Some may wonder: what happens to yachts and fancy ships once their owners grow tired of them? Sometimes, they sit idle for years. A yacht may be inherited, sold, or quietly liquidated for personal reasons.
There are tales of owners commissioning custom yachts, only to sell them soon after—disillusioned by the design, or shocked by the cost of maintaining what they thought was the final dream. Some even sell during the build if the price is right. In certain circles, yachts are given away like lavish birthday gifts, tokens of friendship, status or loyalty.
Many yachts change hands multiple times over their lifespans, often undergoing refits and facelifts. Others meet tragic ends, sinking in storms, catching fire, or colliding with reefs and other ships. Some are mothballed and laid up indefinitely, awaiting resurrection through refit, or the scrapyard. During these idle years, they are often stripped of valuables, basically anything that can be removed, sold, or reused sometimes by owners, sometimes by rogue operators.
Few yachts defy time, outliving their owners and sailing on under new caretakers. They might be remodeled, re-engined, even reshaped entirely. In some cases, as little as 20% of the original structure remains after such transformations.
But others, like Fulk Al Salamah, face a quieter ending. Not sold or refitted anymore, perhaps deemed obsolete, she is sent—like a dying elephant—to the shipbreaking yards of Gadani Beach, Pakistan.
There, she is driven ashore, scavenged for usable parts, and slowly dismantled. As her hull lightens, she is dragged higher up the beach, until nothing is left but salvaged scraps—and the memories of those who built her, worked aboard her, and gave a part of their lives to her service. In the end, the ship returns to the cycle—melted down, repurposed, and reborn into something else, e.g. nails.
Name: Dhafi
Former names: Al Dhaferah (2024), Fulk Al Salamah (2016)
Vessel type: Passenger vessel
Flag: Oman, Port Sultan Qaboos
Length: 136.35 m
Beam: 21.05 m
Draught: 6 m
Classification society: Lloyd's shipping register
Owner: Royal yachts, Ruwi, Oman
Tonnage: 10,797 GT
Summer DWT: 5,040 tons
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