Royal yacht costs

SIR – I hope the Prime Minister reconsiders the proposal to spend vast sums on a useless floating palace for the Royal family (Letters, May 9).

If he wants to honour the Duke of Edinburgh, he should name a new Navy vessel after him. And if there is £200 million going spare, put it towards helping the tenants in cladding misery.

Kevin Platt

Walsall, Staffordshire

SIR – The suggestion that the new royal yacht should be a fighting ship is illogical.

As a national asset for diplomacy, this vessel will make peaceful visits to friendly ports as part of our soft-power interactions. It will perform similar missions to less cuddly countries that we are trying to influence, or enable trade with the UK. It may also carry out oceanographic research in deep water.

To arm the vessel (or indeed even to paint it grey) would negate all this. Furthermore, Britannia Maritime Aid is already seeking government funding for a multi-role training ship for the Merchant Navy that can deliver humanitarian aid and disaster relief, as well as performing soft-power tasks. Jonathan Powis

Operations Director, Britannia Maritime Aid

Swanwick, Derbyshire

SIR – At £200 million, the royal yacht would be quite a bargain.

For the cost of HS2, at £106 billion, we could build 560 royal yachts.

Graham Saunders

Buckingham

SIR – With the greatest respect to Admiral Lord West (Letters, May 9), his assertion that only the Royal Navy should man the royal yacht, to provide “a particular cachet, smartness, efficiency and elegance”, is incorrect and somewhat insulting to seafarers.

He must be aware that the Queen has chartered the small cruise ship Hebridean Princess for holidays in the Western Isles, and the Royal family was reported as having had “a jolly good time”.

Both the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the Merchant Navy are fully capable of operating and manning the royal yacht, at a fraction of the price needed for the Navy. We have the competence, the experience and the willingness to serve our guests in a manner they have come to expect. All the Navy needs to provide is a small detachment of Royal Marines to protect the Queen.

Captain Peter J Newton

Derby

SIR – The Royal Yacht Britannia’s cachet was less to do with being crewed by the Navy and more to do with its unique, instantly recognisable design: the black hull, white superstructure and yellow funnels, and prominent masts from which bunting was stretched.

Words that come to mind for Britannia are “classic” and “graceful”. These should inform the design of the new one, otherwise it may end up looking like an oligarch’s super-yacht.

C A Anderson

Selkirk