MY ''Royal Romance'' is a 92-metre

luxury yacht A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from t ...

, built by

Feadship Feadship (First Export Association of Dutch Shipbuilders) is a cooperative venture between two shipyards: Royal Van Lent Shipyard and Koninklijke De Vries Scheepsbouw. Feadship designs and constructs high-end luxury yachts and is one of the leadi ...

as hull #1005 and designed by De Voogt Naval Architects. Her interior design is done by Seymour Diamond. She is powered by twin MTU 3,004 hp diesel engines. One of her exterior features includes a swimming pool located on the main aft deck. Royal Romance accommodates 14 guests and 22 crew members. She was delivered to her owner, the Ukrainian oligarch

Viktor Medvedchuk Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk (; born 7 August 1954), also known as Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk (), is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed ...

, in July 2015 and subsequently sold on 31.03.2021. ''Royal Romance'' is not available for charter. After the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Medvedchuk was placed under sanctions by Ukraine, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. ''Royal Romance'' was arrested in the

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n port of

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

in March 2022.

Design

The length of the yacht is and the beam is . The draught of ''Royal Romance'' is . The hull is built out of steel while the material of the superstructure is made out of

Aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

with teak laid decks. The yacht is Lloyd's registered, issued by

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located so ...

Engines

She is powered by twin MTU 3,004 hp diesel engines, giving her a combined power of . ''Royal Romance'' can reach a maximum speed of .

Seizure and proposed sale

On 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. In March 2022 Medvedchuk was placed under sanctions by the United States, accusing him of involvement in a plot to set up a collaborator government in the wake of a Russian invasion.Ukraine announces arrest of Putin ally in ‘lightning-fast’ operation
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' (13 April 2022) ''Royal Romance'' was wrongfully arrested in the

n port of

in March 2022. At the time of arrest Medvedchuk was not the owner of the boat for a long time. On 15 November, judge Dinko Mešin sitting in a Croatian court granted a search warrant for the ''Royal Romance'' on behalf of the American

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

, in light of alleged money-laundering allegations against Medvedchuk and his wife . A joint-search between

Croatian Police Law enforcement in Croatia is the responsibility of the Croatian Police (), which is the national police force of the country subordinated by the Ministry of the Interior (Croatia), Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia, carrying o ...

and the FBI took place on 19 November. Subsequently the Croatian Court ruled that ''Royal Romance'' should be transferred to the Ukrainian Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), which the court said it would “preserve the economic value by selling it at auction”. In May 2024 the process of ownership transfer was completed and the yacht was registered to the state of Ukraine.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Romance (Yacht) 2014 ships Motor yachts Ships built in the Netherlands Russian entities subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions

Design

Engines

Seizure and proposed sale

See also

References

External links