So special is Saudi billionaire Prince Turki bin Muqrin Al Saud’s $70 million sportfishing yacht that even an ordinary fueling pit stop turns into a dramatic vision worthy of a Bond movie. The world’s largest sportfishing yacht, Special One, became a temporary monument at A Coruña on its way from Portugal. Yes, the 171-footer spent only a few hours there, arriving in the evening and departing the very next morning for Jersey. Still, this star of the high seas, a six-decker no less, turned that very short refueling window into a cinematic moment and a very public display of its grandeur. Delivered by Royal Huisman in June 2024, the yacht boasts a fuel capacity of roughly 47,000 liters, about 12,400 U.S. gallons, alongside water tankage of around 100,000 liters.
It is why Special One did get special treatment, with the yacht club coach revealing that a full-size tanker truck had to be brought dockside rather than relying on a normal marina fuel hose. According to La Voz de Galicia, Fernando Guillán, coach of the A Coruña yacht club, said, “It was incredible. I was really struck by the size of the ship and the complexity of the maneuvers the sailors performed to get it out of the port. I’ve seen large ships in this port, but you don’t see this very often.” He added, still in amazement, “They had to bring in a huge tanker truck to refuel such a massive vessel.” Other than that, no special protocol was activated, as the port is accustomed to accommodating large yachts, but the world’s largest sportfishing vessel still brought its own side of spectacle. The ship runs on HVO, hydrotreated vegetable oil, marketed as cutting CO2 emissions by up to 90 percent versus conventional diesel.
Her full fill of HVO100 renewable diesel, which in Spain in 2026 has been trading at close to 1.80 to 2.00 euros a liter, would cost about 85,000 to 94,000 euros, or well over $100,000, equal to enough fuel to fill almost 1,000 average family cars. The 500 GT royal ride flaunts a 12-meter tower with a fish-spotter’s perch roughly 46 feet up, a custom mahogany fighting chair, live wells, fish boxes, outriggers, a bait-and-tackle room, commercial-grade sonar, and 22 rods. Inside, the regal touches include a vacuum-powered glass elevator wrapped by a floating spiral staircase, a 300-bottle wine cellar, and a panoramic owner’s suite with a Panda marble bathroom. Outdoors, Special One is just as eye-catching, with an al fresco cinema on the foredeck and a DJ deck with one of the densest audio installations Focal has ever done, boasting more than 150 custom speakers.
Still, it wasn’t the luxuries or the Saudi royalty that struck locals most, but the sheer logistics of a giant tanker truck, tricky harbor maneuvers, and a 47,000-liter sportfishing beast that vanished before breakfast. At the time of writing, as per Marine Traffic, Special One is in Portsmouth.
The vessel is powered by 2 × MAN 20V 175D-ML engines, each delivering 4,400 kW and weighing 15 tons a piece. Combined, that is 11,964 hp, and it shows: Special One hits 32 knots and gets there from a standstill in about 45 seconds. For context, the US Navy’s $4.2 billion Zumwalt-class destroyer, the most advanced surface ships it has ever built, tops out at 30 knots.
