Yachting With an Eco-conscience
(2016)
Please find an excerpt of the full PDF below
When science and superyachts come together, great things can happen. This article featured in the October 2016 issue of ShowBoats International Magazine highlights the Foundation’s use of HRH Prince Khaled bin Sultan’s Golden Fleet to further coral reef research and ocean conservation across the globe.
Yachting With an Eco-conscience
ShowBoats International Magazine
October 2016
Joanna Della-Ragione
… Saudi prince HRH Khaled bin Sultan came to allow scientists to use his fleet almost by accident. The former general in the Royal Saudi Air Defense retired post-Operation Desert Storm and decided to commission a new yacht.
“At the time, someone suggested he use what’s called a shadow boat system; you build a superyacht and you also build an escort vessel that takes care of all the industrial stuff,” explains Philip Renaud, executive director and chief oceanographer of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, established in 2000. “Our shadow boat Golden Shadow even has a recompression chamber.
“Its first captain back in the 1990s was a real oceanography fanatic who asked the Scripps Institution of Oceanography if they’d be interested in using Golden Shadow for scientific missions. At the time, the Prince was learning to scuba dive and thought it was a brilliant idea, so he agreed to deploy the shadow boat to host oceanographers and their research”…
