Kingdom 5KR

Kingdom 5KR, docked in Antibes, France

Kingdom 5KR

Kingdom 5KR is a 85.65 metres (281.0 ft) superyacht owned by Al-Waleed bin Talal.

Overview

The yacht was built in 1980 by the yacht builder Benetti at a cost of $100 million (This is equivalent to $260,379,645 in 2009^[1])^[2] and designed by Jon Bannenberg. Her initial interior was designed by Luigi Sturchio.^[3]

She was originally built as Nabila for Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi (named for his daughter). At the time of her construction she was one of the largest yachts in the world but is now ranked down at 54th largest.

During her days as Nabila, she was featured in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again, in which she was seen as Flying Saucer (translated from Italian Disco Volante in the source novel, Thunderball), the villain's superyacht mobile HQ. She was also the inspiration for a track, "Khashoggi's Ship", on the 1989 album by rock band Queen, The Miracle.

After Khashoggi ran into financial problems, he sold the ship in 1988 to the Sultan of Brunei, who in turn sold it to Donald Trump for $29 million. Trump renamed her Trump Princess after retrofitting her.

When Trump ran into financial problems, he sold it to Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal for less than 20 million in 1991.^[4]

The yacht's latest name stems from the Prince's investment company, Kingdom Holding Company, his lucky number (5), and his children's initials ('K' and 'R').^[5]

The ship has a beam of 13.25 metres (43.5 ft), a draught of 4.72 metres (15.5 ft) and fuel capacity of 515,000 litres (136,000 gallons).

When she was delivered she had five decks, a disco, a cinema with seats for 12 and 2 double beds, 11 opulent suites, a helipad on top (its smoke stacks are sloped outward to avoid interference with the helicopters), a pool with a water jet on top in front of the heliport, 2 Riva tenders, a crew of 48, a top speed of 20 knots, and cruising speed of 17.5 knots.^[6]

References