After months of controversy, the 417-foot-long, three-masted sailing yacht built for billionaire Jeff Bezos slipped out of the shipyard in Rotterdam under the cover of darkness.  At 3AM on Tuesday, the Oceanco shipyard towed the yacht to the Greenport shipyard. The yacht’s three masts were moved separately out of the shipyard by barge. The masts are expected to be stepped at the Greenport yard.

In February, we posted Billionaire Bezos’ Really Big Boat and the Rotterdam Railroad Bridge, about how the Oceanco shipyard wanted to dismantle the center span of a historic railroad bridge to allow the yacht to access the North Sea. The fully rigged superyacht apparently has too great an air draft to safely fit beneath the Koningshaven Bridge, known locally as De Hef, which has a clearance of 131 feet over the Nieuwe Maas River.

The announced bridge dismantling was met with outrage. Thousands of Rotterdammers threatened to throw eggs at Bezos’ superyacht during the passage if the bridge was dismantled. 

The shipyard subsequently informed the municipality of Rotterdam that it was canceling the plans to dismantle the bridge. The yard said that it was shocked by the social unrest over the potential dismantling, that shipyard employees felt threatened, and the company feared vandalism. 

When Bezos’ yacht was towed to the shipyard downstream it was routed to avoid passing under the Koningshaven Bridge. Der Spiegel reports according to [a] “yacht expert, the chosen route is also unusual: the ship could have reached its new location much faster through the Koningshaven, … but then it would have had to drive through the city center and pass the Koningshaven Bridge, which is why the dispute had even started.”

Despite the early hour of the yacht’s tow, an intrepid observer caught it on video. Dutch Yachting, which posted the video on Youtube noted, “although the Noord – Nieuwe Maas direction is shorter (23 km/ 14 miles) with only two bridge openings to take, the transport went via the longer Noord – Oude Maas -Nieuwe Maas direction. We never saw a transport going that fast. With an average speed of 8 knots/ 15 kph the transport arrived only 3 hours later at 6AM at Greenport even with 4 bridge openings and a total distance of 40 km/ 24 miles.”

Jeff Bezos’s 127m/ 417ft Oceanco Y721 yacht was launched today

Thanks to Larry Witmer for contributing to this post.