Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ luxury yacht is said to have made its first trip through Rotterdam early on Tuesday, as reported by “Spiegel”. The aim of the transfer is said to have been the transfer to another shipyard.
As Hanco Bol from the Dutch yacht fan club “Dutch Yachting” told Der Spiegel, preparations for the first trip are said to have started at 1 a.m., while the transport is said to have started two hours later at 3 a.m.
With a three-hour journey, the mega yacht “Y721” was transferred extraordinarily quickly, according to Bol. Normally, a transport on this route would take almost twice as long.
The still unfinished yacht was pulled through the canals of the city of Rotterdam to the Greenport shipyard at dawn, as the “Spiegel” further reports. In shipbuilding it is common for yachts to return to a shipyard after being tested at sea so that the necessary adjustments to the ship can be made.
Had Bezos’ yacht, which still has no masts, been towed straight through Koningshaven, she could have reached her new spot much faster, Bol said.
In this case, however, the journey would have passed right through the center of Rotterdam and the yacht would have had to pass the historic Koningshaven Bridge. This bridge with the popular name “De Hef” had already hit the headlines in advance.
Originally it was planned to tow the sailing yacht directly onto the open sea. However, the 46 meter high Koningshaven Bridge got in the way of this route. Therefore, the almost 100-year-old structure of the luxury yacht should at least partially give way, namely the movable middle section of the bridge should be temporarily dismantled.
However, the plan was made without the people of Rotterdam: there were various calls on social media to greet the ship with rotten eggs.
Yacht expert Bol suspects that the transport route ultimately chosen and the night crossing were intended to avoid images of the controversial superyacht under the bridge.
