Al Raya

08.04.2025 - 23.06.2025
05.12.2024 - 06.02.2025
02.10.2024 - 04.11.2024
19.05.2024 - 02.08.2024
06.01.2023 - 08.03.2023
03.09.2023 - 07.11.2023
m/y Al Raya
Captain

Alongside in Antibes

She was originally built in 2008 by the German yard Lürssen for the Russian Oligarch Alisher Usmanov and named Dilbar that means 'beloved' in Persian. After he built a larger yacht in 2015 and wanted to reuse the same name 'Dilbar', he named her 'Ona' after his mother. 

In 2018 she was sold and renamed 'Al Raya' to a Middle Eastern client. Al Raya's exterior was designed by Tim Heywood and her interior by Alberto Pinto. Her exterior is a fantastic ensemble of curves and soft lines, no sharp corners anywhere. There are 4 tenderboats in the aft (& 2 in the fwd) to serve guest transfers when at anchor and crew complement was originally 46. 

In Antibes at end of the row

Come end of 2023 I had just returned from Falklands and was talking to various industry contacts for any available positions and soon I was offered by Burgess to join her in France. I readily agreed and some weeks later in September I took the train from Italy to Antibes and walked down to Quai des Milliardaires. I was met by the outgoing Captain Graeme and given a thorough handover, the crew was very welcoming. 

After some days we sailed for Tarragona to spend the winter there doing off-season maintenance, as they had done customarily. I went for my scheduled relief to spend Christmas in the Philippines. Then I joined again in Spain to continue winterworks in January 2024 and I left later in March for my scheduled leave to join again in May for the summer guest trip along the French riviera. 

I then rejoined again back in October and was due to sail for Egypt but eventually it was cancelled and instead we visited Greece. Then I had a short leave to relieve Graeme for Christmas and I joined in November and eventually we got orders to go for a last trip to Egypt. Then, suddenly, our yacht manager Alan Dale passed away, he had been seriously ill but nobody expected that he'd go as he had been in great spirits and looking forward in getting back to work. Such a great loss for Burgess and the industry as a whole. I first worked with Alan on Illusion Plus taking her out of China and it was a great success, her subsequent stay in the EU, not so much, but by then both Burgess and I was gone.

In Antibes

The trip was good albeit I had inclement weather on our return and had to stop in Kalamata, Greece to wait out the worst of it. I did another pitstop in Antibes and then arrived Tarragona just in time for New Year. There we started again winter maintenance and started rectifying various jobs that had been identified during summer. We also did in-depth planning for a major yard period during 25/26 that entailed among many jobs a possible full repaint. I was relieved as scheduled in February and I flew out to Philippines to get wed.

Signed on again as scheduled in April to wrap up the winter works and then moved to Antibes for guest standby. In May we got a visit from the owners representative and a change in management, Privatsea Ltd, was announced. The result was that most crew resigned after they got to know the new terms and conditions or was let go as per instructions, the new management had no positions to offer for the captains as one of theirs had been requested for. May was emotionally stressful with so many crews becoming unemployed and looking for new assignments and waiting for the end to be announced. 

I expedited the handover to new management and we all signed off with a bonus, such a shame, it had been a good period and for the first time in years I had been able to actually plan what to do with my leave. I still remained with the new management for a couple of months as Captain helping the new crew to find things and information of how the yacht was previously run and anything else being of use. During this time I was happy to learn that many of the ex crew got employ on other yachts. In June I stepped off to be stand by for a possible guest trip that I would return to, as my last task.

The stern

Al Raya specs:

ex: Dilbar, Ona

Flag: Cayman Islands
Class: private leisure yacht under DNV-GL

IMO: 9526758

GT: 5148

NT: 1545

Displacement: 4307t
LOA: 110m

Beam: 16.3m

Draft: 4.5m

Engines: 

MTU 16v1163 TB73L, 2 x 5200kW

MTU 8v4000 M40A, 4 x 880kW

Propulsion: 2 x CPP

Rudders: Double conventional, independent

Thrusters: 2 x 400kW Schottel pumpjets

Stabilisers Quantum AFC3001 MkII 2 pairs

Guest capacity: 12 persons

Crew: 46 persons