Impractical To Tactical: Omani Royal Yacht Transforms Into Navy Training Vessel

Updated Dec 1, 2019 7:09 AM EST

The superyacht universe is intriguing due to its exclusivity alone, but there is some incredible engineering going into these ultra luxurious vessels. Sometimes that includes taking what was tactical and turning into the practical—or impractical when it comes to economic frugality. We have seen old frigate hulls reborn into new cutting-edge personal luxury liners. And sometimes, the reverse occurs—older yachts morph into military vessels. This is exactly the case with the Royal Navy of Oman’s Al-Mabrukah training ship.

Now wearing a muted gray paint scheme of the Royal Navy of Oman and stripped of any external signs of luxury, the vessel served a far different role up until recently.

The latest photo of Al-Mabrukah was posted on Twitter by Jeremy Binnie of Jane’s Defense Weekly:

The 340-foot long pleasure yacht was built by renowned Italian shipbuilder Picchiotti in 1982 for Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Its ornate interior was designed by local interior design group Oman Rys and it’s accouterments were largely preserved during an extensive refit in 2009. In fact, the ship’s motif looks similar to an Omani Royal Flight 747-SP of the same era. You can see a complete set of photos of the exterior and interior here .

The lineage of the ship itself, and especially the shell game of monikers it has sailed under, is as confusing as it is interesting. It was named for Al-Said for nearly 25 years. Whatever ship is serving as the principal royal yacht for Oman’s Sultan is always named Al-Said after the country’s ruling family. With only a small number of ships in the Royal Navy of Oman overall, the country routinely recycles other names, as well.

The replacement Al-Said is nearly 170 feet longer than its predecessor and about three times the displacement. , Qatarperegrine/wikicommons

When Oman took delivery of the present Al-Said— a 508 foot long megayacht built by Germany’s Lurssen shipyard and delivered in 2008—it shifted this older yacht to the country’s Ministry of Tourism, where it gained the name Loaloat Al-Behar — translated ‘Pearl of The Seas’ in English. Now, after the better part of a decade acting as a charter vessel, she has ended up joining in the Omani Navy as a training ship under the name Al-Mabrukah.

The previous Al-Mabrukah , which had the pennant number Q30, had itself served as the Al-Said yacht until 1983, when she also became a naval training ship. In 1997, Oman began using her a patrol ship and pulled the ship from service altogether in 2014. Cyprus bought that ship, renamed it the Alasia , and commissioned her in February 2017 (shown in the tweet below).

You can see exactly what the Loaloat Al-Behar interior’s interior looked like after her late 2000s refit in the awesomely bad charter promotion reel below. It was quite lavish considering the age of the hull, but in a nostalgic sense and was still dated in appearance by modern high-tech superyacht standards. The vessel was could fetch up to around $290,000 per week for exclusive charter excursions.

It remains unclear as to the current interior configuration of the yacht turned training ship or if it still serves in some sort of VIP, liaison, or entertainment role of any kind. In fact, the vessel appears to have been for sale for an unknown amount of money prior to it being ported over to the Royal Navy of Oman. Who knows, maybe for the right price the ship could be acquired today . But considering that Oman is supposedly happy gifting one of the world’s most expensive private jets to a friendly ruler , it’s not like the oil-rich sultanate really needs the money.

Still, with its helicopter landing pad, ample small boat storage, and plenty of space—during its charter days it could sail with a crew of 80 and up to 180 passengers for day excursions and 28 guests in 14 cabins on longer charters—maybe the newly minted Al-Mabrukah will end up serving as a naval patrol ship like its predecessor.

So there you have it, the Al-Said turned Loaloat Al-Behar turned Al-Mabrukah, yet another odd-ball story in the sometimes happy and sometimes tragic lives of the world’s largest yachts.

The Loaloat Al Behar before turning into a Navy training vessel. , Marc Parris/Charterworld.com

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2019年12月1日上午7:09

超级游艇的世界本身就因其独特性而引人入胜，但这些极致奢华的船只背后更蕴藏着令人惊叹的工程技术。有时，这意味着将原本用于战术用途的技术转化为实用功能——或者，出于经济节约的考虑，也可能做出一些不切实际的改动。我们见过旧式护卫舰船体被改造为全新的尖端豪华私人游艇。有时，情况则恰恰相反——旧式游艇被改造为军用舰艇。阿曼皇家海军的“马布鲁卡”号训练舰正是如此。

如今，这艘船披上了阿曼皇家海军的暗灰色涂装，并去除了所有外部的奢华标志，直到最近，它还扮演着截然不同的角色。

简氏防务周刊的杰里米·宾尼在推特上发布了阿尔-马布鲁卡的最新照片：

这艘长340英尺的豪华游艇由意大利著名造船商皮基奥蒂（Picchiotti）于1982年为苏丹卡布斯·本·赛义德建造。其华丽的内饰由当地室内设计公司Oman Rys操刀设计，并在2009年的大规模翻新中基本保留了原有的装饰。事实上，这艘游艇的图案与同时期的阿曼皇家航空747-SP客机颇为相似。您可以在这里查看游艇外观和内饰的完整照片。

这艘船的来历，尤其是它曾使用过的众多不同名称，既令人费解又引人入胜。它曾以“赛义德”命名近25年。无论哪艘船是阿曼苏丹的主要皇家游艇，都会以该国统治家族的名字命名为“赛义德”。由于阿曼皇家海军的舰船数量不多，该国也经常重复使用其他名称。

替代舰“阿尔赛义德”号比其前身长近170英尺，排水量约为其三倍。（图片来源：Qatarperegrine/wikicommons）

阿曼于2008年接收了现今的“赛义德号”（Al-Said）——一艘由德国乐顺造船厂建造、长508英尺的超级游艇——之后，将这艘旧游艇移交给了该国旅游部，并更名为“洛阿洛阿特·阿尔·贝哈尔号”（Loaloat Al-Behar），意为“海洋明珠”。如今，在作为租赁游艇运营近十年后，这艘游艇加入了阿曼海军，成为一艘训练舰，并更名为“马布鲁卡号”（Al-Mabrukah）。

之前的“阿尔-马布鲁卡”号（舷号Q30）曾是“阿尔-赛义德”号游艇，直到1983年才退役，之后也成为一艘海军训练舰。1997年，阿曼开始将其用作巡逻舰，并于2014年完全退役。塞浦路斯购买了这艘船，将其更名为“阿拉西亚”号，并于2017年2月正式服役（如下推文所示）。

从下方这段糟糕透顶的租赁宣传片中，您可以清楚地看到“Loaloat Al-Behar”号在2000年代末期翻新后的内部装潢。考虑到船体的年代，其内部装饰相当奢华，但这种奢华带有一种怀旧的气息，以现代高科技超级游艇的标准来看，外观仍然显得过时。这艘船的专属包租价格最高可达每周29万美元左右。

目前尚不清楚这艘由游艇改装而成的训练舰的内部布局，也不清楚它是否仍然承担着贵宾接待、联络或娱乐等任何职能。事实上，这艘船在移交给阿曼皇家海军之前似乎曾以未知的价格出售。谁知道呢，也许现在只要价格合适，这艘船就能被买走。但考虑到阿曼据说乐于将世界上最昂贵的私人飞机之一赠送给一位友好的统治者，这个石油资源丰富的苏丹国似乎并不缺钱。

不过，凭借其直升机停机坪、充足的小型船只存放空间和宽敞的空间——在包租期间，它可以搭载 80 名船员和多达 180 名乘客进行一日游，在较长的包租期间，14 个客舱可容纳 28 位客人——或许新建成的 Al-Mabrukah 最终会像它的前身一样，成为一艘海军巡逻舰。

所以，这就是 Al-Said 号，后来变成了 Loaloat Al-Behar 号，最后变成了 Al-Mabrukah 号，这是世界上最大的游艇有时幸福有时悲惨的生活中又一个奇特的故事。

“洛阿洛特·阿尔·贝哈尔”号在改装成海军训练舰之前。（图片来源：Marc Parris/Charterworld.com）

联系作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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