Friday, February 7, 2025

Did That Oligarch Superyacht Use Cape Town As A Decoy?

The 141-metre Nord superyacht that was due to arrive in Cape Town on Wednesday has gone off the radar. After all the uproar, was that Cape Town story just a ruse?

[imagesource: Lam Yik / Bloomberg]

The 141-metre Nord superyacht, which was sanctioned by the EU, the UK, and US after Russia decided to invade Ukraine, was due to dock in Cape Town Harbour on Wednesday after setting sail from Hong Kong.

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has remained adamant that the R9 billion yacht, owned by Russian Alexey Mordashov, should not be allowed to dock in the city but the ANC greenlit its arrival.

For now, at least, things have gone Hill-Lewis’ way as Wednesday turned into Thursday and still no sight of the Nord.

In order to dock, vessels are required to submit a berthing request 72 hours before the estimated time of arrival and neither the Transnet Port Authority (TNPA) nor the Waterfront Marina has received an application.

All of this, coupled with the fact that on October 26, the Nord went ‘dark’ – meaning it turned off its location transponders – while in Indonesia has led The Daily Maverick to question whether the Cape Town story was simply a decoy.

There has been an unconfirmed sighting in the Maldives and that’s the best bet at present as to its whereabouts:

Perhaps Cape Town was a decoy, as the Nord was then tracked through the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra after which it turned west into the Indian Ocean. Soon after that, it turned off its transponder, preventing it from being followed further…

It has never been revealed why it might have been voyaging to Cape Town. Several Russian superyachts owned by oligarchs have been placed on Western sanctions lists because of Putin’s war against Ukraine. About a dozen of them have been confiscated and others seem to be moving to avoid confiscation.

Vincent Magwenya, a spokesperson for President Ramaphosa, has previously said that because Mordashov and the Nord are not under United Nations sanctions, we would not block their entry.

What a cop-out when an opportunity to show a little spine was right there.

Rather amusingly, Cape Town port officials had some suggestions in case the Nord did rock up:

… if the Nord did arrive in Cape Town, it would probably dock in the Waterfront East Pier, the cruise ship terminal, or in the commercial port.

“If I were them, I would tuck it away at the back of the commercial port,” one official said, though agreeing that there was no way the massive and very distinctive vessel could be hidden.

You can’t sneak a 141-metre superyacht in without being noticed.

Perhaps before we go we should revisit how the Nord appears from above:

[source:dailymav]