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Karl Schembri
The repair costs may be proportional to his pockets, but Russian billionaire and owner of English football club Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, is said to be incensed by the blunder in which his super yacht was filled “with the wrong type of fuel” at Manoel Island.
The incident on board the 400-foot yacht is believed to run into millions of liri with industry sources estimating a cost that may even top Lm4 million if the engines need to be thoroughly drained.
When his Lm45 million super yacht, Pelorus, was filled “with the wrong type of fuel” not only was Russia’s richest man’s planned holiday in Malta ruined, but the island’s reputation among the international yachting community was severely compromised, according to his agent here.
Refuelling took 16 hours and the costs after the blunder are believed to run into thousands of liri – around Lm170,000 according to sources close to the crew. The engines of the world’s fifth largest yacht in such cases may also need to be drained – a lengthy and much more costly process than simply emptying the fuel tanks – that can run into millions of liri.
The exact problem is still very vague according to those involved. Both the reputable supplier Falzon Service Station, and Abramovich’s Malta yachting agent, Simon Borg Cardona, stop short of pointing fingers at each other.
“I can’t comment on this right now,” said Karmenu Falzon, the service station’s managing director when contacted last Friday. “Abramovich’s crew can say whatever they like but I don’t know of any problems. This is a complicated issue and I’ll only speak when things get clearer.”
The Pelorus’s fuel was ordered by a foreign international bunkering company and supplied by Falzon, but the responsibility for this costly blunder still has to be established.
“I can’t say what happened exactly,” Borg Cardona said. “We still don’t know, but definitely Abramovich’s departure would have been delayed because of a fuel supply problem. In any case this is very bad publicity for Malta’s yachting industry. Word spreads like wildfire among captains and yacht owners.”
This was the Pelorus’s third trip to Malta in the 400-foot yacht’s four years of existence. Abramovich’s yachting agent in Malta, Simon Borg Cardona, was quoted by The Times last Friday as saying that this may well be its last trip here after the incident, but he stopped short of pointing fingers at the fuel suppliers.
The owner was expected to come to Malta for the first time from the US by his private jet while his yacht, boasting of its own submarine, helicopter and two speedboats, was being refuelled in Manoel Island, but the incident made him scrap his stay here and redirect to Sardinia. His yacht left Manoel Island on 28 July.
karl@newsworksltd.com
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