World's Largest Yacht: 525' Platinum (Dubai)

You get what you pay for...That's too bad though.

Wow man for the shaft to fall out must have been that someone forgot those cuppling bolts I guess. The yacht looks awesome though,beautiful lines .Would not mind been the maintainace craftman there

Francois

The rumor is correct!!
During the first sea trial Dubai have lost the shaft/rudder and also there were a fire on board and engine room filled with water!!!

These kinds of things happen, the bigger you build!

Something similar happened to the Devonport "project 305"

But I think not at Lurssen and Feadship!!!!

I think that the Sultan has wrong to carry the yacht at Dubai!!! The German yards, Lurssen and Blohm+Voss was the perfect choice for building a yacht of these dimension for expertise, facilities, reputation...I don't know why he have changed!!

Since when have Arabs ever built a yacht?? Absolutely incredible incompetence.

With a lot of fresh oil cash, nothing is impossible!
They buy all expertise and advanced technology they need from west and employee loyal and skilled craftsmen from from Asia.

Some examples of UAE yachts are:
www.majesty-yachts.com
www.gulf-craft.com
www.asmarine-yachts.com
www.v1-tech.com

they are nothing in comparison with the German or Netherland yard!!!
Have you present Octopus, Pelorus, Carinthia VII, ICE, Lady Moura, Ecstasea, Rising Sun, Al Salamah (ex Mipos)?
These yacht are the maximum expression of the technology!
..or Perini yacht for the sail yachts!!!!!

Offcorse they are "tenders" compared to the Megas you mention but maybe in
5-10 years you even will see high-class megayachts built in UAE/Dubai area.
What I try to say is that with a lot of cash everything can be built, even there .

How "normal" are these kind of problems?

Anything can happen on a sea trial, human error is pretty normal prior to a launch when there are many workers and subcontractors onboard.

I know of a pretty large yacht that turned left when you were steering right...

But with Dubai, there are no reliable confirmation on the rumours.

C'est normale, n'est pas?

Well, itz not like the West has a lock on the trouble-free construction of large ships - never mind warships:
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/2003127.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle_(R_91)
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3738/is_199904/ai_n8832882
Sheesh!

Dear Catmando,

The people who have been working in the construction of this yacht were not Arabs, mostly engineers and craftsman from other countries and they have been employed as subcontractors. I agree there might be a management problem. However, I have to admit that I am very sorry to read such a racist comment in this respectable forum. You are ignorant to the extent that you cannot see that this disrespect is creating treats to your own safety.

I kindly ask the administrators of the forum to delete both of these messages and keep the forum’s integrity.

p.s. I am not an Arab

I don't find that post "racist" at all. Perhaps the tone was a little questionable, but it raised some very good points.

1. If the workers/subcontractors are not Arabs, then what is the point of building her at Dubai? If the intent is to show or dare I say fake that Dubai can build mega yachts, well then that is very superficial to say the least.

2. If the workers are local subcontractors, then why use them on the longest/largest yacht to date, when there are so many proven yards out there? To prove that they can build mega yachts? Well, there are good jobs and bad jobs. Just because you have done it, it doesn't mean that the quality is there. There are reasons why the German and Dutch yards are first choice of many people.

3. If the workers are indeed local subcontractors then what's the point? Is it to help the local economy? I can think of better ways of doing that. Maybe try building her with a known yacht and negotiate for a good price (I heard that a sister ship is planned). Then inject the money that you saved into the economy?

Of course, they got money and they don't have to make sense or to justify to anyone of us here. Maybe it's something that poor people like me can't understand.

The design is beautiful, but a lot of space and function is wasted by the split decks aft. Most of the activity is on the aft decks but with these spaces that serve no purpose that is reduced.

People in Greece and Dubai seem to be very good builders as well. I do not think that it is just limited to the Dutch and German Yards. It is true that Ice Octopus and such has been built by Luerssen and Eco/Enigma and Lady Moura built by Blhom + Voss and these are top notch superyachts, you can't dissaggree with that but Greece has built the RM Elegant....and she is a stunner in my eyes and i sure you all could agree.now Dubai has constructed the 'Dubai' ...she is impressive in her own right....Large, complicated, tedious in design and so on. I think Any person / country can build superyachts...the only problem there is if they have the money, and the right type of people to build them! So peoples, stop being so Partial..I belive as one poster said that soon many yachts will be built in Dubai sooner or later.

Not related to Dubai and the yacht with the same name, I think that in general you can have a top notch yacht built almost anywhere. What you need is a good design, a good project manager, sufficient time and money.

But in real life, at least one or two of these basic criteria are missing, and then it helps with a Dutch or German shipyard with their unique network of experienced subcontractors.

With a bad design however, nothing helps...

Dubai is 165m?????

http://www.bmtyachts.com/pages/yachtreflist.pdf (first row)

scroll down (15 row), she have a shadow boat of 60m under conversion!!!
for me is absurd that a yacht of 160-165m has a shadow boat for the tenders!!!

Octopus concept remains the best one.
1 main tender of 60 feet, 1 submarine of 40 feet, 1 limo-tender, 6 wave runner, 2 rib for the guest, 2 rib for the crew, 1 ROV, 2 heli permanently onboard in a hangar, 2 helipad!
ALL IN 126 METERS.

Absolutely the best!

Even if Dubai has a shadow boat, it doesn't mean that there are no tenders on board her. There are other many other good reasons to have a shadow boat. Security and extra toys to name a few. The main yacht doesn't have to wait for the tender to be stored. The shadow can also be used as a supply boat at places where the main yacht might not be able to get into the port so easily.

BTW, Octopus is my personal favorite, too.