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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 .

• Netherlands
• shipbuilding

Jeff Bezos pushed Dutch port city to dismantle historic bridge. Now, residents plan to egg his yacht.

Jeff Bezos' superyacht is too large to pass through the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, so the town decided to dismantle the bridge. In retaliation, local residents vow to egg Bezos' yacht as it passed through. 

As of Thursday, more than 14,000 people were "interested" and 4,000 confirmed they will attend a Facebook event titled "Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos ." 

The Dutch port city said it would temporarily break down the historic Koningshavenbrug Bridge because Bezos' 417-foot-long yacht won't fit, Agence France-Presse  reported . 

"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," organizer Pablo Strörmann wrote in the Facebook post.

Jeff Bezos' superyacht dilemma: Jeff Bezos' superyacht won't fit through a historic bridge. So the town is dismantling it.

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Strörmann told NL Times the Facebook page started out as a joke among friends but "quickly struck a nerve" in the local community. 

Bezos’ $485 million superyacht is being built by the Oceano shipyard in Alblasserdam, Netherlands. To make room for the yacht, the middle section of the huge steel bridge will be removed. Bezos will pay for the deconstruction of the bridge, according to the outlet, Dutch News reported .

The Koningshavenbrug bridge was built in 1878 and was reconstructed after being bombed by the Nazis in 1940 during World War II. Local backlash started after the local council promised it would never dismantle the bridge after a major renovation in 2017. Now residents are angered the government went back on that promise. 

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After the criticism,  Rotterdam's mayor told newspapers on Thursday "no decision has yet been taken, not even an application for a permit," according to The Guardian .

"Normally it’s the other way around: 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," Strörmann told the NL Times.

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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.

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Thousands of dutch vow to pelt jeff bezos’ superyacht with rotten eggs.

Dutch preservationists said they will bombard Jeff Bezos’ superyacht with rotten eggs if the city of Rotterdam follows through with reported plans to dismantle a section of a 140-year-old bridge to make way for the Amazon founder’s $500 million vessel .

Rotterdam residents took to Facebook to express anger over talk that part of the Koningshaven Bridge, which locals refer to as “De Hef,” will be temporarily removed so that the 417-foot-high Y721 and its three large masts can pass its 130-foot clearance.

Pablo Strörmann, 40, circulated an invite on Facebook urging locals to take action by bringing a case of rotten eggs with them if the yacht makes its way through the waterway.

“Rotterdam was built from the rubble by Rotterdammers and we don’t just take it apart for the phallus symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire,” Strörmann wrote on Facebook, as reported by the Dutch daily BN DeStem . “Not without a fight.”

The Facebook event, which Strörmann reportedly acknowledged as being “not too serious,” has drawn attention from almost 3,000 people who said they will attend while another 10,000 have indicated that they’re “interested.”

When asked what motivated him to make the invite, Strörmann said: “Because I’m a Rotterdammer and I think people with a lot of money should realize that you can’t make everything” go exactly your way, he said. “With this call we make our voice heard in a playful way. And I think that is going very well.”

Last week, the mayor of Rotterdam denied that a final decision had been made about the landmark, which underwent repairs in 2017.

The city council promised residents that the bridge would not be tampered with after the 2017 renovation, but Bezos and Oceanco, the Dutch shipbuilding company that is getting set to unveil the yacht, have pledged to foot the bill for the dismantling.

The company, which is building the yacht just upriver in the town of Alblasserdam, said taking apart a section of the bridge is the only way to get the vessel out to sea.

Taking apart and reassembling the middle section of the bridge was expected to take more than two weeks, according to Dutch-language outlet  Rijnmond .

Rotterdam officials touted Bezos’ pet project as a revenue generator.

“From an economic perspective and maintaining employment, the municipality considers this a very important project,” municipal project leader Marcel Walravens reportedly said.

“In addition, Rotterdam has also been declared the maritime capital of Europe. Shipbuilding and activity within that sector are therefore an important pillar of the municipality.”

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The Dutch vow to egg Jeff Bezos' yacht if a famed bridge is dismantled so it can pass

• Rachel Treisman

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.

"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, but 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 centuries-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.

The sailing yacht in question was reportedly commissioned by the Amazon founder-turned-billionaire 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 still being developed but estimated it would take about a week to prepare and another week to "put everything back in place."

"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.

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? 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. [Copyright 2022 NPR]

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Here is a classic problem we can all relate to: Isn’t it the worst when you build your mega-yacht SO big that it can’t fit under bridges? Such are the pains of being Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who faces a conundrum about how to get his 417-foot boat, known as Y271, out to open water from the port city of Rotterdam, where it is being built. Standing in the way is the 144-year-old Koningshaven Bridge — known locally as De Hef — which cannot accommodate the three 229-foot masts atop the $485 million vessel.

Of course, infrastructure is nothing to a man like Bezos, and you cannot expect the very rich man to trim his masts, so apparently the only thing to do is remove a section of the bridge to let the ship pass. The shipmaker, Oceanco, appealed to local lawmakers, and last week, a spokesperson for the mayor of Rotterdam confirmed that the bridge’s center section would be temporarily removed, with Bezos picking up the tab.

It turns out, though, that Rotterdam residents are not behind their national monument being dismantled at the whim of a billionaire, and several thousands of them are organizing to throw rotten eggs (or tomatoes, if you care to keep it vegan) at the mega-yacht as it passes through this summer.

“Rotterdam was built from the rubble by Rotterdammers and we don’t just take it apart for the phallus symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire,” reads a statement on a Facebook group for the protest. “Not without a fight.”

The Koningshaven Bridge was built in 1878, and has become a beloved city fixture, surviving a Nazi bombing and undergoing a major renovation that took it out of use from 2014 to 2017. The promise made by city officials to never dismantle the structure again is now in question, and Rotterdammers are ready to raise a literal stink about it.

The group currently shows 4,000 people committed to attend, and another 14,000 interested. Due to the widespread public outcry, it appears that the bridge adjustment is no longer approved , and Y271 may need to find another way to sea. Knowing Jeff Bezos, he’ll probably arrange for thousands of underpaid Amazon workers to drag the yacht overland, with a 48-hour delivery guarantee.

Rotterdam resident Pablo Strörmann takes credit for initiating the protest, which he characterizes as playful pushback against capitalist excess.

“I’m a Rotterdammer and I think people with a lot of money should realize that you can’t do everything,” Störmann told the Dutch publication BN DeStem . “With this call we make our voice heard in a playful way. And I think that is going very well.”

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Jeff Bezos’ $500m superyacht stuck after firm decides against dismantling historic Dutch bridge, says report

The 421ft y721 sailing yacht is being built by oceanco in rotterdam, article bookmarked.

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Jeff Bezos ’ $500m superyacht is stuck after the Dutch firm building it decided against dismantling a historic Rotterdam bridge following a public backlash and threats of an egg-throwing protest, says a report.

The billionaire Amazon founder had offered to pay for the middle section of the decommissioned Koningshavenbrug to be removed so that his monster 412ft sailing yacht, which is named Y721, could reach the ocean from its shipyard.

The yacht, currently the second-largest in the world, cannot get under the “De Hef” bridge without the modification taking place. But the plan has now been cancelled by manufacturer Oceanco after the criticism it faced, according to Dutch news outlet Trouw .

Back in February, it was announced that Oceanco had asked the city to temporarily remove the bridge, which dates from 1878 and was last renovated in 2017.

Marcel Walravens who managed the renovation project, told RTV that it was “not practical” to partially finish the vessel and complete construction elsewhere.

“If you carry out a big job somewhere, you want all your tools in that place. Otherwise, you have to go back and forth constantly. In addition, this is such a large project that there are hardly any locations where this work is finished.”

And he added: “From an economic perspective and maintaining employment, the municipality considers this a very important project. Rotterdam has also been declared the maritime capital of Europe.”

History groups in Rotterdam opposed the works, with thousands of Facebook users signing a petition promising to egg the yacht as it travelled through the city towards the open ocean.

“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 event organiser Pablo Strörmann on the social media platform.

Now, the NL Times reports, Oceanco has “informed the municipality that it is cancelling its current logistical plans.”

Employees at the company “feel threatened and the company fears it will be vandalised”, according to DutchNews.nl

It is unclear how the yacht will now be moved from the construction site to the open water.

The Independent has reached out to Mr Bezos and Oceanco for comment.

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Why Jeff Bezos' superyacht could be egged

A group of disgruntled Rotterdam residents have banded together to tell Jeff Bezos where to stick it, as the Amazon billionaire's yacht prepares to sail into the ancient European city.The Amazon founder's 127m long, three-masted...

Why billionaire’s superyacht could be egged

A group of disgruntled Rotterdam residents have banded together to tell Jeff Bezos where to stick it, as the Amazon billionaire’s yacht prepares to sail into the ancient European city.

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How Hard Would It Be to Hit Jeff Bezos’s Superyacht With a Rotten Egg?

The biggest athletic event of the year is not, in fact, the Beijing Olympics (too international; dystopian COVID-19 vibes too heavy), but rather a mass stinky egging planned for this summer in the Netherlands. A group of residents in Rotterdam has put out a call to throw rotten eggs at Jeff Bezos’s superyacht when it passes through the city’s river in June. The event, succinctly titled “Throwing eggs at superyacht Jeff Bezos,” is a response to reports that the city is considering a plan to dismantle the historic Koningshaven Bridge (known as “De Hef,” which means “the lever”) to allow Bezos’s $500 million, and apparently very tall, new superyacht to take to the sea.

The event itself has gotten considerable media attention, but a more pressing question has been left unexamined: How hard would it be to hit Jeff Bezos’s superyacht with a rotten egg?

An egg is tiny, full of yolk treasure. Bezos’s superyacht is enormous — reportedly 417 feet in length, it will be the world’s largest , according to the boat experts over at Boat International — and full of egg-shaped trash (Bezos’s head). Is nailing it with a projectile really that simple?

A study by Yale and Harvard researchers on “optimal strategies for throwing accurately” frames the undertaking — throwing in general, not egging Jeff Bezos — quite beautifully: “The ability to throw fast and accurately is quintessentially human, and a seemingly complex task.” Those attempting the quintessentially human (but complex) task of throwing an egg at Bezos’s superyacht might want to follow its guidance. Speed, it suggests, might be the enemy of precision: “What we find is that almost the slowest arc is often the most accurate,” lead author Madhusudhan Venkadesan said . “We’ve compared these calculations to published data of people throwing into wastebaskets; we’ve compared it to a study on dart throwing.” Venkadesan went on to note that people’s natural throws are often quite close to mathematically optimal methods — so if in doubt, those throwing rotten eggs at Bezos’s superyacht should just do what feels right.

WikiHow’s guidance on how to throw a baseball recommends a 45-degree arc and practicing a long toss for at least 15 minutes a day. Bezos’s yacht is not set to be moved downstream until June, so interested egg-throwers would have sufficient time to prepare. Knowing the direction of the wind is also crucial: In an article about baseball conditions, Alan Nathan, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Illinois, told Popular Science that “a five-mile-an-hour wind that’s blowing out will increase the carry of a fly ball by like 18 or 20 feet.”

Here’s another point of data for consideration: The Guinness world record for throwing and catching a fresh hen’s egg in 1978 was 323 feet. The Privilege One , a comparably giant motor yacht set to be delivered in 2023, is about 72 feet wide. By a rough estimate on Google Maps, the Koningshaven, at the point in question, is about 468 feet across, plus another 40 feet up to the sidewalk along the riverbank. So an egg would have to travel about 238 feet to hit the hull. A difficult, but not impossible, feat. Dream big, my throwers — Bezos’s yacht may well be within reach.

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The best pictures of Koru

In 2022, the 125.8-metre sailing yacht Koru made history when she hit the water at Oceanco ’s Alblasserdam facilities. Now successfully delivered, she is the flagship of the Oceanco fleet and the largest Dutch-built yacht in the world. 

BOAT rounds up the best pictures of the three-masted sailing yacht owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos...

Koru unable to dock in Florida

Koru arrived at Port Everglades, Florida in November 2023 following a months-long Mediterranean cruise that included stopovers in Dubrovnik, Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer and Calabria (according to BOATPro ). The sailing yacht was too large to anchor in the nearby marina, which has a maximum capacity of 121.9 metres. She was photographed instead docking next to a 297-metre cruise ship named Rhapsody of the Seas .

Koru's helicopter landing

Last summer, Koru was spotted in the French Riveria alongside her 75-metre support vessel Abeona . Delivered by Damen Yachting two months before the mothership, Abeona is equipped with a helipad and hangar for a D14 value helicopter– which is clearly being put to good use. Accommodation is for up to 45 people onboard Bezos' support vessel, including crew, guests and other specialist staff.

Koru in Portofino

Koru and Abeona also travelled to Portofino in the summer of 2023, with both Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez sighted enjoying lunch and taking photographs while on board. 

Koru's figurehead

Throughout construction, it was difficult to get a glimpse of the details on board Koru ; but once handed over, all of her traditional features could be admired up close. As well as the intricate gold paintwork and scarlet bootstripe, the yacht also features an elaborate figurehead made of polished wood. The woman is wearing a necklace with a symbol in the pendant, which some have speculated could be the Māori symbol meaning "koru".

Koru in front of Palma Cathedral

After delivery, the schooner spent some time enjoying the waters of Mallorca. The Balearic hotspot is a magnet for superyachts during the Mediterranean season, but Koru had the quiet anchorage largely to herself after leaving the Oceanco shipyard. Her classic lines could be appreciated in all of their glory against the backdrop of Palma Cathedral. 

Koru delivered to Mallorca

In April 2023. Koru was delivered and undertook her maiden voyage from the Netherlands to Gibraltar. She then headed onwards to Palma, giving the world a first glimpse of her cascading aft decks, mighty masts and elaborate aft deck pool arrangement. She was flying solo in Mallorca, but was later joined by support vessel Abeona .

Koru in Gibraltar

Following her successful sea trials in Rotterdam, Koru embarked on journey to Palma, Mallorca that involved an overnight anchorage in Gibraltar. The sailing yacht was sighted passing through the Strait of Gibraltar a second time on her cross-continental journey from the Mediterranean to the USA in November 2023.

Koru on sea trials

Koru was spotted departing from Rotterdam in the early morning light of February 13 to begin sea trials. The 125.8-metre Oceanco set sail across the North Sea to put her performance to the test after hitting the water for the first time in August 2022. The traditional three-masted schooner yacht has a midnight blue hull, traditional canoe stern and the unique addition of a chair at the very tip of the bowsprit. Her name represents the idea of life’s perpetual movement and is a Māori word closely related to that of an unfurling leaf.

Koru with her masts stepped

The yacht was seen for the first time in her final form on the dock in the Port of Rotterdam. Her trio of masts was stepped here to avoid having to dismantle any bridges to allow the Oceanco giant yacht to pass under. The maximum height of the bridge is 70 metres; the masts on Koru are thought to measure between 65 and 85 metres. The first images of Koru indicate the yacht will have plenty of features for her owner to enjoy, including an aft deck pool and a large, uncluttered sundeck.

Koru launched

The 125.8-metre yacht was moved from Oceanco’s primary facilities at the crack of dawn to enter the final stages of construction. The hull was transported via Dordrecht and Spijkenisse (Oude Maas), and her masts were transported separately via the slightly shorter Rotterdam Centre (Nieuwe Maas).

Koru moves through the Dutch canals

Before she hit the water, the hull of Koru was loaded onto a transport vessel and she made the journey through the Dutch canals for further construction work. The yacht was captured against the backdrop of the quaint Dutch countryside, revealing her classic-looking lines and long rows of windows.

Koru from a bird's eye view

As she was wheeled out of the shed into the light of day, yacht-spotters were able to get their first proper aerial shot of the yacht, without her masts. 

Koru rolls out of the shed

When Oceanco completed the work on the hull, the yacht was rolled out of the shed to reveal a crisp navy hull and white superstructure. Koru ’s exterior design immediately drew a comparison to Lürssen’s 93-metre sailing yacht Eos , which was designed by US-based Langan Design . This was the world’s first sighting of the already iconic superyacht.

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Jeff Bezos' $500M Superyacht Relocated After Bridge Controversy, Avoids Getting Egged In Process

Zinger key points.

• An unfinished $500 million yacht being built for Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos has been towed away.
• The yacht was the subject of unrest from locals over a previous decision to take apart a bridge to let the ship pass through.

An unfinished mega yacht belonging to the world’s second-richest man has made its way out of the shipbuilding yard in the Netherlands after being the target of threats. Here’s why the ship was moved and where it went.

What Happened: An unfinished $500 million yacht being built for Amazon.com Inc AMZN founder Jeff Bezos has been towed away from the Oceanco shipyard in Alblasserdam.

Benzinga previously reported the superyacht was stuck in a Dutch city after it was revealed it wouldn’t be able to fit through a passageway after being built due to being too large. A historic bridge was going to be dismantled to help the ship get through.

The New York Post is reporting the yacht was relocated to the Oceanco shipyard in Greenport, located 24 miles away.

The superyacht is 417 feet long and has the name “Y721” currently.

The YouTube channel Dutch Yachting has video of the vessel being towed, which can be viewed below. Yacht enthusiast Hanco Bol who owns the channel wrote of the towing.

“We never saw a transport going that fast,” Bol said. “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.”

Bol said Oceanco, the company making the yacht, could have chosen to make the quick move due to the publicity surrounding the big name of Bezos.

Related Link: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Jeff Bezos 

Why It’s Important: Bezos' superyacht became the subject of criticism from local residents as the city agreed to temporarily dismantle the historic Koningshaven Bridge, also known as “De Hef.”

The bridge decision led to threats from locals that they would throw eggs at the yacht if the landmark bridge was dismantled.

“De Hef” is over 150 years old and has a 130-foot clearance. The bridge was refurbished in 2017 and has gained landmark status and serves as a national monument after being bombed during World War II.

Oceanco withdrew the request for the city council to temporarily dismantle the bridge after the public push back.

Coincidentally, the towing of the superyacht avoided going underneath “De Hef,” even though it would have saved time, Bol said.

“I think that was intentional,” Bol said.

The unfinished superyacht is set to be one of the biggest in the world and will be owned by Bezos, the world’s second-richest man with a wealth of $165 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Photo: Created with an image from  Steve Jurvetson  on Flickr

© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Jeff Bezos vs the bridge: Rotterdam’s dilemma over billionaire’s superyacht

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The Country That Wants to ‘Be Average’ vs. Jeff Bezos and His $500 Million Yacht

Why did Rotterdam stand between one of the world’s richest men and his boat? The furious response is rooted in Dutch values.

By David Segal

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — The image would have been a social media phenomenon: a few thousand citizens of the Netherlands’ second-largest city, standing beside a river and hurling eggs at the gleaming, new 417-foot sailing yacht built for Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and one of the world’s richest men. By the time the boat passed the crowd, it would have been spattered with bright orange yolk, plus at least one very bright spot of red.

“I would have thrown a tomato,” said Stefan Lewis, a former City Council member. “I eat mostly vegan.”

One recent afternoon, Mr. Lewis was standing near the Hef, as the Koningshaven Bridge is affectionately known, and explaining the anger that Mr. Bezos and Oceanco, the maker of the three-masted, $500 million schooner, inspired after making what may have sounded like a fairly benign request. The company asked the local government to briefly dismantle the elevated middle span of the Hef, which is 230 feet tall at its highest point, allowing the vessel to sail down the King’s Harbor channel and out to sea. The whole process would have taken a day or two and Oceanco would have covered the costs.

Also worth noting: The bridge, a lattice of moss-green steel in the shape of a hulking “H,” is not actually used by anyone. It served as a railroad bridge for decades until it was replaced by a tunnel and decommissioned in the early 1990s. It’s been idle ever since.

In sum, the operation would have been fast, free and disrupted nothing. So why the fuss?

“There’s a principle at stake,” said Mr. Lewis, a tall, bearded 37-year-old who was leaning against his bike and toggling during an interview between wry humor and indignation. He then framed the principle with a series of questions. “What can you buy if you have unlimited cash? Can you bend every rule? Can you take apart monuments?”

In late June, the city’s vice mayor reported that Oceanco had withdrawn its request to dismantle the Hef, a retreat that was portrayed as a victory of the masses over a billionaire, though it was much more than that. It was an opportunity to see Dutch and American values in a fiery, head-on collision. The more you know about the Netherlands — with its preference for modesty over extravagance, for the community over the individual, for fitting in rather than standing out — the more it seems as though this kerfuffle was scripted by someone whose goal was to drive people here out of their minds.

The first problem was the astounding wealth of Mr. Bezos.

“The Dutch like to say, ‘Acting normal is crazy enough,’” said Ellen Verkoelen, a City Council member and Rotterdam leader of the 50Plus Party, which works on behalf of pensioners. “And we think that rich people are not acting normal. Here in Holland, we don’t believe that everybody can be rich the way people do in America, where the sky is the limit. We think ‘Be average.’ That’s good enough.”

Ms. Verkoelen was among those who considered Oceanco’s request a reasonable concession to a company in a highly competitive industry. But she heard from dozens of infuriated voters, all of them adamantly opposed. She understood the origins of the fervor, which she illustrated with a story from her childhood.

“When I was about 11 years old, we had an American boy stay with us for a week, an exchange student,” she recalled. “And my mother told him, just make your own sandwich like you do in America. Instead of putting one sausage on his bread, he put on five. My mother was too polite to say anything to him, but to me she said in Dutch, ‘We will never eat like that in this house.’”

At school, Ms. Verkoelen learned from friends that the American children in their homes all ate the same way. They were stunned and a little jealous. At the time, it was said in the Netherlands that putting both butter and cheese on your bread was “the devil’s sandwich.” Choose one, went the thinking. You don’t need both.

Building the earth’s biggest sailing yacht and taking apart a city’s beloved landmark? That’s the devil’s all-you-can-eat buffet.

The streak of austerity in Dutch culture can be traced to Calvinism, say residents, the most popular religious branch of Protestantism here for hundreds of years. It emphasizes virtues like self-discipline, frugality and conscientiousness. Polls suggest that most people in the Netherlands today are not churchgoers, but the norms are embedded, as evidenced by Dutch attitudes toward wealth.

“Calvin teaches that you’re given stewardship over your money, that you have a responsibility to take care of it, which means giving lots of it away, being generous to others,” said James Kennedy, a professor of modern Dutch history at Utrecht University. “Work is a divine calling for which you will be held accountable. It’s considered bad for society and bad for your soul if you spend in ostentatious ways.”

There are billionaires in the Netherlands and a huge pay gap between chief executives and employees. Statista, a research firm, reported that for every dollar earned by an average worker, C.E.O.s earned $171. (The figure is $265 in the United States, the widest gap of any country.) The difference is that the rich in the Netherlands don’t flaunt it, just as the powerful don’t highlight their cachet. The Dutch once ran one of the world’s largest empires but there’s a certain pride here that the prime minister of the country rides a bicycle to pay visits to the king — yes, the Netherlands has a royal family, which is also relatively low-key — and locks the bicycle outside the palace.

There’s a premium on equality that has survived the country’s struggles to assimilate immigrants and a gentrification boom that is pricing the middle- and working-class out of cities. An ethos endures that nobody is any better than anyone else, or deserves more, and it stems from an unignorable geographic fact. Roughly one-third of the Netherlands is below sea level and citizens for centuries have had little choice but to band together to create an infrastructure of dikes and drainage systems to remain alive.

“The Netherlands is built on cooperation,” said Paul van de Laar, a professor of history at Erasmus University. “There were constant threats of disaster from the 15th and 16th century. Protestants and Catholics knew that to survive, they could not quarrel too much.”

Chip in. Blend in. Help others. These are among the highest ideals of the Netherlands. Does this sound like a country eager to cut some slack to a man with $140 billion and a $500 million boat?

It didn’t help that Dutch critics of Mr. Bezos believe that employees at Amazon are underpaid, which, given his fortune, strikes them as not just grotesquely unfair but immoral. “He doesn’t pay his taxes,” is a common refrain in this city, and it doesn’t mean that Mr. Bezos is considered a tax cheat. It means that he isn’t fighting inequality by sharing his money, an obligation that transcends the tax code.

(Emails to Amazon were not returned. Mr. Bezos did not respond to a ProPublica article last year, based on leaked Internal Revenue Service files, that showed he paid a tiny percent of his fortune in federal income taxes, using perfectly legal methods.)

The Rotterdam vs. Bezos brawl first made international headlines in February, when news broke that Oceanco had been granted city approval to briefly take apart the middle of the Hef. (The cost of this operation was never made public.) The assent had come from a civil servant who apparently didn’t see the harm. An uproar ensued.

“I thought it was a joke,” said Mr. Lewis, who learned about the permission on Facebook from incredulous friends. “So I called the vice mayor’s office and asked, ‘Is this for real?’ And they said, ‘We don’t know anything about this.’ It wasn’t on their radar. It took them a day to get back to me.”

When word of the accommodation reached the public, fuming residents became a staple of local TV news and a Facebook group formed to organize that mass egg pelting. (“Dismantling the Hef for Jeff Bezos’ latest toy? Come throw eggs…”) One aggrieved council member soon likened the masts of the yacht to a giant middle finger, pointed at the city.

Oceanco, which employs more than 300 people, has not spoken publicly about its decision to rescind its Hef request and did not respond to an email for comment. News reports stated that the company was concerned about threats against employees and about vandalism.

It’s unclear how the yacht, now known as Y721, will be completed. In February, the City Council’s municipality liaison, Marcel Walravens, was quoted in the media saying that it was impractical to float the mast-less yacht to another location and finish it there.

To Professor van de Laar, the real villain in this tale is not Oceanco or Mr. Bezos, who probably had never heard of the Hef. It’s the City Council, which completely misunderstood the depth of feelings about the bridge and bungled the messaging about its decision.

“Emotions are important,” he said. “The council didn’t grasp that, which is incredibly stupid.”

The issue wasn’t just this particular billionaire and this particular yacht. It was this particular bridge. To outsiders, the Hef looks like an ungainly industrial workhorse that no longer works.

That’s not what locals see. When opened in 1927 it was considered an architectural marvel, one celebrated by the Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens, in his 1928 film “The Bridge.”

“There are poems about the Hef,” said Arij De Boode, co-author of “The Hef: Biography of a Railroad Bridge.” “Anyone who makes a movie about Rotterdam includes the Hef. It’s more than a bridge.”

Rotterdam is one of the few European cities in which nearly all the buildings, both commercial and residential, are new because the place was bombed to devastating effect by the Nazis in World War II. It turned this into a city of the future, always looking ahead, tearing down whatever doesn’t work or isn’t needed.

Except for the Hef. It has become the city’s most recognizable landmark. After the war, it became a symbol of resilience and to locals of an older generation, the Hef is a rare link to the past.

When there was talk decades ago of tearing it down, residents protested. It was declared a national monument in 2000 and underwent a three-year restoration that ended in 2017. Today, the Hef stands as a triumph of function over form that no longer functions, a monolith that can’t be altered, even temporarily — no matter who asks, no matter the price.

David Segal is a Business section reporter based in London. More about David Segal

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The Dutch company building Jeff Bezos' megayacht scrapped its request to take apart a historic bridge following public outcry and threats to egg the ship

• The shipbuilder behind Jeff Bezos' megayacht has scrapped plans to dismantle a historic bridge.
• Bezos' yacht was too tall to pass underneath the bridge, but public outcry halted the plans. 
• The company worried locals would vandalize the ship as it passed by, Dutch newspaper Trouw reported.

The Dutch shipbuilder constructing Jeff Bezos' megayacht scrapped its request that a historic bridge be dismantled to accommodate the Amazon founder's vessel. 

Oceanco, a Netherlands-based custom yacht builder, informed the city of Rotterdam that it would no longer be requesting a permit to remove the center portion of the Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as De Hef, to allow Bezos' yacht to reach the North Sea. That is according to a letter written by a city official and translated from Dutch to English using Google Translate. 

While the city didn't rule out the possibility of a future permit to dismantle the bridge, Oceanco isn't going forward with the plan for the time being, the letter says.

It seems that Oceanco may have abandoned its plans to take apart the bridge following public outcry earlier this year. Dutch newspaper Trouw obtained documents from the city through a freedom of information request that showed the shipbuilder was taken aback by the uproar and had opted to drop its plans. 

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

It's unclear how the yacht will now be transported if it doesn't fit under the bridge, though Trouw reports that Oceanco could choose to finish it at a shipyard closer to the sea.

The company did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

Related stories

A $500 million megayacht.

Bezos' yacht saga began back in February, when  Dutch broadcaster Rijnmond reported that the 417-foot vessel would need to pass through Rotterdam — and underneath De Hef — on its way out to sea.

But Bezos' ship appears to be sail-assisted, which means it has three large masts, masts that are too tall to pass underneath the bridge despite its clearance of over 131 feet. The shipbuilder's solution was to temporarily remove the center portion of the bridge, then replace it once the vessel passed through. 

Frances van Heijst, a spokesperson for the municipality of Rotterdam, confirmed to Insider at the time that the city is able to grant permission to the maritime sector to take a ship to sea. But van Heijst told the Washington Post that the city would not pay to dismantle the bridge and reassemble it — that cost would fall to Oceanco.

Objections to the plan were swift. Locals began organizing an event on Facebook to throw rotten eggs at the yacht when it passed by, describing Bezos as a "megalomaniac billionaire." 

The existence of Bezos' megayacht was  first reported in Brad Stone's book , "Amazon Unbound," in May 2021. Photos and videos published last October showed the yacht in a shipyard in Zwijndrecht, Netherlands — though the vessel was clearly unfinished, it appeared to have a black hull and multiple, massive decks.

Currently known only as Y721, the yacht is predicted to cost $500 million and is expected to be "one of the finest sailing yachts in existence," Stone reported.

Watch: Jeff Bezos on regulating giant tech companies: 'I expect us to be scrutinized'

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An inside look at jeff bezos’ $500 million superyacht and what it costs to keep it afloat.

Cliché but true, the second-richest man on the planet, according to Forbes , owns the tallest sailing yacht in the world . In fact, the 417-foot Koru is so big, it has its own 250-foot support vessel .

Priced at $500 million, the Koru hit the sea for the first time in 2023 and has since ferried Jeff Bezos and company around the globe. Complete with three massive 229-foot masts, it can reach a top speed under sail of 20 knots, according to the New York Post — which is approximately 23 miles per hour.

Made for a group, up to 18 guests can set sail on the yacht, allowing Bezos to bring family and friends on vacation with him. Here’s a look at the Koru’s extravagant features and how much it costs to operate his floating mansion.

Also take a look at Bezos’ mansion collection.

See More: Robert Kiyosaki: 7 Ways To Become Wealthy Beyond the 9-to-5

Read Next: 4 Genius Things All Wealthy People Do With Their Money

Wealthy people know the best money secrets. Learn how to copy them .

Key Features

As expected Bezos’ yacht is dripping with luxury. With a net worth of $203.8 billion — as of May 4, 2024, according to Forbes — he can afford to outfit the Koru with nothing but the best and he did just that.

The superyacht has three outdoor decks, with two containing swimming pools, according to the New York Post. It also features a cinema, several lounges and multiple business areas, according to Luxuo .

Highly personalized, the yacht is complete with a figurehead modeled after Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez. Even its masts are luxurious, as the Amazon founder chose in-boom furlers, which keep the canvases at the bottom of the mast above the deck, creating a pristine and spacious rope-free deck.

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Support Vessel

One of the most shocking features of the Koru is the fact that it requires its own support vessel. The $75 million Abeona features a helipad that Sanchez has been spotted using to park her personal helicopter, according to the New York Post.

Designed to carry extra gear, four jet skis, two fast launches and a dinghy were spotted on the Abeona during a 2023 trip to Mallorca, Spain, according to the New York Post. It’s also capable of lifting a small submarine, but Bezos isn’t believed to own one — at least not yet.

Additionally, the support ship has two extra staterooms, which can accommodate four guests. This could come in handy if Bezos wants to entertain a larger group than can fit on the Koru.

On-Board Crew

It probably isn’t a surprise that operating both the Koru and the Abeona is no small task. From staff to drive the boats and maintain them to caring for guests onboard, Bezos needs a small army at sea.

The Koru has a crew of up to 36 people, according to The New York Post. If you think that’s a lot, the Abeona requires up to 45 crew and support staff.

Annual Operating Costs

Purchasing the Koru and Abeona cost Bezos more than half a billion dollars, but his expenses didn’t end there. As you might imagine, the annual cost to maintain a superyacht and its own enormous supporting yacht is more than most people earn in a lifetime.

The Koru costs approximately $25 million in operating expenses per year, according to the Daily Mail . Much less, but still sky-high, Bezos spends around $5 to $10 million on annual maintenance costs for the Abeona, according to Super Yacht Fan ).

When their owners are on dry land, yachts have to find a parking space. However, even this doesn’t always come cheap for Bezos and the Koru.

In November 2023, the billionaire’s yacht arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but was too big to fit in the port with all the outer superyachts, according to the Daily Mail. Therefore, it had to be docked with cruise ships at Port Everglades, at a rate of $16,500 per week.

While one week of storage might be more than the average person can afford, picking up the tab for any number of weeks would clearly be no issue for Bezos. While his superyacht and the many expenses surrounding it are clearly astronomical, he’s still living well within his budget.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : An Inside Look at Jeff Bezos’ $500 Million Superyacht and What It Costs To Keep It Afloat

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8 Fascinating Facts About ‘Koru,’ Jeff Bezos’s Bonkers 410-Foot Sailing Superyacht

From its 250-foot support tender to its voluptuous wooden figurehead, the amazon founder's $500 million superyacht is full of surprises., howard walker, howard walker's most recent stories.

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According to the latest Forbes ‘s Real-Time Billionaires List, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is currently worth around $204 billion, making him the second-wealthiest person on the planet, just behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk .

So handing over an estimated $500 million for his 410-foot Koru , the world’s largest sailing yacht , another $75 million for Abeona , its 250-foot support vessel, and then paying the $30 million or so a year to cover running costs for both, should be well within his budget.

Bezos surprised the boating world when he opted for a classically styled, three-masted sailing yacht instead of some flashy mega motoryacht. What’s more it has a buxom wooden sculpture on the forepeak, typical of 19th-century sailing vessels. And since taking delivery last year, he and his fiancé, Lauren Sánchez, have been using the yacht to cruise the world in style.

While secrecy still shrouds Koru , especially its interior and many of its technical features, we take a closer look at what makes it, arguably, the most interesting sailing superyacht in years.

Designed as a Modern Classic

Koru would never be described as sleek, or elegant even. But she does have a classical style. Designed by the Dutch masters at Dykstra Naval Architecture, the boat is distinguished by its towering navy-blue steel hull, snowy-white, two-level aluminum superstructure, sweeping canoe stern, and a trio of soaring masts. Her design inspiration is said to be the triple-masted schooner Eos , built by Germany’s Lürssen Yachts in 2006 for American media mogul Barry Diller. And, ignoring the current trend of oversized windows, Koru ‘s hull sides are dotted with traditional portholes with smaller-than typical windows for the upper decks (no doubt helping to protect guests from paparazzi lenses). Little is known about the yacht’s interior design, other than it’s the work of London-based Mlinaric, Henry and Zervudachi studio. Oceanco’s website describes the interior as a “timeless, contemporary style, with natural wood tones complemented by a palette of warm neutrals and beautifully patterned textiles.”

Claiming the Prize for Size

At 410 feet bow to stern and with a beam of 56 feet, Koru is the largest sailing yacht in the world. Some might argue the title should go to the 468-foot Sailing Yacht A . But that quirky, Philippe Stark–designed triple-master is considered a “sail-assisted motoryacht” rather than a true sailing yacht. Koru is also big inside, with a reported internal volume of 3,300 gross T=tons, that offers room for up to 18 guests in nine cabins and accommodations for a crew of 36.

A True Sailor

Full credit to Jeff Bezos for ignoring his fellow billionaires’ penchant for giant, diesel-guzzling superyachts. (Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently took delivery of his 387-foot Launchpad , powered by quadruple MTU engines packing a combined 23,400 hp.) With its giant, more-than-20,000-square-foot sail plan (including three mainsails and three, cutter-style headsails), Koru has been regularly photographed cruising under sail. It’s also believed the yacht is making an effort to focus on sustainability, from reports of it testing out a prototype kinetic energy recovery system that converts wave-induced motion into electrical energy. The vessel is also believed to feature a hybrid power system with large battery banks that run its systems at night while at anchor.

Its 250-Foot, $75 Million “Tender”

The challenge with sailing yachts, even one that’s 410 feet long, is that it’s nearly impossible to land a helicopter on the deck. So Bezos commissioned a 250-foot support vessel, named Abeona after the Roman goddess of travelers. The largest shadow vessel ever built by Holland’s Damen Yachting, this explorer comes with a rear-deck helipad and hangar big enough to accommodate an Airbus ACH-135 helicopter. There’s also space aboard for a small armada of water toys and tenders, plus accommodations below decks for up to 45 crew and support staff.

Built Under Total Secrecy

Tasked with taking Koru from concept to reality was the superyacht builder Oceanco, based south of Rotterdam in Alblasserdam, Holland. The famed yard, owned by billionaire Mohammed Al Barwani, who also owns Turquoise Yachts in Turkey, recently completed Steven Spielberg’s new 357-foot superyacht Seven Sea s, and the similar-sized Bravo Eugenia , launched in 2018 for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Koru was reportedly first commissioned in 2018 as Project Y721 and delivered to the Amazon founder in Gibraltar in April 2023.

What’s in a Name?

While a betting person might have predicted that Bezos would have given his sailing yacht a more Amazon-connected name, like Prime, Deliverance, or even Blue Origin after his space company, he picked Koru . The name is said to be Maori for “loop” or “coil” and resembles the spiral shape of an unfurling silver fern frond. It’s said to be an integral symbol of New Zealand Maori art that symbolizes new life and new beginnings. Look closely at the wooden figurehead on Koru ‘s bow and the necklace around the woman’s neck features a pendant shaped like the koru symbol.

A Bridge Too Far

As Koru was nearing completion in 2021, word got out that builder Oceanco had approached the city of Rotterdam in Holland, offering to pay for the partial disassembly of the historic 97-year-old Koningshaven lift-bridge, which was too low for the yacht with its triple 230-foot masts in place, to pass under on its way to the North Sea. The city reportedly consented, but the move resulted in a huge public outcry with threats to plaster Koru with eggs as it passed through the bridge. Oceanco withdrew its application and instead towed the yacht to Rotterdam’s Greenport shipyard west of the city, transported the masts by barge, and installed them there.

The Places You’ll Go

Hot on the heels of Koru ‘s handover in Gibraltar in April last year, the superyacht has seemingly been cruising non-stop. It was spotted exploring Spain’s Balearic Islands, anchored off Cannes during the film festival, and moored at celebrity hot spots like Saint-Tropez, Capri, Portofino, and Porto Cervo, Sardinia. Bezos reportedly proposed to Sánchez on the bow of Koru off Cannes in May last year, followed by an engagement party aboard in Positano, Italy with a guest list that included Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kris Jenner, Toby Maguire, and Queen Rania of Jordan. Then Koru cruised the 4,000-plus miles across the Atlantic to Fort Lauderdale for a re-fuel and re-supply before heading to the Caribbean for winter cruising. This summer it was back to the Mediterranean for more island-hopping.

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Larry Ellison, the Chairman of a Rs 4 lakh Crore software company, has surpassed Jeff Bezos to become the second-richest person in the world. Find out about his staggering net worth, assets & more

Larry Ellison, the co-founder and chairman of software company Oracle Corporation, is the second- richest person in the world. According to CNBC, The Economic Times and other reports, the shares of Oracle surged by 20 per cent in September, propelling Ellison's personal wealth by $8.1 billion (approximately Rs 67,798 crore) to a total of $206 billion (approximately Rs 17,24,268 crore). The American businessman- entrepreneur surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos , who has a net worth of $203 billion (approximately Rs 16,99,193 crore), to secure the second rank on the Forbes richest list.

According to CNBC , Oracle’s wealth jumped due to the software company's role in the artificial intelligence boom. Below, we take a look at Larry Ellison's early life, education, career achievements and more.

Early life and education Ellison was born on August 17, 1944, in New York City . After attending South Shore High School in Chicago, Larry Ellison enrolled in University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. However, he dropped out of medicine after his sophomore year due to the demise of his adoptive mother. In 1966, he studied physics and mathematics at the University of Chicago, where he was introduced to computer design. He then moved to Berkeley, California , where he began his career as a programmer.

After a short stint with Amdahl Corporation, Ellison joined Ampex Corporation, where he worked on a project for the CIA, named Oracle. In 1977, he went on to launch his own company with an investment of $2,000 (approximately Rs 1,67,408), named Software Development Laboratories (SDL), with two partners. A few years later, they renamed the company Relational Software Inc. In 1979, he rolled out a version of Oracle Database and changed the company to Oracle Systems Corporation.

When Oracle bought NetSuite for $9.3 billion (approximately Rs 77,844 crore), Ellison owned 35 per cent of the latter, which helped him add $3.5 billion (approximately Rs 29,296 crore) to his personal wealth. In 2018, Ellison joined Tesla's board of directors after acquiring 3 million shares. However, he left the Elon Musk -owned company in 2022. But he still owned 1.4 per cent shares of Tesla, along with 42.9 per cent shares of Oracle Corporation.

Besides running a successful software company, Larry Ellison has also been actively involved in sports, such as Tennis and Yachting. According to Business Insider , the Oracle founder owns a yacht-racing team. He also owns a 288-foot-long yacht named Musashi. He has also invested his wealth in aircrafts, owning two military jets — a Soviet MiG-29 and an Italian Air Force SIAI-Marchetti S.211. Ellison's vast real estate portfolio includes Lanai, an island in Hawaii, a luxurious property in Japan and an expensive home in Silicon Valley, according to the same report.

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Lauren Sanchez reacts to ring bearer offer for wedding with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos

Lauren sanchez excitedly spoke about marrying amazon billionaire jeff bezos, sharing her joy about their relationship and their upcoming wedding..

Lauren Sanchez, former entertainment journalist and helicopter pilot, is eagerly awaiting her wedding to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In an interview with Extra on Monday, Sanchez expressed her excitement about tying the knot with Bezos, saying she is “most excited” to “get to marry the man of (her) dreams.”

(Also read: Lauren Sanchez posts heartwarming video to celebrate Jeff Bezos’ birthday )

Excitement for marriage

Sanchez, 54, couldn’t contain her enthusiasm as she discussed her upcoming nuptials. “He’s amazing. I get to spend the rest of my life with him, and he loves my kids. That’s what I’m most looking forward to,” she shared. The helicopter pilot has three children: son Nikko, 23, with her ex Tony Gonzalez, and two children, Evan, 18, and Ella, 16, with her ex-husband Patrick Whitesell.

She and Bezos, 60, have been publicly dating since 2019, with the Amazon founder proposing four years later. Sanchez recounted the proposal to Vogue in November 2023, sharing how she was momentarily overwhelmed when Bezos presented her with a cushion-cut diamond ring. “When he opened the box, I think I blacked out a bit,” she admitted.

(Also read: Jeff Bezos still using homemade desk from Amazon’s early days, Lauren Sanchez shares pic )

Lauren Sanchez on wedding details

Despite their plans, the couple is still deciding on wedding details. “We’re still thinking about it. Is it going to be big? Overseas? We don’t know yet,” Sanchez told Extra. She did mention that she has been focused on the release of her children’s book, The Fly Who Flew to Space, but plans to “get to the wedding soon.”

During her chat with Extra host Billy Bush, a light-hearted moment ensued when Bush jokingly offered to be the ring bearer. Sanchez, amused, responded, “Oh, that’s good. That’s good. I was looking for one.”

No specifics about the wedding’s date or location have been revealed yet, but Sanchez’s excitement is palpable. Bezos, previously married to MacKenzie Scott, has three children with his ex-wife. The couple’s blended family, which Sanchez affectionately calls the “Brady Bunch,” spends regular time together. “On a typical Saturday, we hang out and have dinner with the kids. You never know where the conversation is going to go,” she remarked during an interview with WSJ. Magazine .

A mega-yacht and a dazzling ring

Earlier in 2023, Sanchez and Bezos made headlines as they sailed across Europe on their mega-yacht, Koru. While the paparazzi were fixated on the power couple, it was Sanchez’s spectacular engagement ring that frequently stole the limelight. The ring, featuring a reportedly 20-carat pink diamond, generated significant buzz. Although neither Bezos, 60, nor Sanchez, 54, disclosed specifics, friends of the couple confirmed the engagement to various entertainment outlets. They also hosted an engagement celebration aboard their $500 million yacht, which saw high-profile guests such as Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Queen Rania of Jordan in attendance.

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