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Few of us are lucky enough to be able to afford a private yacht, but if we could we certainly wouldn’t leave it stuck in the sand on the seashore without bothering to rescue it or even claim it as our own.

 

But that’s exactly what’s happened to the ‘Neeveen’, a luxury yacht that has been abandoned on a beach in Granada for more than ten days.

 

The vessel has been the talk of the town for locals, with many people coming to stand and marvel at the washed-up boat in the shallows of the beach, being gently rocked by the tide and inexplicably neglected by its owners since Wednesday February 9.

 

And in fact, the Neeveen is a well-known yacht often used as a playground for the rich and famous. The Neeveen was built in 1986 in Holland. The Van Mill shipyard put it into circulation under the name of Luisamar IV, a name that was changed when it passed into the hands of its current owners.

 

For years, the Neeveen’s lounges have hosted magnificent parties and glamorous business meetings attended by Arab sheiks, wealthy European and American businessmen, and Marbella jet-setters invited by the boat’s wealthy owners. But who are they?

 

 

 

Until recently, the Neeveen belonged to the Ashmawi family, a Saudi family who arrived in Marbella in the eighties. The business portfolio of this family includes, among many other activities, being the official importers of Rolls Royce in Saudi Arabia. Neeveen is the name of the daughter of Mohamed Ashmawi, the patriarch of the family who died in 2019.

 

Up until a couple of weeks ago, the yacht was anchored in Puerto Banús in Marbella, and was a local landmark for visitors to the luxury Malaga town.

 

At 27.43 metres long, 6.3 metres wide and with 35 years of glamour under its belt, the current fate of the Neeveen seems bizarre, with many wondering how it ended up stranded on the shore and why no one is taking it away.

 

When it first washed up, there were three unidentified passengers on board who had to be rescued by the Motril fire brigade, lowering them down a ladder and carrying them to the shore.

 

Hours after the accident, the three passengers had disappeared and nobody knows where they are. Over a week later, the yacht is still stranded awaiting a refloating plan and its owners are not even claiming it.

 

In September last year, the Ashmawi family put the yacht up for sale. One of the various brokers advertising it explained that “it has sailed for at least 10 years and it was not in a good condition to do so. It is an old boat that no one should take out to sail without giving it a thorough overhaul.”

 

The sale price of the Neeveen on the different websites it is for sale on give it a price tag of 300,000 euros. However, according to this salesman, who prefers not to be identified, the boat has just been sold directly by the family at a price of “around 200,000 euros”. But a cheap price tag is sometimes costly: after leaving the port, the yacht barely had enough energy to sail for a few hours.

 

On the morning of the February 8, its new owner, a 72-year-old Frenchman, accompanied by a woman and another man, left Puerto Banús. Their destination was the Almeria port of Aguadulce, according to sources from the Motril Maritime Captaincy. The distance to be covered was just over 121 nautical miles, which could be completed in a day’s sailing. The journey was cut short after midday, just past the port of Motril, after having covered just over half the distance.

 

 

According to sources familiar with what happened, faulty maintenance of the yacht could have caused the engine to stop working, despite carrying several thousand litres of diesel – 6,300 according to the owner. Apparently, he was not an experienced skipper; anyone with a minimum of nautical skill would have dropped anchor (or anchors, because this yacht has two) to secure the boat away from the beach.

 

This did not happen, and the boat was set adrift until it was eventually left stranded a few metres from the beach at La Chucha. The pride of the Marbella is now heavily damaged, having been battered by the waves and rocks for nearly two weeks now, and there are serious doubts as to whether it will emerge in one piece.

 

Now read: The mysterious case of the plane that repeatedly circled Almeria airport

 

Images: Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana