage persists even as exclusive developments multiply.” The financing of land reclamation projects is done through the public purse, but the public never sees the returns on capital investments. The Premier Group, an investment company reportedly owned by King Hamad, has an estimated investment value of $22 billion, including assets in Bahrain as well as in the United Kingdom (UK). The intricate process of capital accumulation, borrowing, and investing by the Premier Group is all conducted behind closed doors. The use of public funds to finance the commercial ambitions of the ruling family is highly irresponsible and undemocratic, as the reward for such investments returns only to the royals and not the average Bahraini.

“The way this land was acquired has focused questions on the contested line between public and royal land ownership.” (FT, 2014)

Despite the goals of Bahrain’s 2011 pro-democracy movement, hopes of a transition towards an accountable constitutional monarchy has been marked instead by persistent corruption and an inherent willingness to withhold information from the public. How the AlKhalifa family intends to juggle its vast business portfolio and its false claims of accountability and transparency will inevitably dictate how sustainable their economic strategy is in the long run.

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Category Archives: Bahrain Royals

Crown prince salman bin hamad bin isa al khalifa of bahrain.

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2020

Credit – Wikipedia

Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was born on October 21, 1969, in Riffa, Bahrain. He is the eldest of the twelve children of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain , who has four wives, and the eldest of the four children and the eldest of the three sons of King Hamad and his first wife and his first cousin, Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa .

Salman has two brothers and one sister:

• Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa (born 1975), married
• Hessa bint Salman al Khalid Al Khalifa, had two sons and two daughters
• Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1977)
• Sheikha Najla bint Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1981)

Salman has two half-brothers from his father’s second wife Sheia bint Hassan Al Khrayyesh Al Ajmi:

• Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1987), married Shaikha bint Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum, daughter of the Emir of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, had one daughter and three sons
• Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1989), married (1) Princess Sahab bint Abdullah Al Saud, daughter of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, had two sons, divorced (2) Sheikha Hessa bint Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalif, had one daughter (3) Nouf Al Ajmi

Salman has one half-brother and two half-sisters from his father’s third wife Hessa bint Faisal Muhammad Shreim Al-Marri:

• Sheikh Faisal bin Hamad Al Khalifa (1991 – 2006), unmarried, died in a car accident
• Sheikha Noura bint Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1993)
• Sheikha Munira bint Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1990)

Salman has one half-brother and two half-sisters from his father’s fourth wife Binh bint Jabr Al-Nuaimi:

• Sheikh Sultan bin Hamad Al Khalifa
• Sheikha Hessa bint Hamad Al Khalifa married Sheikh Hashim bin Muhammad bin Salman Al Khalifa, had children
• Sheikha Rima bint Hamad Al Khalifa (born 2002)

Salman attended the Bahrain School , a United States Department of Defense school located in Juffair, Manama, Bahrain. The student body is primarily the children of the United States Navy stationed in Bahrain. However, about half of the students are children of diplomatic personnel, employees of ARAMCO ( the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabi), and wealthy Bahraini citizens. After graduating from the Bahrain School, Hamad attended American University in Washington D.C. where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1992. He then attended Queens’ College, Cambridge in England, receiving a Master of Arts degree in the Philosophy of History in 1994.

Salman served as vice-chairman of the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research from 1992–1995 and then served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1995–1999. In addition, Salman served as Undersecretary of Defence at the Ministry of Defence from 1995–1999.

On March 6, 1999, Salman’s grandfather Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain died and his father became Emir of Bahrain. Three days later, Salman was sworn in as Crown Prince of the Emirate of Bahrain. Following a national referendum, Bahrain was declared a constitutional monarchy in 2002, becoming the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Salman’s father Hamad became King of Bahrain.

Embed from Getty Images window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'19s5EGm-RmVFcoIZfb52bA',sig:'oIEqQzvWFjkKqTSgF_H1Vw_qLKnMcm9NuuKSSAX_oXc=',w:'594px',h:'402px',items:'622348686',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});   Crown Prince Salman with The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in 2016

In his role as Crown Prince, Salman was appointed to the following positions:

• Chairman of the Economic Development Board (appointed 2002): formulates and oversees Bahrain’s economic development strategy
• Deputy Supreme Commander of the Bahrain Defence Force (appointed 2008)
• First Deputy Prime Minister (appointed 2013)

Salman married Sheikha Hala bint D’aij Al Khalifa , the youngest daughter of D’aij bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Assistant Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Finance & National Economy. Hala was the Honorary President of the Women and Children Information Center and President of the Bahrain Society for Mental Retardation. She also began the “Be Free” campaign to protect children from abuse. On June 10, 2018, the state-run Bahrain News Agency announced Hala’s death. The press release had no details about Hala’s death but it described Hala as the “former wife” of Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa so it can be inferred that the couple had divorced.

Salman and Hala had two sons and two daughters:

• Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa (born 1990), second in the line of succession after his father, educated at Bahrain School, graduated from American University in Washington DC, married Sheikha Jawaher Bint Abdullah Bin Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, has three sons
• Mohammed bin Salman Al Khalifa (born 1991), educated at Bahrain School, graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, graduated from King’s College in London, England, married, has a son and a daughter
• Fatima Al Danah bint Salman Al Khalifa, attended Riffa Views International School in Al Mazrowiah, Bahrain
• Al Joud bint Salman Al Khalifa

Salman attending the graduation ceremony of his daughter Sheikha Fatima Al Danah bint Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa from Riffa Views International School in 2017; Credit Website of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• Ar.wikipedia.org. 2020.  سلمان بن حمد آل خليفة . [online] Available at: <https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A8%D9%86_%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF_%D8%A2%D9%84_%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%A9> [Accessed 7 August 2020].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2020.  Salman, Crown Prince Of Bahrain . [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman,_Crown_Prince_of_Bahrain> [Accessed 7 August 2020].
• Office of the First Deputy Prime Minister, K., 2020.  About His Royal Highness Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa – Office Of The First Deputy Prime Minister, Kingdom Of Bahrain . [online] Fdpm.gov.bh. Available at: <https://www.fdpm.gov.bh/en/biography.html> [Accessed 7 August 2020].
• Sheikha Hala, Wife of Bahrain’s Crown Prince, Dies. [online] @businessline. Available at: <https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/world/sheikha-hala-wife-of-bahrains-crown-prince-dies/article24127495.ece> [Accessed 7 August 2020].

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Sheikh isa bin salman al-khalifa, emir of bahrain.

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

Sheikh Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain was born on June 3, 1933, in the village of Al Jasra in Bahrain. He was the son of Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, Hakim of Bahrain and Mouza bint Hamad al-Khalifa, one of his father’s three wives.

Isa had one full brother and one half-brother and six half-sisters.

Isa’s full brother:

• Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa (1935 – 2020), married Hessa bint Ali Al Khalifa, had three sons and one daughter

Isa’s half-brother from his father’s wife Latifa bint Ibrahim al-Khalifa:

• Prince Muhammad bin Salman al-Khalifa (1940-2009), had two wives who had a total of ten sons and five daughter

Isa’s six half-sisters:

• Thajba bint Salman al-Khalifa
• Fatima bint Salman Al Khalifa
• Maryam bint Salman al-Khalifa
• Aisha bint Salman al-Khalifa
• Sheikha bint Salman al-Khalifa
• Nura bint Salman al-Khalifa

On May 8, 1949, Isa married his cousin Hessa bint Salman al-Khalifa (1933 – 2009) and the couple had five sons and four daughters:

• Sheikh Hamad bin Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, King of Bahrain (born 1950), Wife 1 Sabika bint Ibrahim al-Khalifa , had three sons and one daughter; Wife 2 Sheia bint Hassan al-Khrayyesh Al Ajmi, had two sons; Wife 3 Hessa bint Faisal Muhammad Shreim al-Marri, had one son and two daughters; Wife 4 Binh bint Jabr al-Nuaimi, had one son and two daughters
• Sheikh Rashed bin Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa (? – 2011), married ?, had seven sons
• Sheikh Mohamed bin Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, married Sheika Kholoud al-Khalifa, had two sons and one daughter
• Sheikh Abdullah bin Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, married Sheikha Haya bint Muhammad al-Khalifa, had three sons and one daughter
• Sheikh Ali bin Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa (born 1955), married Sheikha Anoud bint Muhammad al-Khalifa, had three sons and one daughter
• Sheikha Munira bint Isa al-Khalifa, married Sheikh Salman bin Muhammad al-Khalifa, had five sons and one daughter
• Sheikha Maryam bint Isa al-Khalifa, married Sheikh Ali bin ‘Abdullah al-Khalifa, had two sons and three daughters
• Sheikha Shaikha bint Isa al-Khalifa married Sheikh Duaij bin Hamad al-Khalifa had two sons and three daughters
• Sheikha Noura bint Isa al-Khalifa (? – 2018), married and divorced Sheikh Isa bin Ali bin Hamad al-Khalifa, had two sons

Embed from Getty Images window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'xPOLthciSQtXaww-zywTYg',sig:'IXQmityBx05rxW0sa9uUeF4Yys389zdzlLXBVlONndc=',w:'594px',h:'460px',items:'825520670',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain and his son and heir Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, the UK in 1968, after the Commissioning Parade, where the Hamid  was commissioned into the Bahrain Royal Guard

The Kingdom of Bahrain is an island country in the Persian Gulf, situated between the Qatar peninsula and the northeastern coast of Saudi Arabia. In the 1800s, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom and remained so until independence was declared in 1971. The House of Khalifa has reigned in Bahrain since 1783.

Isa became Hakim of Bahrain upon the death of his father on November 2, 1961. On August 15, 1971, Bahrain declared its independence from the United Kingdom and signed a new treaty of friendship with the United Kingdom. Isa changed the title of the ruler of Bahrain to the Emir of Bahrain and appointed his brother Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa as the first Prime Minister of the newly sovereign country, the Emirate of Bahrain.

Embed from Getty Images window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'mNepbKEkQZ5yTX4xfMC71A',sig:'W0X-44LWQN3dSR69G-wxz8PJyQGjuMrR0CkMe7HYUi4=',w:'594px',h:'398px',items:'115278813',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Philip with Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain, following dinner at the Al-Qudaibiya Palace in Manama, Bahrain in 1979

In 1973, Isa introduced a moderate form of parliamentary democracy, and men (but not women) were allowed to vote in parliamentary elections. However, parliamentary democracy was short-lived. In August 1975, however, Isa dissolved Parliament because it refused to pass the State Security Law of 1974 which caused a period of political suppression with the torture of political prisoners and human rights violations. In 2001, Isa’s son Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, who had succeeded him as Emir of Bahrain in 1999, abolished the State Security Law, declared Bahrain a constitutional monarchy following a national referendum, and changed the title of the ruler of Bahrain to King of Bahrain.

Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain, during a visit to the Pentagon in 1998; Credit – Wikipedia

On March 6, 1999, at the Al-Sakhir Palace in Sakhir, Bahrain, 65-year-old Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain died of a heart attack just minutes after concluding a meeting with the United States Secretary of Defense William Cohen . Isa had suffered heart problems in the past. In 1998, he visited Cleveland, Ohio to undergo heart treatment.

Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain was buried at the Al-Rifa’a Cemetery with crowds of people showering the 12-mile funeral route with flowers in a traditional display of mourning. Isa’s son and successor Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, now Emir of Bahrain, and Isa’s brother Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, attended the funeral which was held within hours of Isa’s death following the Islamic custom of quick burial. Many of the 10,000 mourners at the royal cemetery pushed forward to help members of the royal family carry the wooden bier on which Isa’s cloth-wrapped body was carried from an ambulance to his grave.

Although he had dissolved Parliament in 1975 and took on absolute power, during Isa’s 38 years as Emir, Bahrain was transformed into a modern nation and became an important financial center in the Persian Gulf area. President Bill Clinton called him “a good friend of peace” and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan described him as “a force for stability” in the region.

• Ar.wikipedia.org. 2020.  عيسى بن سلمان آل خليفة . [online] Available at: <https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%89_%D8%A8%D9%86_%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A2%D9%84_%D8%AE%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%81%D8%A9> [Accessed 3 August 2020].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2020.  Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa . [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isa_bin_Salman_Al_Khalifa> [Accessed 3 August 2020].
• Nytimes.com. 2020.  Bahrain Emir Dies In Palace After Meeting On U.S. Arms . [online] Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/07/world/bahrain-emir-dies-in-palace-after-meeting-on-us-arms.html?ref=oembed> [Accessed 3 August 2020].
• Royalark.net. 2020.  Bahrain Royal Genealogy . [online] Available at: <https://www.royalark.net/Bahrain/bahrain10.htm> [Accessed 3 August 2020].
• Tulsa World. 1999.  Bahrain’s Emir Dies Suddenly . [online] Available at: <https://tulsaworld.com/archive/bahrains-emir-dies-suddenly/article_72c18e9d-2f63-5b15-a2a5-31a932fb68a7.html> [Accessed 3 August 2020].

Sheikh Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain

by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2014

photo: The Telegraph

King Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain was born January 28, 1950, in Riffa, Bahrain, the eldest son of Emir Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain and his wife, Hessa bint Salman Al Khalifa .

He began his primary education in Bahrain at the age of 6, along with studying the principles of Islam and the Arabic Language. Upon completing his primary education in 1964, he was proclaimed Crown Prince. He completed his secondary education at Applegarth College, and The Leys School , both in England. He then undertook military training with the British Army at the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, Hampshire and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst . He later attended the United States Army Command and General Staff College , graduating with a degree in leadership in 1973.

Hamad was a driving force in the establishment of the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) and was appointed Commander-in-Chief. He later served as Minister of Defense, and as Deputy Head of the Al Khalifa Family Council. An avid helicopter pilot, Hamad was instrumental in establishing the Bahrain Air Force.

Upon his father’s death on March 6, 1999, he became the Emir of Bahrain. Three years later, in 2002, he elevated the Emirate to a Kingdom and proclaimed himself the first King of Bahrain.

King Hamad and Queen Sabika with the Duke of York and Princess Beatrice of York, 2012. photo: Zimbio

King Hamad has four wives, and a total of twelve children.

• Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain (born 1969)
• Sheikh  Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa (born 1975)
• Sheikh  Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1987)
• Sheikh  Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa (born 1989)
• Sheikh  Faisal bin Hamad Al Khalifa (1991 – 2006), died in a car accident
• Sheikha Hessa bint Hamad Al Khalifa

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psdo Senior Member

I've been trying to find out what yachts belong to the royal family in Bahrain. I do custom painting. Another painter in the business has painted boats for the Prince some time ago. He has been asked to come over and paint some designs on the Prince's new yacht and do some stuff for the Formula 1 race next year. Anyhow he asked if I was interested in working on the project if it goes. He knew I was into yachts and thought I might know something. Thought at first it might be Platinum but I from what I read that's someone else. Anyone have any info for me?

Crewagency Guest

Bahrain Yacht I know that the yacht Alwaeli is one of them. 67,97 m lenght.lying Manama ( Bahrain )

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The Story Behind the Royal Family's Yacht, Britannia

The ship hosted four royal honeymoons in its 44 years of service.

Often referred to as the last royal yacht, the Britannia was decommissioned in 1997, and despite some efforts , there are no signs of a new one in the near future. Though its seafaring days may be behind it (the ship now serves as a tourist attraction in Edinburgh, Scotland), the Britannia remains an important artifact and a peek behind the curtain of royal life—it even garnered a prominent place in the fifth season of The Crown . Below, a few of its most notable moments throughout history.

It was the first royal yacht designed for ocean travel.

The ship was built by John Brown & Co at the same shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland in the same location the famous ocean liners the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were constructed. With 12,000 horsepower, the ship could travel at a maximum 22.5 knots (approximately 25 miles per hour), ideal for ocean-going diplomacy. Prior to its launch in 1953, the royal family used ships from the Royal Navy or even passenger liners for the overseas portions of the royal tour.

In its 44 years of service, the HMY Britannia traveled around 1.1 million miles.

It was commissioned just two days before the death of King George VI.

The King was already in failing health by the time the designs for the HMY Britannia were submitted, and the hope was that traveling might help alleviate some of his symptoms. However, just two days after the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland received the order the King passed away on February 6, 1952.

It would take just over a year for the ship to be completed, during which time its name remained a secret—it wasn't announced until the ship's official launch in April of 1953, less than two months before the Queen's coronation . Elizabeth cracked a bottle of English wine (in the post-war era, champagne was considered too extravagant for the launch of a ship) and announced, "I name this ship Britannia … I wish success to her and all who sail in her."

It was created to double as a hospital.

When Britannia was first envisioned, less than a decade after the end of World War II, the designers sought to make it as functional as possible, crafting a space that could be converted from an ocean-going royal residence to a seafaring hospital during any possible future wartime. The main veranda was laid out and re-enforced so that it could support a helicopter landing and the laundry was made much larger than on a standard naval vessel to accommodate the potential patients. Though the ship was never actually put to that purpose, it was pressed into service on a rescue mission to help evacuate European nationals from South Yemen in 1986.

The ship was home to a lot of history.

Long before it became a floating museum, the Britannia had an eye for history. The gold and white binnacle housed on the ship's veranda deck was originally part of the HMY Royal George , a royal yacht that served Queen Victoria . Likewise, some of the bed linens used by Queen Elizabeth aboard the vessel were originally made for Victoria's bed for one of the previous royal yachts.

Britannia's steering wheel was lifted from her namesake, the racing yacht HMY Britannia , built in 1893 for King Edward VII .

It was redesigned to be less opulent.

Despite the sense of luxury that the term "royal yacht" inspires, the Queen and Prince Philip were actually concerned when they began overseeing the project in 1952 that the original interior design plans by the design firm McInnes Gardner & Partners were too lavish for a country still recovering from the war. The interiors were ultimately redesigned by Sir Hugh Casson and received very minimal updates throughout her 44 years of service.

But it still had homey touches—by royal standards.

Suffice to say that even low-key royal living is a fairly high class. In addition to the 56-seat State Dining Room, which hosted luminaries including Winston Churchill, Noel Coward, Nelson Mandela, and multiple US Presidents, the ship also sported a formal staircase where the Queen would greet guests, separate bedrooms and sitting rooms for both Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh, and a phone system designed to match the unique configurations of Buckingham Palace's telephones.

In the early years of the Britannia's life it was also home to the Queen's Rolls-Royce Phantom V which was hoisted and lowered from a special garage compartment at port so that the Queen could drive her own car at each location. The space was ever so slightly too small, forcing the bumpers to be removed in order to get it into the garage without damage and then refitted when the car was removed. Ultimately Elizabeth began using cars provided for her at port instead and the garage was converted into a storage area for beer.

The steering crew couldn't see where they were going.

Life on board the HMY Britannia was far from typical for her crew. To begin with, due to the prestige and pressure of the position, the commanding officer of the royal yacht was always a flag officer, most commonly a Rear Admiral, although the first two to serve were Vice Admirals, and Britannia 's final CO was a Commodore.

While working, the crew reportedly used hand signals to communicate rather than shouting orders, in order to maintain a sense of quiet and calm for the royal residents. It was also the last ship in the royal navy where the crew members slept in hammocks, a practice that they maintained until 1973.

Perhaps the most unusual element of the ship's functioning, though, was the steering. While on most ships, the steering wheel sits on the bridge, overlooking the front of the vessel, Britannia 's was on the deck below, in the wheelhouse, which meant that the yachtsmen who were actually doing the steering couldn't see where they were going. The crew got around this rather surprising pitfall by using voice pipes from the bridge to confer navigational orders.

It was a royal honeymoon essential.

No fewer than four royal couples celebrated their honeymoons in the HMY Britannia 's honeymoon suite (the only room onboard with a double bed.)

Princess Margaret started the tradition in 1960 for her Caribbean honeymoon with Anthony Armstrong-Jones , a quiet, formal affair where dinners were taken in full evening dress every night. Things didn't go quite as smoothly for Princess Anne on her honeymoon with Captain Mark Phillips in 1973—storms and 20-foot waves left the couple stricken with seasickness for the first week of their Caribbean cruise. Prince Charles and Princess Diana famously spent their 1981 honeymoon on a Mediterranean cruise aboard the yacht. The crew managed to duck the press so efficiently they garnered the nickname "the ghost ship." The final royal honeymoon aboard the Britannia was taken by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson , Duchess of York in 1986 when the couple traveled around the Azores.

And a family vacation spot.

In addition to her diplomatic duties on royal tours and her service as a post-wedding retreat, the Britannia was also a vessel for family vacations. During the summer months, the royal family would often take off on what became known as the Western Isles tour, cruising around the western isles of Scotland. During the trip, the family would play games and have barbecues on the islands. The stairway off of the veranda was sometimes even converted into a waterslide for the younger royals. The tour often included a stop off at the Castle of Mey to visit the Queen Mother, then making berth in Aberdeen so that the Queen could travel to her favorite summer home, Balmoral .

The Queen openly wept when HMY Britannia was decommissioned in 1997.

With so many memories around the yacht, it's not hard to understand why the decommissioning of the Britannia was upsetting for the royal family. Though plans were initially drawn up for a replacement yacht, the government ultimately determined not to fund the effort. After the Queen officially took her leave of it in 1997, the ship was placed in the port of Leith in Scotland where it serves as a floating museum and events venue . All of the clocks on board remain stopped at 3:01, the exact time that Her Majesty disembarked for the last time.

It was used for a reception for Zara Phillips before her wedding.

Though it's no longer used as their private vessel, the Britannia 's connection to the royal family didn't end in 1997. In 2011 on the night before her wedding, the Queen's oldest granddaughter Zara Phillips contracted the ship for a reception. Though her grandmother wasn't in attendance Zara celebrated her upcoming marriage to Mike Tindall onboard along with her mother and her cousins Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate, Princess Eugenie, and Princess Beatrice.

Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.

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A New Royal Yacht Is Coming

• By Phil Draper
• January 7, 2022

There are yachts, and there are superyachts, but royal yachts tend to be something else again. The United Kingdom hasn’t had a royal yacht for almost 25 years, but the British government just announced its intention to replace Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia .

No firm details have been released of what this replacement could be, but design proposals were recently invited. Time is of the essence, given that the official policy statement came with a proposed launch date just three years away.

The open brief suggests that what is needed now is less yacht, more national ship—a world-first build. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he sees the vessel as more of a floating embassy to support royals and government ministers alike.

That concept is broadly familiar. During its 44-year service life as a ship of state, Britannia racked up more than 1 million nautical miles and 696 foreign visits. Every itinerary was about promoting the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, and trade promotion was always a part of the job description. For instance, Britannia made several trips to the United States, including both coasts and Chicago via the St. Lawrence Seaway. Various presidents and their wives were guests aboard, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

But what defines a royal yacht?

It’s not just about scale, although the eight-deck, all-steel Britannia was one of the biggest yachts in the world when it launched. It was built at Scotland’s John Brown and Co. of Clydebank, the same yard that built the ocean liners RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Mary . Britannia entered service in January 1954, one year after Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Her late husband, Prince Philip, was a former naval officer and enthusiastically oversaw Britannia’s specification and construction.

The yacht, beyond its routine duties, could rapidly convert to a 200-bed hospital ship or an offshore refuge for the royal family in case of nuclear war. Britannia is 412 feet length overall, has a 55-foot beam and measures 5,862 gross tons. Thanks to two turbine sets producing up to 12,000 hp, Britannia was capable of a continuous 21 knots throughout its service years.

Those were the days when a yacht of that size was unusual: There are now almost 30 giga-yachts afloat with more gross tonnage than Britannia . Only a quarter of them have any obvious royal affiliations.

But in its day, Britannia was an operation to behold. The yacht was home to 21 officers and 256 sailors of the British Royal Navy and could host functions with 250 guests. The staterooms and staff quarters were aft, and the crew were forward. The yacht’s complement included a Royal Marines guard detachment in separate onboard barracks, a 26-strong military band, and a full general surgery team with an operating theater. The permanent noncommissioned crew were known affectionately as the “yotties.”

Britannia was where the most senior members of the royal family stayed when on suitable official visits. It was not where they would normally spend vacations, although Prince Charles and Princess Diana famously used Britannia for a honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean. They had the yacht’s only double bed installed aboard.

As for Britannia’s successor, various sources have quoted ballpark figures for the build in the low hundreds of millions of dollars. The final specification will depend on how much space is practical for conference and entertainment areas, the number of guest staterooms, the crew complement, helicopter use, tenders, provisions, technology, and security. Johnson also says he wants the vessel to incorporate cutting-edge green technologies and showcase best practices with regard to sustainability.

The new yacht is expected to have a service life of at least 30 years. Given that trillions of dollars’ worth of trade deals were reportedly secured aboard Britannia , the cost for that lifespan is not expected to be a concern.

Construction could start as early as next year, following consultations with the royal family, the Royal Navy and various government departments. The vessel will officially be the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense and classified as if it were a warship.

Floating History

Now retired, royal yacht Britannia lies permanently in Edinburgh, Scotland. This vessel has been one of the Scottish capital’s most popular tourist draws for more than 25 years. It is open daily and sees more than 1,000 visitors a day. Guided tours take in all areas, including a view into the queen’s bedroom, private sitting rooms, state dining room and drawing rooms, sun lounge and veranda, bridge, crew decks, and engine room.

The First Royal Yacht

The wooden wheel aboard Britannia came from the only other royal yacht to bear the name, the much older 122-foot gaff-rigged cutter Britannia . Built for Prince Albert Edward, who later became King Edward VII, it was famously campaigned at big-boat

regattas by him and his son, King George V. The yacht launched in spring 1893 and was a near-sister to Valkyrie II , which unsuccessfully challenged the Nathanael Greene Herreshoff-built Vigilant for the America’s Cup that same year. Both Valkyrie II and Britannia

were designed by George Lennox Watson and built at the D&W Henderson Shipyard in Scotland. Following George V’s death and per his wishes, the vessel was stripped of its spars and fitting, and scuttled in deep water off England’s South Coast on July 10, 1936.

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