When you say “luxury transportation,” the mind almost immediately goes to stuff like limited-edition supercars, custom superyachts and private jets. But there’s a very small segment of luxury transportation that’s not accessible even to the one-percenters.
Topaz is a solid example of super-expensive things that not even your “regular” one-percenter can have, and, even if they were accessible to them, they couldn’t afford them. It’s a very secretive and highly customized Lurssen megayacht delivered to Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, best known as Sheikh Mansour, a billionaire member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi.
Sheikh Mansour is also the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the owner of the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), the investment company that bought the Manchester City Football Club in 2008. So, he technically owns the FC.
As a billionaire whose estimated worth is in the order of several dozens of billions of dollars, the Sheikh is a man accustomed not just to the finest things in life but the most expensive and exclusive as well. His megayacht is proof of that, even though he’s now in the process of replacing it with a new one. Even such amazing toys can become boring after some time.
Delivered in May 2012, Topaz was the fourth largest privately-owned vessel in the world at the time, but it’s since slipped on that ranking to number eight. That said, it is still considered one of the most luxurious yachts out there, and with a price tag estimated at anything between $650 million and $900 million, it’s definitely among the most expensive. Partial funding for it came from the 1MDB investment fund, one of the world’s biggest financial scandals to date, and this brought even more media attention to it.
You’d think keeping such a gigantic vessel a secret is close to impossible, but that would mean underestimating UAE billionaires. Russian oligarchs are known for their flashy lifestyles, which always manifest in their super-expensive toys and a certain carelessness about keeping private details out of the public eye. People like Sheikh Mansour are the opposite of that, which explains why a decade has passed since the delivery of Topaz, and the world still doesn’t know much about it.
Topaz was built by luxury shipyard Lurssen at its yard in Bremen, on a naval architecture by Lurssen and an exterior design by Tim Heywood. At the time of delivery, it was one of its most challenging and biggest projects it had ever undertaken, so it set a new benchmark in terms of custom, premium transportation. The sheer size of Topaz also made it noteworthy: at 483 feet (147 meters) and an interior volume of over 12,000 GT, it’s positively massive.
With a steel displacement hull, Topaz has eight decks, a beam of 70.5 feet (21.50 meters), and specially-built twin Pielstick diesel engines of 7,990 HP each that take it to a top speed of 25.5 knots (29.3 mph / 47.2 kph). Specifics about available amenities and features were never made public, but urban legend has it that Topaz can sleep as many as 64 guests and carry a crew of 79. These figures alone will tell you all you need to know about how Topaz is in a very exclusive league: most superyachts offer accommodation for a maximum of 12 guests to avoid the massive expenses required to adhere to a different set of regulations that would classify them as passenger ships. To men like the Sheikh, such expenses are clearly not a burden.
Amenities on board include two large-size helipads, one of them with storage for the aircraft, two pools (a lap pool and an oversize jacuzzi, to be more accurate), and a packed tender garage. There’s also a reported private cinema, a state-of-the-art conference room, a well-equipped gym, and resort-like wellness area, and lavish interiors penned by Terence Disdale. Glass elevators connect the decks, and the garage has everything you’d need, from catamarans to a mini-submarine, and four custom-designed tenders.
One of these tenders by Vikal is a world first and a true beauty. It’s a 37-foot (11.25-meter) convertible water limo that can ferry six guests and two crew at speeds of up to 52 knots (59.8 mph / 96.3 kph). Also named Topaz, it features the world’s first hardtop built for marine use, a triple-folding carbon and titanium paneled hardtop that deploys at the touch of a button. The triple-paneled top and the deploying mechanism alone took Vikal 18 months to develop.
In 2014, as the FIFA World Cup was underway in Brazil, Topaz made headlines once more as it emerged that actor Leonardi DiCaprio had charted (or borrowed) it for his annual summer holiday with his posse. The highlight of the holiday was dropping by the World Cup and hosting a party that included some 80 to 100 friends, mostly celebrities like Jamie Foxx and Orlando Bloom. An equally sizable crew catered to every one of their needs and whims, and ironclad NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) were signed by all parties even before they set foot onboard.
Since delivery, Topaz has undergone two refits (one in 2017 and one in 2018) and one name change that sent ripples in the industry. Usually, no boat, regardless of size, changes name unless it also changes ownership, so when Topaz became A+ in 2019, speculation was rife that Mansour sold it – obviously, to another multi-billionaire. The vessel was never listed, and confirmation of it changing hands never came, but it is believed that Mansour gave it to Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, as part of a Leonardo Da Vinci painting deal.
At about the same time, reports claimed that Mansour was having another megayacht built by the same Lurssen shipyard. In July this year, Lurssen launched Blue, which Mansour is believed to have bought, and he is reportedly also paying for the unfinished Opera megayacht, born from the ashes of the 2018 Project Sassi. When you’re a billionaire, you upgrade your record-setting megayacht by replacing it with two megayachts.
As for the strange new name, it is believed that it was chosen so that the megayacht would always show up among the first entries in the international registry, much like Andrey Melnichenko’s former Sailing Yacht A and Motor Yacht A, which also got their names on the same reasoning. But whereas these are As, this one is an A+.
Sheikh Mansour is also the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the owner of the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), the investment company that bought the Manchester City Football Club in 2008. So, he technically owns the FC.
As a billionaire whose estimated worth is in the order of several dozens of billions of dollars, the Sheikh is a man accustomed not just to the finest things in life but the most expensive and exclusive as well. His megayacht is proof of that, even though he’s now in the process of replacing it with a new one. Even such amazing toys can become boring after some time.
You’d think keeping such a gigantic vessel a secret is close to impossible, but that would mean underestimating UAE billionaires. Russian oligarchs are known for their flashy lifestyles, which always manifest in their super-expensive toys and a certain carelessness about keeping private details out of the public eye. People like Sheikh Mansour are the opposite of that, which explains why a decade has passed since the delivery of Topaz, and the world still doesn’t know much about it.
Topaz was built by luxury shipyard Lurssen at its yard in Bremen, on a naval architecture by Lurssen and an exterior design by Tim Heywood. At the time of delivery, it was one of its most challenging and biggest projects it had ever undertaken, so it set a new benchmark in terms of custom, premium transportation. The sheer size of Topaz also made it noteworthy: at 483 feet (147 meters) and an interior volume of over 12,000 GT, it’s positively massive.
With a steel displacement hull, Topaz has eight decks, a beam of 70.5 feet (21.50 meters), and specially-built twin Pielstick diesel engines of 7,990 HP each that take it to a top speed of 25.5 knots (29.3 mph / 47.2 kph). Specifics about available amenities and features were never made public, but urban legend has it that Topaz can sleep as many as 64 guests and carry a crew of 79. These figures alone will tell you all you need to know about how Topaz is in a very exclusive league: most superyachts offer accommodation for a maximum of 12 guests to avoid the massive expenses required to adhere to a different set of regulations that would classify them as passenger ships. To men like the Sheikh, such expenses are clearly not a burden.
One of these tenders by Vikal is a world first and a true beauty. It’s a 37-foot (11.25-meter) convertible water limo that can ferry six guests and two crew at speeds of up to 52 knots (59.8 mph / 96.3 kph). Also named Topaz, it features the world’s first hardtop built for marine use, a triple-folding carbon and titanium paneled hardtop that deploys at the touch of a button. The triple-paneled top and the deploying mechanism alone took Vikal 18 months to develop.
In 2014, as the FIFA World Cup was underway in Brazil, Topaz made headlines once more as it emerged that actor Leonardi DiCaprio had charted (or borrowed) it for his annual summer holiday with his posse. The highlight of the holiday was dropping by the World Cup and hosting a party that included some 80 to 100 friends, mostly celebrities like Jamie Foxx and Orlando Bloom. An equally sizable crew catered to every one of their needs and whims, and ironclad NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) were signed by all parties even before they set foot onboard.
Since delivery, Topaz has undergone two refits (one in 2017 and one in 2018) and one name change that sent ripples in the industry. Usually, no boat, regardless of size, changes name unless it also changes ownership, so when Topaz became A+ in 2019, speculation was rife that Mansour sold it – obviously, to another multi-billionaire. The vessel was never listed, and confirmation of it changing hands never came, but it is believed that Mansour gave it to Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, as part of a Leonardo Da Vinci painting deal.
As for the strange new name, it is believed that it was chosen so that the megayacht would always show up among the first entries in the international registry, much like Andrey Melnichenko’s former Sailing Yacht A and Motor Yacht A, which also got their names on the same reasoning. But whereas these are As, this one is an A+.