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Displaying items by tag: Jeff Bezos

The story of how the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, is facing problems with getting his new sailing mega-yacht to the sea from her up-river building yard above Rotterdam in The Netherlands has been exercising the international media of late.

The 127 metre (417ft) vessel in appearance has the above-water hull of the 1897 G L Watson-designed 60 metre (197ft) schooner Rainbow, but with a raised deck forward. Above the main deck is a two-storey deckhouse of fairly conservative appearance, while atop that again is going to be a three-masted Maltese Falcon-style Dyna Rig. The complete combination is of course going to be the biggest and the bestest of them all. So if you want that guaranteed, your only option is construction in The Netherlands.

But a building job on this scale is going to take so much time that it would be uneconomical to construct her in an expensive waterfront site, and she has been built at a modern facility well inland. This meant that in order to get to the sea, she was originally going to have to make her way down river and canal through a much-loved steel bridge, with the technically complex but simply-operated rig being installed at some downstream wharf with clear access to open water.

In this video below by Dutch Yachting, the new mega-yacht emerges from the building shed, with her basic above-water hull shape showing an intriguing resemblance to the 1897-built 197ft G L Watson-designed schooner Rainbow (below)

The 1897 schooner RainbowThe 1897 schooner Rainbow

However, anyone who has ever launched an un-rigged new boat in one place, and then tried to set up the rig for the first time in another, will know only too well that the co-ordination involved is dementia-inducing. Even with the smallest boat, the Allen key needed for some small but vital task in setting up the rig at Location 2 will be clipped-in above the bench back in the building shed in Location 1.

Imagine that double-location hassle up-scaled to the new Bezos boat’s rigging procedure? It would involve hiring an entire Dutch Deliveroo team on permanent standby, as anyone trying to move quickly in a van in The Netherlands will inevitably mow down cyclists in their droves.

So as sure as God made little apples, the builders have wheeled out the monster boat, and as cynics expected all along, they’re now saying that the rig will have to be installed at the building yard, and could the council please see about dismantling the bridge when the new yoke it ready to go to sea. After all, it would be a useful training exercise, a sort of reverse-Meccano challenge.

Thus the scene is set, and everyone has a role to play in a superbly scripted and complete little drama so good it might have been in the making from the start. It ticks all the boxes for superyacht owner arrogance and local business versus neighbourhood heritage pride, and the township Mayor has been able to have his say too.

But the box that it ticks most emphatically is publicity. Everybody now knows of this extraordinary vessel’s existence, and everybody knows the maritime industry of The Netherlands is further reinforced in its prime position as world leaders.

Only a complete killjoy would point out that in fact the bridge was disassembled as recently as 2017 for maintenance purposes, and thus the nuts and bolts holding it together won’t even have seized up yet. So here again, a problem becomes an opportunity. The challenge now is to show that when the big boat is finally rigged, the bridge can be dismantled by efficient Dutch engineers in record time.

In fact, it could be made an annual international competition, with highly-trained engineering teams in contest to show that the bridge can be dismantled and re-assembled in a matter of hours. They could have street and boat parties, marching bands, rock concerts, children’s painting competitions, local cookery contests, pensioners dancing in the streets etc etc……

The bridge which has now become the Star of the Show.The bridge which has now become the Star of the Show

This story was updated on December 5th 2022, to include a credit to videographer, Dutch Yachting

Published in Superyachts
Tagged under

#Saturn5 - Hollywood hitmaker James Cameron might have the exploration of the Titanic all sewn up, but Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has just made a deep-ocean discovery of his own.

Reuters reports that a team funded by the online retail boss has pulled up from the depths two engines from the Saturn 5 rocket that sent Nasa's Apollo missions to the moon.

Bezos announced the historic find on Wednesday, explaining how the team found and recovered the two first-stage engines from the ocean floor some three miles below the surface of the Atlantic.

He wrote on the Bezos Expeditions site: "We've seen an underwater wonderland - an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program."

It's not certain what mission the engines were used for as the serial numbers are incomplete, but it's hopeful that their origin can be narrowed down during restoration ahead of their eventual public display.

Published in News Update

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is an annual offshore yacht racing event with an increasingly international exposure attracting super maxi yachts and entries from around tne world. It is hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, starting in Sydney, New South Wales on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The race distance is approximately 630 nautical miles (1,170 km).

The 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starts in Sydney Harbour at 1pm (AEDT) on Monday 26 December.

This is the 77th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The inaugural race was conducted in 1945 and has run every year since, apart from 2020, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

88 boats started the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart, with 50 finishing.

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - FAQs

The number of Sydney Hobart Yacht Races held by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia since 1945 is 75

6,257 completed the Sydney Hobart Yacht race, 1036 retired or were disqualified)

About 60,061 sailors have competed in the Sydney Hobart Race between 1945 and 2019

Largest fleets: 371 starters in the 50th race in 1994 (309 finished); 154 starters in 1987 (146 finished); 179 starters in 1985 (145 finished); 151 starters in 1984 (46 finished); 173 started in 1983 (128 finished); 159 started in 1981 (143 finished); 147 started in 1979 (142 finished); 157 started in 2019 (154 finished)

116 in 2004 (59 finished); 117 in 2014 (103 finished); 157 in 2019 (154 finished)

Nine starters in the inaugural Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in 1945

In 2015 and 2017 there were 27, including the 12 Clipper yachts (11 in 2017). In the record entry of 371 yachts in the 50th in 1994, there were 24 internationals

Rani, Captain John Illingworth RN (UK). Design: Barber 35’ cutter. Line and handicap winner

157 starters, 154 finishers (3 retirements)

IRC Overall: Ichi Ban, a TP52 owned by Matt Allen, NSW. Last year’s line honours winner: Comanche, Verdier Yacht Design and VPLP (FRA) owned by Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant, in 1 day 18 hours, 30 minutes, 24 seconds. Just 1hour 58min 32secs separated the five super maxis at the finish 

1 day 9 hours 15 minutes and 24 seconds, set in 2017 by LDV Comanche after Wild Oats XI was penalised one hour in port/starboard incident for a finish time of 1d 9h 48m 50s

The oldest ever sailor was Syd Fischer (88 years, 2015).

As a baby, Raud O'Brien did his first of some six Sydney Hobarts on his parent's Wraith of Odin (sic). As a veteran at three, Raud broke his arm when he fell off the companionway steps whilst feeding biscuits to the crew on watch Sophie Tasker sailed the 1978 race as a four-year-old on her father’s yacht Siska, which was not an official starter due to not meeting requirements of the CYCA. Sophie raced to Hobart in 1979, 1982 and 1983.

Quite a number of teenage boys and girls have sailed with their fathers and mothers, including Tasmanian Ken Gourlay’s 14-year-old son who sailed on Kismet in 1957. A 12-year-old boy, Travis Foley, sailed in the fatal 1998 race aboard Aspect Computing, which won PHS overall.

In 1978, the Brooker family sailed aboard their yacht Touchwood – parents Doug and Val and their children, Peter (13), Jacqueline (10), Kathryne (8) and Donald (6). Since 1999, the CYCA has set an age limit of 18 for competitors

Jane (‘Jenny’) Tate, from Hobart, sailed with her husband Horrie aboard Active in the 1946 Race, as did Dagmar O’Brien with her husband, Dr Brian (‘Mick’) O’Brien aboard Connella. Unfortunately, Connella was forced to retire in Bass Strait, but Active made it to the finish. The Jane Tate Memorial Trophy is presented each year to the first female skipper to finish the race

In 2019, Bill Barry-Cotter brought Katwinchar, built in 1904, back to the start line. She had competed with a previous owner in 1951. It is believed she is the oldest yacht to compete. According to CYCA life member and historian Alan Campbell, more than 31 yachts built before 1938 have competed in the race, including line honours winners Morna/Kurrewa IV (the same boat, renamed) and Astor, which were built in the 1920s.

Bruce Farr/Farr Yacht Design (NZL/USA) – can claim 20 overall wins from 1976 (with Piccolo) up to and including 2015 (with Balance)

Screw Loose (1979) – LOA 9.2m (30ft); Zeus II (1981) LOA 9.2m

TKlinger, NSW (1978) – LOA 8.23m (27ft)

Wild Oats XI (2012) – LOA 30.48m (100ft). Wild Oats XI had previously held the record in 2005 when she was 30m (98ft)

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