Prince Jefri at St.John’s Lodge, London. This page: the yacht Tits, whose motif removes any doubt about the meaning of her name.
Prince Charles visits Brunei to officially confer independence on the nation in 1984, shown with former Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III
Is something really as sweet if called by any other name, to paraphrase Juliet's words about Romeo? When it comes to yachts, Feadship estimates that 90 per cent of names are given by women, but that is unlikely to have been the case with the arrestingly styled 55-metre the yard delivered to Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei 28 years ago, the most infamously named superyacht ever launched: M/Y Tits.
Everybody approached for this feature declined to speak on the record about the yacht, yet off the record a revealing picture emerges, not least thanks to former crew members’ vivid recollections. One recounts being driven at night, in 1996, through a Dutch industrial estate to the new yacht that Feadship was readying for handover at its facility near Amsterdam. While the yacht’s up-lit profile was strikingly beautiful - monumental, even - the side-facing name was startling. “It wasn’t just the scale of the lit-up capital letters,” says an ex-crew member, a sense of wonder still discernible in his voice. “It was also the undulating line beneath, forming the two domed shapes. It left no room for doubt about what it signified.”
Winch Design and Studio de Voogt
