Rotterdam locals threatened to egg Jeff Bezos’ $485 million yacht in 2022 after its builder asked to take apart a historic bridge to get it out to sea.
Most superyacht problems can be solved with money. In Rotterdam in 2022, Jeff Bezos’ couldn’t.
His new sailing yacht, now known as Koru, was built by Oceanco with three masts about 40 meters tall, too much for the Koningshaven Bridge, which dates from 1878, Marine Industry News reported.
The answer, it seemed, was to temporarily take the bridge apart. Oceanco asked the city, with the company and the billionaire offering to pay for the work.
The City Had Already Made a Promise
There was just one problem. Locals call it De Hef, and after a 2017 renovation, the council promised it wouldn’t be taken apart again, Dutch media reported.
Locals noticed. Threats of a crowd pelting the yacht with eggs spread quickly.
De Hef, the 1878 railway bridge that stood between Jeff Bezos’ yacht and the sea. Image Credit: FaceMePLS via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Oceanco Backs Down
Dutch newspaper Trouw then reported that Oceanco had told the city it was canceling the plan, at least for the time being.
The builder was reportedly shocked by the public reaction, with shipyard employees feeling threatened and the company fearing vandalism. The city cited those threats as a reason for keeping some related documents private, the paper found.
The yacht’s cost has been reported at anywhere from about $485 million to more than $600 million. Whichever number is right, it turned out to be less persuasive than a promise of rotten eggs.
The yacht did eventually leave. Business Insider later reported that it was quietly towed from the shipyard.
So a man who owns a rocket company couldn’t get his boat past a bridge from the 1870s, at least not the way he’d planned.