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The Dutch vow to egg Jeff Bezos' yacht if a bridge is dismantled to let his boat pass

Rachel Treisman

Rotterdam residents appear to be up in arms over a plan to temporarily dismantle the Koningshaven lift bridge, popularly called "De Hef." Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Rotterdam residents appear to be up in arms over a plan to temporarily dismantle the Koningshaven lift bridge, popularly called "De Hef."

It's not exactly smooth sailing these days in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, where locals are voicing their objection to a plan that would temporarily dismantle a historic bridge to enable the passage of a record-breaking yacht reportedly owned by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

In fact, some are already making plans — albeit in jest — for what they will do if the project comes to fruition: throw eggs at the yacht as it traverses the water under the Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as "De Hef."

Some 13,000 people are "interested" and nearly 4,000 have said they will attend a Facebook event titled "Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos," which has been shared more than 1,000 times in the week since its creation.

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"Calling all Rotterdammers, take a box of rotten eggs with you and let's throw them en masse at Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," wrote organizer Pablo Strörmann.

He told the NL Times that the protest started as a joke among friends and has quickly gotten "way out of hand." (The English-language news site also notes that this isn't Strörmann's first campaign to go viral.)

The news of De Hef's potential disassembly, however brief, has clearly struck a chord with both locals and international observers.

It all started last week when Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond reported that the city appeared willing to grant a request to dismantle the decades-old steel bridge so that Bezos' yacht could pass through.

De Hef was built in 1927 as a railway bridge, with a midsection that can be lifted to allow ship traffic to pass underneath, according to The Washington Post . It was replaced by a tunnel and decommissioned in 1994, but was saved from demolition by public protests and later declared a national monument.

The ship's three masts are apparently too high for the bridge's roughly 130-foot clearance.

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The sailing yacht in question was reportedly commissioned by the billionaire Amazon founder and is currently being built at the Oceanco shipyard in the Netherlands, according to Boat International . It will consist of three masts with aluminum and steel construction and will measure more than 415 feet in length.

"Once delivered, not only will she become the world's largest sailing yacht but she will also hold the title for the largest superyacht ever built in the Netherlands," it added.

The waterway where the bridge sits is the only way the ship can get from the shipyard in Alblasserdam to the open seas, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . So Oceanco asked Rotterdam officials to temporarily remove the middle section of the bridge.

City spokesperson Netty Kros told the CBC that "the applicant" would cover the costs of the project but did not clarify whether that refers to the yacht's owner, the shipbuilder or both. Bloomberg reports that Oceanco will foot the bill. NPR has reached out to Amazon and Oceanco to confirm these details.

The city appeared to agree to the arrangement last week, with municipal project leader Marcel Walravens telling Rijnmond that the project would proceed for logistical and economic reasons. He said an exact plan was being developed but estimated it would take about a week to prepare and another week to "put everything back in place."

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"At the Koningenne Bridge, we can press a button, and it opens. That's not possible here because De Hef has a maximum height," Walravens said, according to a translation from the NL Times . "The only alternative is to take out the middle part."

That prompted an immediate backlash from locals, lawmakers and social media users, with the Rotterdam Historical Society pointing out that city officials had promised never to dismantle the bridge again after completing a major restoration in 2017.

Officials then walked back the reports, with Rotterdam's mayor telling a Dutch newspaper on Thursday that "no decision has yet been taken, not even an application for a permit," according to The Guardian .

He said the municipality would consider an application and assess the potential impacts, like whether the dismantling can be done without damaging the bridge and who would cover the costs.

Postcard from Rotterdam

Proponents of the plan say the project will bring more economic opportunities to the region, while critics say there's a double standard at play.

"Normally it's the other way around: If your ship doesn't fit under a bridge, you make it smaller," Strörmann told the NL Times. "But when you happen to be the richest person on Earth, you just ask a municipality to dismantle a monument. That's ridiculous."

With a net worth of more than $188 billion, Bezos is the third-richest person in the world behind Tesla founder Elon Musk and French businessman Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes' real-time list .

Hypothetically, if the project does come to pass, and locals do show up with eggs, just how hard of a moving target would the yacht be? The website Curbed set out to find out.

After examining several studies and making a few calculations, reporter Clio Chang says an egg would have to travel about 238 feet to hit the hull — "a difficult, but not impossible, feat."

This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog .

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Jeff Bezos’s $500 Million Megayacht Was Spotted Undergoing Test Trials in the North Sea

The amazon founder's y721 koru from oceanco has finally hit the high seas., louisa ballhaus, louisa ballhaus's most recent stories.

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Bezos ran into some trouble earlier this year when it came out that the Koningshaven Bridge in the Netherlands might have to be dismantled to let Y721 Koru pass through, as the megayacht’s 229-foot masts exceeded the bridge’s 131-foot clearance. City officials briefly agreed to disassemble the bridge but then decided against it in the face of public backlash, according to The New York Times. That negative reaction included a threat from residents to show up and pelt rotten eggs at the $500 million behemoth.

Oceanco, the company that built Y721 Koru, ultimately decided against applying for the permit that would be required for dismantling Koningshaven Bridge, and the boat was instead quietly towed to another shipyard without its mast.

Bezos’s completed yacht will be accompanied by a 246-foot-long “shadow yacht” called YS7512, Damen Yacht’s largest-ever support vessel. It will fit 45 people onboard, feature a helicopter hangar and storage for Jet Skis and other water toys and is reportedly called Abeona , according to Boat International .

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Jeff Bezos’s $500m yacht stealthily towed out of Dutch shipyard after bridge dismantling controversy

Transport caught by local boat enthusiast, article bookmarked.

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Jeff Bezos ’s yacht was quietly towed out of a Dutch shipyard this week, German magazine Der Spiegel reports . The ship previously attracted boatloads of controversy after its manufacturer asked the city of Rotterdam to dismantle a historic bridge to let it through.

The yachting firm, Oceanco, eventually withdrew the request, and hauled the Amazon billionaire’s 417-foot vessel to the Greenport shipyard early Tuesday morning, taking a more obscure route outside the city center that didn’t require passing under the bridge in question.

Hanco Bol, a local yachting enthusiast, spotted the transport in progress around 3am and posted a detailed video of the three-hour journey on YouTube.

He speculated that the alternate route was chosen “to keep the launch and transport under wraps”.

"We never saw a transport going that fast," he wrote in the caption of his YouTube video

The Independent has contacted Oceanco for comment.

The yacht, dubbed Y721 and reportedly worth $500m, may have left its original docking in Alblasserdam, Netherlands, but it leaves a checkered reputation behind.

The project came in for a storm of criticism when the shipbuilder asked Rotterdam in February to temporarily take apart the Koningshaven Bridge, a nearly 100-year-old local landmark, to allow the massive, three-mast vessel to pass underneath it.

“There’s a principle at stake,” Stefan Lewis, a former City Council member, told The New York Times , describing the outrage from Rotterdammers. “What can you buy if you have unlimited cash? Can you bend every rule? Can you take apart monuments?”

Locals even planned to egg the yacht as it sailed to its next port.

In July, the Dutch newspaper Trouw reported that Oceanco withdrew its request to dismantle the bridge

"As a result of the reports, shipyard employees feel threatened and the company fears vandalism," Trouw reported, according to public records it uncovered.

Mr Bezos has positioned himself as a leading climate philanthropist, and plans to give away $10bn through his Bezos Earth Fund, but he also lives an extremely high-carbon lifestyle.

The former Amazon CEO is one of the biggest landholders in the US .

Superyachts like the Y721 emit about 1,500 times more carbon than a typical family car per year.

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• Netherlands

Jeff Bezos’s New Superyacht to Force Dismantling of Dutch Bridge

J eff Bezos’s massive new superyacht is nearing completion, but getting it to its owner will require taking out a bridge.

The 417-foot-long sailing yacht, code-named Y721, is being built by Alblasserdam, Netherlands-based Oceanco. For the boat to reach the ocean, it will have to pass through Rotterdam, and navigate a landmark steel bridge known as De Hef. A lift bridge, De Hef’s central span can be raised more than 130 feet into the air, but that’s still not high enough to accommodate the yacht’s three giant masts.

So the city has agreed to temporarily take apart the bridge’s central section this summer for Bezos’s yacht to pass through, according to Frances van Heijst, a Rotterdam spokeswoman. The NL Times reported the bridge plan earlier Wednesday.

The Y721 will be one of the largest sailing yachts ever built in the Netherlands, the unofficial capital of boat building for the very wealthy. Rotterdam council project leader Marcel Walravens defended the city’s decision to allow the bridge to be dismantled, telling local broadcaster Rijnmond it was the “only alternative” to complete what the municipality considers “a very important project” economically.

Oceanco, and not the city, will foot the cost of the bridge demolition, van Heijst said. It’s likely some of those costs will be passed on to Bezos, the world’s second-richest person with a net worth of $175.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

De Hef is considered an icon of Rotterdam’s industrial heritage as a shipbuilding hub, and news of its partial demolition has caused a stir among locals.

“This man has earned his money by structurally cutting staff, evading taxes, avoiding regulations and now we have to tear down our beautiful national monument?” Rotterdam politician Stephan Leewis wrote on Twitter. “That is really going a bridge too far.”

It’s not the first headache caused by Y721’s tall masts. The enormity of the yacht’s sails will make it unsafe to land a helicopter onboard, so Bezos has commissioned a support yacht equipped with a helipad to trail alongside.

Surging levels of personal wealth pushed superyacht sales to record levels last year. A total of 887 such ships were sold in 2021, a 77% jump from a year earlier and more than double the number in 2019, according to a report from maritime data firm VesselsValue. Boat builder Burgess reported more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in superyacht sales last year.

—With assistance from Brad Stone.

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Yacht reportedly built for Bezos too big for Dutch bridge

View of the Koningshaven Bridge, known as De Hef, (The Lift), in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. A plan to dismantle the historic bridge in the heart of Dutch port city so that a huge yacht, reportedly being built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, can get to the North Sea is unlikely to be plain sailing. Reports this week that the city had already agreed to take apart the recently restored bridge sparked anger in the city, with one Facebook group set up calling for people to pelt the multimillion dollar yacht with rotten eggs. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

View of a yacht, reportedly being built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, on the wharf in Zwijndrecht, near Rotterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2021. A plan to dismantle a historic bridge in the heart of Dutch port city Rotterdam so that the huge yacht can get to the North Sea is unlikely to be plain sailing. Reports this week that the city had already agreed to take apart the recently restored Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as De Hef sparked anger in the city, with one Facebook group set up calling for people to pelt the multimillion dollar yacht with rotten eggs. (AP Photo/Guy Fleury)

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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — A giant, $500 million yacht reportedly being built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos faces a delivery problem: It may require dismantling a beloved, historic bridge in Rotterdam that is blocking its passage to the sea.

Reports this week that the Dutch city had already agreed to take apart the recently renovated Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as De Hef, sparked anger. On Facebook, locals are proposing to pelt the yacht with rotten eggs when it passes through.

However, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told The Associated Press on Friday that while a shipbuilder has requested temporarily taking apart the bridge this summer, no permit has yet been sought or granted.

Many Rotterdam residents are still concerned.

“I think it’s easy to understand why it’s so controversial because this is a very beautiful, recently restored old bridge,” said Lizette Touber. “It really is our heritage. And I think that if the rich can pay for it to be opened, which normally nobody else could do, then you get controversy.”

In a written statement, Aboutaleb, who is on a visit to Colombia, said that once a request for a permit is submitted it will be assessed based on factors including economic impact, environmental nuisance and possible risks to the “monumental structure” of the bridge.

“When the permit has been applied for, the municipality can make a decision about this, details can be further elaborated and a plan can be made in the event of a positive decision,” the statement said.

The municipality declined to comment on who owns the yacht in question or identify the shipbuilder. An email sent to Amazon seeking comment went unanswered. A report by Bloomberg in May 2021 said the yacht was being built for Bezos by Oceanco at a cost of “upwards of $500 million.”

The current Hef railway bridge was opened for trains to cross the Maas River in 1927 and taken out of service in 1993 when it was replaced by a tunnel. Public protests spared it from demolition and it eventually underwent a three-year renovation that ended in 2017. The middle section of the bridge can be raised to allow ships to pass underneath, but apparently not high enough for the new yacht’s masts.

Ton Wesselink, chairman of a Rotterdam historical society, feared that a decision to allow one yacht through the bridge could set a precedent for others.

“The thing we don’t want is that this yacht issue will open the possibility for shipbuilders to use it the same way,” he said in an email to AP.

But there were voices of support for the proposal.

“I think it’s fine. Let Bezos pay a high price. It creates work. I only see upsides,” said Rotterdam resident Ria van den Vousten.

“If it is paid for and everybody makes some money, don’t complain. Don’t talk, but act, as we say in Rotterdam,” she added.

Corder reported from The Hague.

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Rotterdam May Dismantle Part of Bridge for Jeff Bezos’ Superyacht

The Dutch city of Rotterdam walked back earlier comments that the historic Koningshaven Bridge would be briefly dismantled. On Thursday, officials said a decision had not yet been made.

By Jenny Gross

The Dutch city of Rotterdam on Thursday walked back plans to dismantle part of the historic Koningshaven Bridge so that a superyacht built for Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, could pass through the city’s river, saying that a decision had not yet been made.

This week, city officials had told the news media that Rotterdam had agreed to briefly dismantle the middle section of the 95-year-old bridge for the yacht’s passage this summer.

But on Thursday evening, officials said in another statement that the city had not yet approved the plan, though it had received a request from the shipbuilder to temporarily lift the middle part of bridge.

The city’s statement said the full cost of the dismantling, if approved, would be covered by the shipbuilder. The bridge, known locally as “De Hef,” would be restored immediately afterward.

A city spokeswoman had said that she did not have an estimate of how much the deconstruction would cost. The city statement said that officials would assess the environmental and economic effects of the plans.

A representative for Amazon did not respond to requests for comment about the cost or the yacht’s destination. A spokeswoman for Oceanco, the Dutch custom yacht company that is building the boat, said in an email that she could not comment on projects under construction or clients because of confidentiality reasons.

The city of Rotterdam’s decision to remove part of the bridge was reported on Wednesday by a regional Dutch public broadcaster, Rijnmond . Boat International, which publishes articles about the superyacht industry, reported that the 417-foot sailboat is set to become the largest sailing yacht in the world when it is finished later this year, surpassing the Sea Cloud , a 360-foot sailboat built in 1931 and owned by the Yacht Portfolio, an investment company based in Malta.

The superyacht Mr. Bezos commissioned is likely to cost more than $500 million to build, Bloomberg reported . Mr. Bezos is the world’s second-richest person , after Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk.

The bridge, which has a boat clearance of 130 feet, is not currently in use. A Rotterdam tour guide, Eddy le Couvreur, said that the bridge, designed by the Dutch architect Pieter Joosting and a fixture in the Rotterdam skyline, was once used for railway traffic. A vertical lift bridge, it was the first of its kind in the Netherlands, and was copied from similar bridges in the United States. The modern industrial aesthetics of the bridge inspired a short film in 1928, he said.

Until now, tall ships passed under the bridge before assembling their masts and taller structures, he said.

Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor for Rotterdam, said he was fine with the bridge being dismantled — since the city would not be paying for it — because of the jobs the process would create. “As a city, this is a great way to take some of his money,” Mr. Tak said.

The structure is more than a bridge to the people of Rotterdam, said Siebe Thissen, the author of the book “The Boy Who Jumped From the Bridge,” about a working-class man who jumped from the bridge in 1933. “It’s a monument,” he said. “It’s the identity of Rotterdam.”

When city officials tried to take the bridge down in the 1990s since it was no longer in use, there were major protests, he said, calling the bridge a reminder of “the old days” in Rotterdam.

“I think that’s why there is so much turmoil about Jeff Bezos and his boat,” he said, before referring to accusations against Amazon . “People say, ‘Why this guy?’ It’s a working-class town, and they all know that Jeff Bezos, of course, he exploits his workers, so people say, ‘Why should this guy be able to demolish the bridge for his boat?’”

As of Thursday, more than 600 Facebook users said they would attend an event, titled “Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos,” where they plan to gather by the bridge to throw eggs at the boat. “Rotterdammers are proud of their city and don’t tear down iconic buildings just because you are super rich,” said Pablo Strörmann, the event organizer, who said he started the Facebook group “mostly” as a joke.

Mr. le Couvreur, who works for the company Tours by Locals, which connects tourists with local guides, said that Rotterdammers would likely enjoy the international attention that the spectacle had brought, he said. “On the other hand, it shows the unimaginable wealth that people like Bezos have created for themselves, that nothing can stand in the way for them living out their dreams and hobbies,” he said, adding that the outlook was “worlds apart from those who will be watching the ship pass through the city.”

Claire Moses contributed reporting.

Jenny Gross is a general assignment reporter. Before joining The Times, she covered British politics for the The Wall Street Journal. More about Jenny Gross

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Rotterdam to partly dismantle historic bridge for Jeff Bezos’s superyacht

Central section of Koningshaven Bridge to be removed to make way for Amazon founder’s $485m superyacht

A historic steel bridge in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam is to be partly dismantled to allow a superyacht built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to pass, local authorities have announced.

Bezos’s gigantic, 430-million-euro ($485m) yacht is too big for the iconic Koningshaven Bridge, which dates from 1878 and was rebuilt after being bombed by the Nazis in 1940 during the second world war.

The shipyard building the three-masted mammoth in Alblasserdam, near Rotterdam, has asked the local council to remove the bridge’s central section so it can pass through.

“It’s the only route to the sea,” a spokesperson for the mayor of Rotterdam told AFP, adding that the Amazon owner would foot the bill for the operation.

The decision has angered some in the Netherlands as the local council promised after a major renovation in 2017 that it would never again dismantle the bridge, known to Rotterdammers as De Hef.

The mayor’s office emphasised the economic benefits and jobs created by the construction of the boat, but promised that the bridge would be rebuilt in its current form.

The middle section of the huge steel-girdered bridge will be removed to give enough clearance for the 40-metre (130-foot) high boat, Dutch media reported.

The process will take a few weeks and is expected to happen this summer.

Bezos, 57, is one of the world’s richest men after transforming online bookseller Amazon into a global shopping giant.

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Mayor denies Dutch city will dismantle historic bridge for Jeff Bezos' yacht

By Megan Cerullo

February 4, 2022 / 2:05 PM EST / MoneyWatch

A Dutch city has not agreed to temporarily disassemble a bridge built in 1927 to make room for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ' mega-yacht, CBS MoneyWatch has learned.

A spokesperson for the mayor — and the city — on Friday told CBS MoneyWatch that Dutch press reports that Rotterdam would disassemble an historic bridge to make room for Bezos' boat were false, and that it has not received, or approved any such request. 

If Bezos or custom yacht-builder Oceanco asks for an accommodation, the city will consider it.

"The company that built the ship didn't yet ask for a permit so there is not an issue at this moment. When they ask for the permit, then we have to make a decision if we allow it or not, and how, and things like that," the spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch.

Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb also denied earlier press reports, telling Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad that "No decision has been made yet," noting that neither Bezos nor his yacht's maker have applied for a permit to take down part of the bridge. 

The Amazon founder's $500 million boat, built by Netherlands-based Oceanco and scheduled to be completed soon, measures 417 feet long and must pass through Rotterdam, under its landmark bridge, to reach its owner, NL Times reported . The problem? The Koninginnebrug bridge, a steel bridge nicknamed De Hef, isn't tall enough to accommodate the ship's three masts, which exceed the 130 feet of clearance the bridge offers.   

Dutch press reports said that the city would remove the central section of the bridge to make way for the yacht, the largest ever built in the Netherlands. 

At this point in time, city officials in Rotterdam, who have been in contact with Oceanco regarding the construction of the superyacht, only know that "there is a big ship that has to go through the ocean some day," a spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch, adding that they anticipate receiving a request to make room for the boat to pass under the bridge. 

The spokesperson noted that the city has in the past had to deconstruct parts of the bridge to accommodate large vessels. 

"This is not the first time we have to do something about this bridge so that a big ship can go through. Once every few years a big ship has to go through to the other side," the spokesperson said. "So it's not unusual, in a way."

Rotterdam officials were said to have yielded to the billionaire, the world's  second-richest person , given the significance of the project to the local economy. Rotterdam council project leader Marcel Walravens called the construction of the superyacht "a very important project" economically, according to local broadcaster Rijnmond . Dismantling the bridge was the "only alternative," he said. 

Oceanco had agreed to pay for the cost of dismantling operation, Rotterdam spokesperson Frances Van Heijst told the NL Times. It's unclear if Bezos, who is worth roughly $176 billion , would pay for any of the disassembly cost.

The shipbuilder did not respond to a request for comment from CBS MoneyWatch. 

Aboutaleb, the mayor, said the controversial undertaking remains under consideration, but that Bezos still lacks the official approval to move forward. He also said Bezos' wealth and status will not influence his decision. 

"That has absolutely nothing do with this decision. It's about the facts. I want to know them first," Aboutaleb told the Dutch language newspaper.

"It's not an issue of what is going through the bridge," the city spokesperson reiterated. "It's not like if it's a ship for Mr. Bezos all of a sudden the rules are changing. But if there is a call for a permit, we will make a decision based on facts and not emotions. But we are not at that stage at this moment," the spokesperson said.

Some locals oppose altering the bridge on behalf of one of the richest people on the planet. Protesters have organized an event on Facebook at which they vowed to gather to throw eggs at Bezos' yacht when it passes under the bridge, scheduled for June. 

"Rotterdam was built from the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don't just take that apart for the phallic symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!!" event organizers wrote on Facebook. 

• Netherlands

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News Streaming to discuss her reporting.

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Historic Bridge To Be Dismantled So Jeff Bezos' Yacht Can Get Through

National Reporter, HuffPost

A historic steel bridge in the Netherlands will be partially dismantled this summer so Jeff Bezos ’ yacht can pass through, authorities in Rotterdam confirmed Thursday.

Koningshaven Bridge, a 95-year-old Dutch national monument, is too short for the 130-foot tall, 417-foot long superyacht known as “Y721,” which is being built upstream by Oceanco, a custom yacht builder.

A spokesman for the Rotterdam mayor told the BBC that the bridge would have to be taken apart and rebuilt so the boat could pass through, noting “it’s the only route to the sea.”

Bezos will pay for the bridge’s deconstruction and reassembly. Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor for Rotterdam, told The New York Times he supported the move because it would create jobs locally.

Rotterdam citizens, however, seem less than happy about the development. A Facebook event inviting people to hurl rotten eggs at the ship as it sails through this summer boasts 2,600 interested attendees, with 660 confirmed.

According to Boat International, Y721 will be the world’s largest sailing yacht when it’s delivered later this year. A Bloomberg report linking the vessel to Bezos found the yacht, which comes with its own secondary yacht, likely cost more than $500 million to build.

From March 2020 to November 2021, the 10 richest people in the world more than doubled their wealth, from a collective $700 billion to $1.5 trillion, an Oxfam report found .

Bezos — who is worth more than $150 billion — didn’t pay a penny in federal income tax in 2007, 2011 or 2018, a ProPublica report last year found. He paid a true tax rate of less than 1% between 2014 and 2018.

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Rotterdam Now Won't Dismantle a Historic Bridge for Jeff Bezos's Superyacht

The Amazon founder's new sailing yacht is too tall to pass under the historic Koningshaven bridge.

"We’re happy it’s not happening," Marvin Biljoen, a councilman for GroenLinks, the Dutch Green Party, told the New York Times . "T he bridge is a national monument, which shouldn’t be altered too much. That you could still do that with money anyway bothers us."

Last week, Oceano quietly towed the yacht up the river in the early hours of the morning to a different shipyard, and now, Bezos's boat is nearly completed. The YouTube channel Dutch Yachting shared a video of the boat, and it has three large masts completed:

Expect the superyacht to be on the open seas soon.

Original 2/7/22 : The European port of Rotterdam will dismantle part of its iconic Koningshaven bridge for Jeff Bezos. The billionaire's new yacht is being built in Alblasserdam, in the western Netherlands, and will be too tall to pass under the bridge.

"It's the only route to the sea," a spokesperson for the mayor of Rotterdam told AFP , confirming the news of the bridge's dismantling. According to Dutch news , ship builder Oceanco convinced the city to dismantle part of the bridge. The Rotterdam mayor's spokesperson also confirmed that Bezos would pay for the dismantling and rebuilding of the bridge.

In November, Oceano's chairman, Omani businessman Dr. Mohammed Al Barwani, spoke of the 127 meter (416 feet) sailing yacht the company was working on without mentioning Bezos. Later, Boat International identified the 127m yacht as the one commissioned by the Amazon founder.

The Koningshaven bridge, known locally as the De Hef bridge , was built in 1877. During World War II, the bridge was significantly damaged and rebuilt, subsequently recognized as a historic monument. Between 2014 and 2017, the bridge underwent a restoration, and officials promised it would not be dismantled again.

"From an economic perspective and maintaining employment, the municipality considers this a very important project," Marcel Walravens, the leader of the proposed dismantling project, told Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond . "Rotterdam has also been declared the maritime capital of Europe. Shipbuilding and activity within that sector are therefore an important pillar for the municipality." Walravens says the project will likely take place sometime this summer.

Dennis Tak, a Labor Party city councilor, said he was OK with the dismantling of the Koningshaven bridge because Bezos is paying for it, and it would create jobs. "As a city, this is a great way to take some of his money," Tak told the New York Times .

Dutch residents are not happy, however; they plan to throw rotten eggs at Jeff Bezos's superyacht as it passes through the Rotterdam harbor. Business Insider reports Rotterdam locals are planning an event called "Throwing eggs at Jeff Bezos' superyacht" in protest.

"Calling all Rotterdammers, take a box of rotten eggs with you and let's throw them en masse at Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," the event description reads on Facebook. "Rotterdam was built from the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don't just take that apart for the phallic symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!" 3,300 people have RSVP'd as going, and 11,600 are interested in the event.

When Bezos's yacht, known as Y721, is delivered later this year—after the bridge is dismantled—the boat will become the world's largest sailing yacht, a title that has been held for nearly a century by American socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post's 1931 boat Sea Cloud .

Along with making history as the largest sailing yacht, Bezos's Y271 is the longest yacht to have ever been built in the Netherlands, and Oceano's largest ever superyacht. It is also rumored to come with a "support yacht," also called a shadow vessel. The superyacht likely cost more than $500 million to build, per Bloomberg .

Bezos is also reportedly the owner of the Flying Fox, a $400 million megayacht.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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Jeff Bezos’ unfinished mega yacht was towed away from a Dutch shipbuilding yard before dawn Tuesday just weeks after Rotterdam residents threatened to pelt the luxury vessel with eggs if the city went through with plans to dismantle a landmark bridge to make way for the $500 million ship.

The 417-foot long, three-masted yacht, which goes by the name Y721 , was relocated from the Oceanco shipyard in Alblasserdam to the Greenport yard just 24 miles away in Rotterdam, according to the German-language daily Der Spiegel.

Video of the towing was posted to YouTube by Dutch yacht enthusiast Hanco Bol.

“We never saw a transport going that fast,” Bol writes of what he witnessed. It took less than three hours for the ship to travel southwest along the Noord canal even though it normally requires nearly twice as much time to traverse the route, according to Bol.

He speculates that Oceanco, the company that was commissioned to build the yacht, chose the timing of the move in order to keep it under wraps given the considerable publicity it has generated.

Rotterdammers who were furious about plans to dismantle “De Hef” bridge , also known as Koningshaven, had threatened to pelt the yacht with eggs if it made the journey.

Bol writes that the yacht’s route was designed to avoid traveling through the Rotterdam city center and underneath “De Hef” — even though it would have saved more time.

Oceanco last month announced that it had dropped its request for the Rotterdam city council to approve the temporary dismantling of the bridge.

The company had indicated that Bezos, the Amazon founder and second-richest person in the world, was willing to foot the bill for the removal of the middle section of the span so that the yacht would be able to sail through the Nieuwe Mass River.

Bol speculates that Oceanco intentionally avoided towing the unfinished yacht underneath “De Hef.”

“I think that was intentional,” he told Der Spiegel. 

“When I was standing on one of the bridges, they shined a searchlight on me, so it wasn’t easy for me to take pictures.”

According to Dutch media reports, it will take several more months for the ship to be completed.

The Post has reached out to Amazon and Oceanco seeking comment.

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Jeff Bezos’ $500M yacht has a 246-foot support ship, Lauren Sanchez figurehead

Much like Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ $500 million superyacht offers every bell and whistle imaginable, from A to Z.

The colossal, triple-masted Koru began its career serving the world’s third richest man this week, cruising the Mediterranean around Mallorca.

The 417-foot schooner first left Rotterdam in the Netherlands for sea trials in February. Dropping anchor in Mallorca put its jaw-dropping size on full display.

It also showed the extent of Bezos’ fleet: Not only did the Koru sail into harbor, so did its support vessel, Abeona, a mega-boat in its own right, the luxurious fast-launches used to move between the two — and aerial support in the form of his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez’s personal helicopter.

Sanchez also seemingly serves the fleet’s mascot, with the Koru’s figurehead, a part of traditional large sailing ships, modeled after her.

The Koru is the world’s tallest sailing yacht. Its three huge 229-foot masts power it to 20 knots. It’s also the biggest billionaire’s yacht which can move under sail-power alone.

The masts are so tall that Dutch officials considered dismantling the 95-year-old Koningshaven Bridge to allow the vessel past the 131-foot span on its journey from the Oceanco shipyard in Alblasserdam through Rotterdam to the North Sea.

That controversial plan was scrapped after local backlash, including residents being urged to toss eggs at Bezos’ “latest toy,”  the New York Times reported . The superyacht, previously known as Y721, was instead towed to a shipyard in Rotterdam, downstream of the bridge, without its masts.

Bezos, 59, and the bikini-clad Sanchez, 53, appeared ready for the summer as the pair soaked up the sun aboard Koru, a Māori word for loop or coil that symbolizes new beginnings — possibly a coy reference to their relationship.

Sanchez started secretly dating the Blue Origin founder in the summer of 2018. Bezos then announced in January 2019 he and his wife Mackenzie were divorcing after 25 years , while Sanchez finalized her split from husband Patrick Whitesell later that year.

Sanchez plays a critical role in the Bezos fleet: As a helicopter pilot, she was seen landing on the Abeona. She was also at Bezos’ side when he took the wheel of the Koru.

Koru was first seen under construction in 2021 at Oceano’s yard. The company is owned by a fellow billionaire, Oman’s Mohammed Al Barwani.

As many as 18 guests can enjoy the yacht’s three outdoor decks, including one with two pools. The vessel, which has a crew of up to 36, also boasts a cinema, meeting spaces and lounges,  Luxuo reported .

Every detail is designed for luxury, even down to the masts’ technology.

Bezos opted for high-tech “in-boom furlers,” which store the vast canvases at the bottom of the mast, above the deck. Each weighs nearly 2,000 pounds, but they allow his deck to be kept clear of ropes.

Clearing ropes out of the way maximizes entertaining space, and allows for a hot tub forward of the mainmast.

The yacht is also built for speed. Its three masts provide “one of the largest sail areas ever seen in yachting,”  according to SuperYacht Times .

The Koru’s original designer, and the identity of its captain, remain secret. Boat International noted : “With the elegant curve of the bow and a bowsprit, the lines are certainly classic, but we still have no idea which designer drew them.”

The Cayman Islands-flagged vessel also has engine power like most sailing yachts.

And while other billionaires measure yachts by size, Bezos’ is only the 24th largest.

However, since Koru’s masts rule out a helicopter deck, the billionaire commissioned a support vessel, Abeona, named for the Roman goddess of outward journeys.

In addition to a helipad, the 246-foot Abeona features an extra two staterooms for four guests and as many as 45 crew and support staff.

It’s the largest custom-built support vessel ever manufactured by Damen Yachting. On board in Mallorca were at least four jetskis, two fast launches, and an additional dinghy. Its heavy winch is capable of lifting a small submarine, although Bezos is not believed to have one thus far.

The “classic exterior lines” of Koru, are reminiscent of another billionaire’s boat: Eos, a 305-foot sailing yacht owned by Barry Diller, 81, who may have inspired Bezos after hosting him on the vessel.

Favored by megastars like Katy Perry and Bradley Cooper — who were Diller’s guests during 2019’s Google Camp in Sicily — the German-built Eos can accommodate up to 16 guests and 21 crew.

It was the largest private sailing yacht in the world when it was completed in 2006. Diller, chairman of IAC and Expedia, who is worth $3.9 billion, bought it three years later. Intriguingly, its figurehead is modeled on Diller’s wife Diane von Fürstenberg, the fashion designer.

But the $200 million, 305-foot schooner is now dwarfed by Bezos’ boat.

As Koru sailed in the Balearic Sea this week off the coast of Spain, Bezos’ boat symbolically surges past several other tech billionaires’ vessels – including Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s $80 million, 240-foot Dragonfly, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s, $160 million, 288-foot Musashi.

It will cost Bezos, 59, an estimated $25 million per year to operate Koru, but the world’s third-richest man isn’t likely to need a loan with his $140.6 billion fortune,  according to Forbes .

Bezos’ use of sailpower sets him apart from most billionaires, but others are seeking a hi-tech zero-carbon power source: a Japanese billionaire has reportedly commissioned the world’s first hydrogen-powered superyacht.

Germany’s Lürssen Yachts announced in March that they had a hydrogen-powered superyacht in advanced construction.

It declined to identify the future owner of the unnamed superyacht, but specialist publication FuelCellsWorks reported Japanese billionaire tech Yusaku Maezawa, worth an estimated $1.7 billion, commissioned the innovative effort.

Dubbed Project Cosmos, the 374-foot superyacht is designed by Apple’s legendary Marc Newson and was first unveiled in early March at Lürssen’s facility in Rendsburg, Germany.

Once completed as soon as next year, the vessel is expected to utilize emission-free fuel cell technology to generate power lasting up to 15 days while anchored or to travel as far as 1,000 miles at slow speeds.

Three other major shipyards, including in Italy and the Netherlands, are likely to launch their own hydrogen started outfitting newly constructed vessels with hydrogen fuel cells as of March 2022, with the first models reportedly expected in 2024.

Other megayachts expected to soon join Bezos’ Koru in the water include two Lürssen models, the 475-foot Luminance and the 400-foot Jag, and Feadship 821, a 389-foot offering from the Netherlands manufacturer.

But even those won’t best the biggest megayacht in the world, the 593-foot Azzam, which launched in 2013 after being commissioned by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and president of the United Arab Emirates who died last year.

Azzam, which means determination in Arabic, reportedly cost more than $600 million and is nearly 60 feet longer than the world’s second-largest yacht, the 533-foot Eclipse, owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Those monster vessels are expected to be surpassed next year by REV, a 600-foot yacht under construction in Norway which will have space for 36 guests and 54 crewmembers, according to Boat International .

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Jeff Bezos' new yacht in Netherlands under fire, thousands RSVP to throw eggs at it

Rotterdam residents are taking aim at a superyacht so big it'll require a bridge to be moved to get out to sea.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man, and he commissioned the world’s largest sailing yacht — so big that in order to get it out to sea, he’s offering to pay to take apart and reassemble a historic bridge that it needs to pass to get out of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

It may result in the world’s biggest scrambled eggs, if a planned Facebook event to hurl rotten eggs at the $485 million vessel is as popular as its signup sheet suggests.

Facebook user Pablo Strörmann, a Rotterdam resident, stirred up " Eieren gooien naar superjacht Jeff Bezos (Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos )" earlier this month, inviting the "the international Egg tossing community" to bombard Bezos’ boat on June 1. More than 20,000 people had marked themselves as going or interested in going as of Wednesday afternoon.

A general view of "De Hef" as the city of Rotterdam has agreed to remove a section of the historic bridge to make way for a superyacht, reportedly built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Feb. 3, 2022.  (REUTERS/Piroschka Van De Wouw / Reuters Photos)

"For our international guests: Calling all Rotterdammers, take a box of rotten eggs with you, and let's throw them en masse at Jeff's superyacht when it sails through the Hef in Rotterdam," the event’s description reads. 

JEFF BEZOS TO DISMANTLE HISTORIC DUTCH BRIDGE FOR SUPERYACHT

The Hef is a nickname for the 145-year-old Koningshaven Bridge. It has just 130 feet of clearance, according to Dutch media. The yacht, dubbed Y721, needs more than that to pass beneath. On the sunny side, Bezos and the shipbuilder, Oceanco, have offered to cover the cost of temporarily removing and replacing the bridge in order to get the new superyacht out.

"Normally it’s the other way around," Strörmann told the Netherlands-based NL Times last week. "If your ship doesn’t fit under a bridge, you make it smaller — but when you happen to be the richest person on Earth, you just ask a municipality to dismantle a monument. That’s ridiculous."

DUTCH MAYOR DENIES REPORT CITY WILL DISMANTLE BRIDGE FOR BEZOS YACHT

A Facebook group associated with the event had several hundred members, with views on the event scrambled together.

"How many people throw eggs one day and buy from Amazon the next?" one of them asked.

Another shared plans for how to build "a cannon that fires eggs at a high rate of speed and launches them to great distances" out of PVC piping.

Representatives for Bezos did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.

The Y721 is a three-masted aluminum and steel schooner about 417 feet long, according to Boat International . In addition to being the largest sailing yacht ever constructed, it’s also the largest yacht of any kind produced in the Netherlands, according to the outlet.

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Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said earlier this month that city officials had not yet reached a decision on how to proceed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The unspoken rules about how to behave on a superyacht

• The superyachting world is very small, with only 5,800 yachts longer than 30 meters at sea.
• That insularity has bred a specific etiquette, which is often hard for outsiders to know about.
• These are the de facto rules of the most expensive billionaire toys, superyachts .

For the owners of superyachts , privacy is often the most valuable thing money can buy. It's one reason centimillionaires and billionaires pay eight or nine figures for a palace at sea, far from the prying eyes of land dwellers.

Even the most gossipy crew members should stay tight-lipped about the name of a former owner or charter guest, and many brokers shy away from answering benign questions.

That means that, aside from basic safety guidelines, most of the rules of superyachting are unwritten. The very few who need to know them — there are only about 5,800 yachts longer than 30 meters at sea, according to SuperYacht Times — already know them.

But if you do happen to be a lucky guest at a party on a billionaire's $500 million ship or find yourself included in a $1 million-a-week vacation, there are a few things you need to know.

After four days of touring superyachts that sell for as much as $75 million and chatting with the people who buy, sell, and work on them at the Palm Beach International Boat Show , Business Insider gleaned a few key edicts. Given the discreet nature of the industry, almost all the people we spoke with requested anonymity to protect their working relationships, but here's what they had to say.

Take off your shoes

While it's a basic rule for anyone in boating, it may come as a surprise to an outsider that no matter how rich you are or how expensive your heels are, in the vast majority of cases, you can't wear shoes on board.

It's partly for safety — you don't want anyone slipping on a wet deck — but partly to keep the yacht clean. So expect to see barefoot billionaires, and if you forgot to get a pedicure, bring a set of special boat shoes.

Don't make any assumptions about money — but know the signs

In the superyacht world, it's safe to assume almost everyone you meet is very, very rich, and many brokers and builders say you can't judge a book by its cover when it comes to prospective clients.

"It has nothing to do with how they're dressed," one broker told BI. "It's the biggest mistake you can make because a complete slobby-looking guy or couple could be a multibillionaire."

There are, however, a few clues. Watches are one; new footwear is another.

"Rich people always have new shoes," a superyacht expert said. But because of the shoe rule mentioned above, this tip probably applies only when they're on land.

Book your massage early

Wellness areas, including spa rooms with a massage bed or two and a professional-grade facial machine, are becoming must-haves on superyachts . Most have a customized spa menu and a crew member who doubles as a trained masseuse or beautician — and they're usually in high demand.

One captain said he'd implemented a booking system to ensure people weren't fighting for the same spots. A broker said sometimes masseuses would be so busy they wouldn't leave the small spa cabin for hours on end.

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So if you want to make the most of your relaxing time on board, reserve your pampering slot as soon as you get your welcome cocktail.

Pirates are more real than you'd think, and many superyachts have hidden safe rooms

While you might dress up as a fake pirate for an onboard theme party, there are very real ones — and other dangers — on the high seas.

In certain areas, including parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, pirates are a cause of concern . In the Red Sea, owners are concerned about the Houthis .

Superyachts can come equipped with sonic weaponry, lockdown systems, and anti-drone protection. Builders are even designing safe rooms — which are apparently just as plush as the rest of the ship.

The longer the boat, the closer to $1 billion

While you can't judge a buyer based on appearances, you can judge them on the length of their boat.

One rule of thumb: If someone has a brand-new 50-meter vessel, chances are they have $1 billion to their name. If it's over 100 meters, expect the owner to have at least $2 billion. And for a boat bigger than that — like Jeff Bezos' 127-meter megayacht Koru — it takes many, many billions.

Money can't buy you everything

The world's biggest, most expensive yachts are custom-built by shipyards that produce only a handful of boats a year.

But no matter how many tens of millions of dollars clients are spending, there are things to which builders will refuse to say yes.

"In the end, the boat has our name," an executive from one of the world's biggest shipyards told BI.

They recalled a client who requested a yellow hull to match his Lamborghini . The shipyard declined, steering the client in another direction.

"If I don't like it, I don't build it. I finalize two or three contracts a year," another builder said. "If somebody can say your vessel is ugly, my reputation is bad."

Yacht crews are trained to make the impossible possible. A guest requests fresh caviar flown into the middle of the Caribbean? No problem. Fresh flowers every day while at sea? It'll cost you, but it can be done.

But they can't time travel, and captains and crew members say the thing that causes the most friction is when a client or owner wants to go from point A to point B — right now.

"The hardest request is when they want the boat in a place — yesterday," one captain said.

The best person to know? A friend with a superyacht

Superyachts are expensive to build and expensive to maintain . According to the industry standard, owning a superyacht will cost 10% of its new-build price annually. For a $100 million yacht, that's at least $10 million yearly going to crew, regular maintenance, insurance, fuel, and dockage.

Chartering, too, is costly . Beyond the list price, which can be hundreds of thousands a week, guests must pay for provisions, which are pegged at 35% of the charter fee, and are expected to tip between 10% and 20%.

So the most important unspoken rule of superyachting is actually that the only thing better than owning a superyacht is knowing someone else who does — and invites you along, of course.

Watch: Why it costs $1 million a day to run one of the world's biggest cruise ships

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