Times are hard and King Juan Carlos believes that keeping off the skyline is a good idea, what with all the flak over his son-in-law’s and daughter’s alleged dodgy dealings, and not to mention his unfortunate photo standing next to a dead elephant, hunting trophy.

So, he’s decided to give up his luxury yacht, which costs 24,000 euros in fuel every time he takes it out. The royal family will now use a much more modest craft. The Government, has consequently decided to take possession of it, which is causing quite a fuss.

You see, the yacht, aptly named La Fortuna, was basically a present from businessmen on the Balearic Islands. The yacht cost between 18 and 21m euros, of which 2.7m euro was fronted by the autonomic government of the islands. The rest was generously given by a consortium of 30 bankers and other businessmen from the islands.

As you can imagine, when the Central Government announced that they would find a “good use for it,” these generous donators were not impressed and demanded instead that the yacht returns to the ownership of the islands and be used to promote local tourism.

The Central Government is reluctant to let the luxury craft slip from it’s grip but there is no way that they can morally deny the Balearic Island consortium’s demand to have it returned to them if the King no longer wishes to make use of their ‘gift.’

Franco also had a yacht, by the way, called Azor, which was finally sold off in 1992 for 25,000 euros and is now part of a an outdoor pub in Cogollos, Burgos.

(News: Spain)