The King of Spain launched his new royal yacht Fortuna yesterday at the Cadiz shipyard, Bazan San Ferdenado, where she has been built under tight security. While there is still some work to be completed on the royal yacht, which will be based at the Porto Pi naval yard in Palma where her predecessor was moored, she is expected to arrive in Palma within the next two months, in time for the royal family's Easter break in Majorca and the Princess Sofia sailing regatta. The new Fortuna, which replaces the old Fortuna, which served the Spanish royal for 19 years until she was retired at the end of last summer, is twice the size of the royals' previous private yacht and has been funded by the government and a group of leading Majorcan businesspeople. The new yacht is just 40 metres long and hopes to have a maximum speed of 70 knots. When it was first mentioned that the King of Spain would need a new vessel, as the years were taking their toll on the old Fortuna the Majorcan consortium of 30 businesspeople, which invested an estimated 3.000 million pesetas in the yacht's construction, established itself in a bid to ensure that the King had a new yacht and that she remained in Palma, which in turn would mean that the Spanish royal family would continue to spend their summer and easter holidays on the island. The Balearic government, then headed by Jaume Matas also agreed that every effort must be made to assist the King and bolster the royals' relation with Majorca and the Balearic government also provided 461 million pesetas.
PALMA READY FOR NEW ROYAL YACHT
New Fortuna hopes to have a top speed of 70 knotts
16/01/2000 00:00
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