DIANA’S LOVE BOAT FOR SAIL
THE yacht where Princess Diana spent her final summer is on the market for over £10million.
Formerly known as the Jonikal, the 64-metre-long boat was the setting of her fatal romance with Dodi Fayed.
It is being sold by billionaire telecoms tycoon Hassim Haidar barely a year after he bought it because he wants an even bigger one.
Mr Haidar is known to viewers of the Channel 5’s Billionaire Superyachts: Luxury at Sea, which filmed his lavish lifestyle with his wife and daughters aboard another large vessel.
He bought the former Jonikal, renamed Sokar, in June last year and changed the name to Bash after his initials.
At the time, Mr Haidar told Superyacht Times: “The size, the volume, the history and the condition of her, I thought, maybe this is the yacht for me right now.”
The ship’s broker, John Wood, of Seawood Yachts, said: “Owners have many reasons to change, this one is mostly due to his change in fortune and wanting something even bigger.”
The vessel’s history might appeal to a new owner in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of Diana’s death on August 31 1997.
That summer, Diana, recently divorced from Prince Charles, cruised around the Mediterranean on the boat with playboy film producer Dodi.
It was one of a flotilla owned by Dodi and his father, the then Harrods owner Mohamed Al-fayed.
Built by Italian shipyard Codecasa in 1990, the Jonikal was a sleek, floating gin palace with nine staterooms, one of Dodi’s “boys’ toys” that amused and impressed Diana.
Dodi bought it two years before their love affair and the couple used it for three cruises – around Sardinia, Greece and finally the south of France – in July and August 1997.
Pictures of the couple cuddling and kissing on the top deck went around the world, while Diana was photographed sunbathing, jumping into a speedboat and sitting on the stern in a contemplative mood.
They were among the last pictures of the Princess, who told her friend Rosa Monckton in a phone call from the yacht that her time with Dodi was “bliss”.
On August 30 the couple took a lunchtime flight to Paris to stay in the Ritz Hotel, owned by Dodi’s dad Mohamed.
In the early hours of the next day the Princess, 36, and Dodi, 42, were killed along with drunken chauffeur Henri Paul, 41, when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont de l’alma tunnel. In his startling eulogy at Diana’s funeral, her brother Earl Spencer referred to “joy in her private life”.
One reason for selling is that the owner wants
bigger boat