Aroyal yacht is a ship used by amonarch or a royal family. If the monarch is anemperor the proper term isimperial yacht. Most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head. The royal yacht is most often crewed by personnel from the navy and used by the monarch and their family on both private and official travels.

Some royal yachts have been small vessels only used for short trips on rivers or in calm waters, but others have been large seaworthy ships.

Depending on how the term is defined royal yachts date back to the days of antiquity with royal barges on the Nile in ancient Egypt.

Later the Vikings produced royal vessels. They followed the pattern of longships although highly decorated and fitted with purple sails (purple sails remained standard for royal vessels the next 400 years).^[1]

In England,Henry V sold off the royal yachts to clear the Crown's debts. The next royal vessels in England were built in the Tudor period withHenry VIII using a vessel in 1520 that was depicted as having cloth of gold sails.^[2]James I hadDisdain, a ship in miniature (she was later recorded as being able to carry about 30 tons), built for his son Prince Henry.Disdain was significant in that she allowed for pleasure cruising and as a result can be seen as an early move away from royal ships as warships.

The first ships to unquestionably qualify as royal yachts were those owned byCharles II of England Scotland and Ireland.^{[citation needed]} The first was gift from the Dutch but later yachts were commissioned and built in England. This established a tradition of royal yachts in Britain that was later copied by other royal families of Europe. Through the 19th century royal yachts got larger as they became a symbol of national wealth.World War I brought this trend to an end and the royal families that survived found it harder to justify the cost with the result that there are only three royal yachts left in use inEurope.^{[when?][citation needed]} For the most part royal yachts have been superseded by the use ofwarships in this role, as royal yachts are often seen as a hard-to-justify expenditure. In addition most monarchies with a railway system employ a special set of ceremonialroyal carriages. Most monarchies are also granted access to government ownedaircraft for transportation.

• SSGothic (1947)

• Phantasie
• Miramar

• La Clémentine (1897–1918)^[3]
• Alberta (1896–1914)^[4][5]
• Falcao Uno (1965)^[6][7]
• Alpa IV (2009–2022)^[8][9][10]

The Danish royal family have had several royal yachts. Two of them have been namedDannebrog.

• HMDYSophia Amalia (1650–1687)
• HMDYElephanten (1687–1721)
• HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat (1785)
• HMDYKiel (1824–1840)
• HDMYÆgir (1841–1855)
• HMDYSlesvig (1855–1879)
• HDMSJylland (1874–1885) – afrigate which served as a royal yacht on occasion.
• HDMYDannebrog (1879–1932)
• HDMYDannebrog (1932–present)

• Mahroussa (also known asEl Horria) (1866–1951) was built forIsma'il Pasha, theKhedive of Egypt. She passed the Suez Canal during its opening. Lengthened twice, she was converted from paddle steamer to screw propellers. She now serves as a school ship for theEgyptian Navy.

During the existence of theGerman Empire, theKaiser used these imperial yachts:

• SMYHohenzollern (1878–1912); renamedSMYKaiseradler in 1892
• SMYHohenzollern II (1893–1914)
• SMYHohenzollern III (begun in 1914 but never finished)

TheKriegsmarine fleet tenderGrille was built as a state yacht forAdolf Hitler.

• Amphitrite^[11]

• Cleopatra's Barge (1820–1824) renamedHaʻaheo o Hawaiʻi ("Pride of Hawaii")^[12]
• Kamehameha III (until 1849), seized by the French when theyinvaded Honolulu

• Naseruddin
• Mozaffari (1902–1914), turned intogunboat
• Chahsevar (1936–1979), turned intocorvette
• Kish (1970–1979), turned intotraining ship

• Savoia (1883–1904)
• Trinacria (1900–1925), former steamshipAmerica
• Savoia (1923–1944)^[13]

• Banryu (1857–1888) An iron screw schooner, she was given to the shōgunTokugawa Iesada byQueen Victoria to commemorate theAnglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce.^[14]
• Jingei (1881–1903) A wooden-hulled paddle steamer designed by Léonce Verny.
• Hatsukaze (1902–1945) presented by Baron Hisaya Iwasaki to the Crown Prince (laterEmperor Taisho) to commemorate his visit of theMitsubishi Shipyard in Nagasaki.^[15]

KingHussein of Jordan was aboard his royal yacht (name not reported) in theGulf of Aqaba when on 7 June 1981 it was overflown by eight low-flying IsraeliF-16s en route to attack the Osirak reactor in Iraq duringOperation Opera. One of the pilots described it as 'stunning white... incredible'.^[16]

• Princess Alice (1891 by Prince Albert I) 53 m (174 ft)^[17][18]
• Deo Juvante II (1956–1958 by Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace) 45 m (147 ft)^[19]
• Carostefal (1964 by Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace) 18 m (59 ft)^[20]
• Stalca (1971–1972 by Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace) 25 m (82 ft)^[21]
• Pacha III (1990–present by Princess Caroline)^[22]

• El Boughaz I (2006–present)

• Koningssloep (1818–present)
• De Groene Draeck (1957–present)
• Jumbo VI (1997-2005), a Moonen 85^[23]
• Aldebaran (2014–2021), a Wajer 38^[24][25]
• Alma (2021–present), a Wajer 55^[26][27]

King Haakon VII received the royal yachtNorge as a gift from the people of Norway in 1947. The royal yacht is owned by the king but maintained and crewed by theRoyal Norwegian Navy. Before this other naval ships had served as royal sea transport and the king used some smaller boats for short trips mostly on official occasions.

• Sophia Amalia (1650–?)
• Elephanten (1687–1721)
• Heimdal (1892–1946)
• Stjernen I (1899–1940)
• Stjernen II (1945–present)
• Norge (1947–present)
• Horten (1985)

TheOman Royal Yacht Squadron operates the following major vessels fromMuscat andMuttrah inOman:

The Imperial Ottoman Government used many yachts for its head of state.^[34] These include:

• Tesrifiye
• İzzeddin
• Sultaniye
• Talia
• Ertuğrul

TheRepublic of Turkey also haspresidential yachts

• Veloz (22.6 m or 74 ft): 1858
• Sirius (22.5 m or 74 ft): 1876
• Amélia I (35 m or 115 ft): 1888
• Amélia II (45 m or 148 ft): 1897
• Amélia III (55 m or 180 ft): 1898
• Amélia IV (70 m or 230 ft): 1901

The Portuguese KingCharles I used four successive royal yachts, all namedAmélia, after his wife, QueenAmélie of Orleans. These yachts were, mainly, used by Charles I for his oceanographic missions. It was in theAmélia IV that KingManuel II and the Portuguese royal family left the country for the exile, after the republican revolution of 5 October 1910. In the republican regime theAmélia IV was renamedNRP 5 de Outubro and operated by thePortuguese Navy.

• Ștefan cel Mare^[35]
• Luceafarul^[36]

Imperial yachts employed by theTsar of Russia:

• Alexandria (I) (1851–1906)
• Standart (I) (1857–1892)
• Derzhava (1871–1905)
• Tsarevna (1874–1917)
• Livadia (1873–1878); wrecked inCrimea October 21–22, 1878
• Livadia (1880–1926); flawed experimental ship, retired andhulked soon after commissioning. Used by the Romanovs only twice.^[37]
• Polyarnaya Zvezda (1890–1917/1961)
• Alexandria (II) (1904–1917/1927)
• Standart (II) (1895–1917/1936–1961 asSoviet NavyminelayerMarti)^[38]

• Prince Abdulaziz (1984–) Now owned by descendants of PrinceSultan bin Abdul Aziz
• Al Riyadh (1978–)
• Al Salamah (1999–)
• Issham al Baher (1973–)

• Giralda (1900–1912) 95 m (312 ft)^{[citation needed]}
• The luxury yachtFortuna belonged toKing Juan Carlos I until he renounced it in 2013.^[39][40]

• Vasaorden (1774–present)
• Drott (1883–1923)

Dubai is the personal yacht of SheikhMohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai andPrime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. Completed in 2006, she is the third largest yacht currently in service^[41] at 524 feet (160 m) long. She came to world media attention when she sailed out to welcome the retiredocean liner,Queen Elizabeth 2 to Dubai in November 2008.

Another personal yacht of the Sheikh is the 40-metre (130 ft)Alloya, built by Sanlorenzo in 2013.^[42][43]

The United Kingdom has had 83 royal yachts since the restoration ofCharles II of England in 1660.^[44] Charles II himself had 25 royal yachts,^[45] while five were simultaneously in service in 1831.^[46] Since the decommissioning ofBritannia in 1997 the British monarchy no longer has a royal yacht.^[47]

ThePrincipality of Monaco owned the princely yachtDeo Juvante II between 1956–1958. ThisCamper and Nicholsons yacht was a wedding gift from Aristotle Onassis to Prince Rainer and Grace Kelly and was used on their honeymoon. The yacht, now called M/YGrace, is now owned and operated by Quasar Expeditions.

Yugoslavia had some royal yachts before World War II (most notably, one was a sister ship ofIlinden whichsank in Lake Ohrid in 2009).

Zanzibar had only one naval ship in 1896, the royal yachtHHS Glasgow. It was sunk by the British during the shortest war in history, theAnglo-Zanzibar War.

Other nations that employ some form of yacht presently or in the past includeChina andSarawak.

• Air transports of heads of state and government
• Official state car
• Presidential yacht
• Royal train

• Claire, Rodger (2004).Raid on the Sun: Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb. Broadway Books.ISBN 978-0-7679-1400-0.
• Article in Vi Menn magazine number 31 2006
• Madge, Tim (1997).Royal Yachts of the World. East Molesey, Surrey, UK: Thomas Reed.ISBN 978-09012-8-174-6.

• Frampton, Viktor (2012). "Question 25/46: Imperial German Yachts".Warship International.XLIX (3):225–226.ISSN 0043-0374.
• Alan, Major (2011).Royal Yachts. Stroud, UK: Amberley Publishing.ISBN 978-1-4456-0189-2.

•   Media related toYachts of heads of state at Wikimedia Commons