7:36am Monday 13th July 2009
By Echo Reporter
THE cash-strapped owner of legendary Southampton liner Queen Elizabeth 2 could move her to South Africa, it has emerged.
Dubai-based Nakheel has applied for permission to anchor the ship at Cape Town.
It comes just eight months after hundreds of thousands of wellwishers lined the Solent to bid farewell to QE2 for the final time after she was sold off for £50m to become a luxury hotel in Dubai.
However, plans to convert the former Cunard liner have been torpedoed by the global recession and a slump in Dubai property prices and she is currently lying in a deserted container berth.
Nakheel, part of the Dubai royal family’s development empire, had planned to extend QE2 by 100ft and remove her funnel as part of the development.
The company has been forced to deny consistent rumours that the troubled project could be in jeopardy and ruled out a sale or sending her to the scrapyard.
Last month the Daily Echo revealed that an approach had been made to pave the way for QE2 to make a stunning return to her home city.
Well-placed sources said that port bosses had been contacted about the possibility of a comeback by the Grand Old Lady of the Sea towards the end of the year.
A senior cruise industry figure told the Daily Echo then that there were major doubts over Nakheel’s lavish plans and said it would not be insurmountable to return her to service. He added he had heard of plans to run cruises out of Dubai on QE2 and to take her to South Africa.
Now a confirmed approach has been made to take QE2 to South Africa and open her as a hotel.
A spokeswoman for the country’s Depart-ment of Tourism said: “The National Ports Authority has to decide on the practical implications of berthing. A decision has to be taken by the department on the desirability of allowing the QE2 to berth in Cape Town in the light of the available accommodation in the city and surrounds. We are consulting with the industry and the department will take a decision by the end of next week.”
A Nakheel spokesman would only say that other ports in the Middle East and Africa had expressed an interested in hosting the ship which they described as an “impressive maritime icon”.
A British-based consortium proposed a scheme to keep QE2 as a museum and hotel in Southampton but was not given the opportunity to find backers to buy the ship before Cunard sold her to Dubai.
Currently QE2 is home to a skeleton crew of 36 under an eastern European captain and has just one engine running to provide power.
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