Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ superyacht, Project Y721, has arrived in the port of Rotterdam. Because the ship sailed without masts and chose a different route, De Hef did not have to be dismantled, reports the maritime news site Schuttevaer Tuesday. Earlier this year it seemed that De Hef had to be dismantled. This should make it possible for Bezos’ ship, the largest superyacht ever built at 127 meters in length, to sail to sea via the port of Rotterdam.
The three masts of the ship, built by ship and yacht builder Oceanco in Alblasserdam in South Holland, are estimated by experts to be about a hundred meters high. Passing under De Hef, officially the Koningshavenbrug, has no chance for Project Y721. The bridge has a vertical clearance of about 40 meters. The center section of De Hef would have to be lifted with a floating trestle with a lifting capacity of 1,800 tons.
The outrage at the news was great. If the ship sailed past in the summer, Rotterdammers would have to pelt it “with rotten eggs”, read a call on Facebook. De Hef is a national monument – according to some Rotterdammers you are not allowed to touch it. Moreover, the municipality of Rotterdam had promised when the former rail lift bridge was reopened in 2017 that it would no longer be dismantled.
No license
It has been unclear for a long time whether the municipality would have the bridge dismantled after all. In February, when the fuss arose, the municipality confirmed NRC that permission had been given for the passage of the superyacht, after which the mayor of Rotterdam Ahmed Aboutaleb said that no final decision had yet been taken. After it was quiet for some time around this issue, it turned out at the end of June that ship and yacht builder Oceanco was still had not applied for a permit.
Now that Project Y721 has reached Eemshaven in Rotterdam and De Hef has remained intact, the fuss seems to have been for nothing. It is not clear why the option of sailing a different route without masts was not discussed earlier. The transport company that carried out the transport of the superyacht, Koninklijke van der Wees, only wants to say to Schuttevaer that the ship did not pass De Hef.
Also read: An emergency debate and rotten eggs: Bezos’ hunt causes unrest