A member of Abu Dhabi's royal family has taken delivery of a shiny new $500 million megayacht - Longer than a football field; the Lurssen Opera is the 10th largest private yacht in the world. It has two swimming pools, two helipads, and a massive beach club.

Superyachts are aplenty, but when it is about a mammoth taking place in the top 10 longest motoryacht in the world, it’s big news! Meet 479-footer Opera, a Lürssen beauty that took her maiden voyage to Portsmouth Harbour in the UK after leaving Lürssen’s Bremen site in northern Germany. The exceptional vessel allegedly belongs to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family. At first glance, the megayacht Opera looks strikingly similar to another Lürssen masterpiece, Alisher Usmanov’s Dilbar. The Russian tycoon’s pleasure craft is 512 feet long, featuring a helipad, multiple swimming pools, and a beach club. Let’s inspect the newest songbird of the high seas, $500 million Opera, closely-

Opulent, elite, and sumptuous the Opera megayacht –
Megayachts are the ultimate status symbols, and the 479-footer Opera is an imposing, luxurious, and befitting representation of its regal owner. Details are scarce at this point, but it doesn’t take a genius to examine the extravagance and majesty of the floating palace in front of the eyes. The tenth-largest privately owned yacht in the world with an interior volume of 12,500 GT is the work of Terrence Disdale Design.

Also read - Wrestling billionaire Shahid Khan is all set to take delivery of his magnificent 400-foot Lurssen superyacht, Kismet, which is undergoing sea trials. One of the largest yachts ever built, the seafaring palace boasts 11 luxurious cabins, a Balinese spa, a gym, a theater, and much more.

The fire at Lurssen’s shipyard had caused the largest deployment of the Bremen fire brigade after the Second World War. More than 900 firefighters from across the region were deployed. The fire resulted in one of the largest insurance claims in the industry.

Before it donned the dazzling avatar, the yacht was known as Sassi and was engulfed in a large fire that broke out at Lurssen’s Bremen shipyard in 2018. The fire damaged three of the yacht’s decks. The salvaged parts of the nearly complete Sassi were shipped to Lürssen subsidiary Blohm + Voss in Hamburg to create the replacement building with the new name “Opera.”

The $500 million superyacht should easily accommodate at least 48 guests in 26 cabins and 40 crew cabins, akin to Dilbar (20 cabins for 40 guests and a crew of 80 members). Some prominent amenities include two swimming pools (one on the sun deck and one on the main deck with a rise-and-fall floor), massive garages for toys and tenders, and two helipads on the foredeck and stern.

Opera includes ten exhaust pipes on the funnel with a distinctive tailpipe. She is powered by MTU engines reaching a top speed of up to 20kn and a cruising speed of 14kn.

Also read - Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's 414-foot superyacht Octopus is available for charter in Antarctica at $2.2 million per week - Spread across 8 decks this goliath comes with two helipads, dive center with a hyperbaric chamber, and an underwater observation lounge.

His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Born in 1970, the fifth son of the founder of the UAE has a degree in international relations from George Washington University in the United States. The chairman of Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), which owns Manchester City Football Club, is the deputy prime minister of the UAE and the minister of presidential affairs. With a massive net worth estimated to be over $30 billion, the first-class equestrian and athlete has been instrumental in developing Abu Dhabi as a global hub for business and tourism.

He is the founder and owner of Sky News Arabia, a 24-hour Arabic-language news channel, and has a 20% stake in The Shard, an iconic skyscraper in London, and owns significant real estate assets around the world. The 52-year-old philanthropist is married and has seven children.