In February, we posted Billionaire Bezos’ Really Big Boat and the Rotterdam Railroad Bridge about reports that Rotterdam would dismantle the center span of a historic railroad bridge to allow the 417-foot-long, three-masted sailing yacht built for billionaire Jeff Bezos to access the sea. The fully rigged superyacht has too great an air-draft to safely fit beneath the Koningshaven Bridge, which has a clearance of 131 feet over the Nieuwe Maas River.
Now, Trouw is reporting that the Dutch shipbuilder Oceanco has informed the municipality of Rotterdam that it is canceling the plans to dismantle the bridge. The yard said that it was shocked by the social unrest over the potential dismantling and that shipyard employees feel threatened and the company fears vandalism.
Previously, thousands of Rotterdammers threatened to throw eggs at Bezos’ superyacht during a possible passage.
The Koningshavenbrug bridge, known to Rotterdammers as De Hef, was renovated in 2017 and the council pledged at the time it would never be dismantled again.
Presumably, the superyacht will make the passage down the river with its masts unstepped. The three-masted vessel is the largest sailing yacht ever built in the Netherlands.
Perhaps Bezos is paying for a new canal to connect the shipyard to the sea?
While I doubt this had much to do with Bezos directly and was a proposed arrangement by the shipyard for dramatic effect. One doubts that the Rotterdam City Council in fact would have allowed the dismantling.
The Dutch farmers are annoyed with the EU and are blockading the roads in the Netherlands. In turn this has caused problems for the transfer of the Tour de France equipment and personnel to France from Denmark. A fleet of trucks will travel some 1000 kms and six flights have been chartered to accomplish this transfer. One would have thought chartering a ferry (a non-autonomous one!!) to make the transfer by sea would have been much simpler.
Ah well vive la france !
Good Watch
👍 Retire Happy