Jeff Bezos Building $500 Million Superyacht (Twice What He Paid for the Washington Post): Report

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

When you are the richest person on the planet, you can afford a very big yacht. A really fancy yacht. A yacht so big and fancy it comes with another yacht as an accessory.

That’s the situation for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, according to Bloomberg Wealth. “Project Y271,” currently being built by Dutch yachtmaker Oceanco, will be one of the largest yachts ever built in the Netherlands, with multiple decks and three masts spanning across its 417-foot length.

The yacht — correction, apparently it’s a “superyacht” at this size and price point — is expected to cost “upwards of $500 million,” or about twice what Bezos paid when he bought the Washington Post in 2013.

The billionaire — correction, Forbes says he’s a “centibillionaire” — currently has a net worth of over $200 billion. Dropping half a billion for a superyacht will take about one-fourth of one percent of that.

Bezos’ girlfriend, Lauren Sánchez, is an entertainment reporter and helicopter pilot as well, but the massive sails that will help steer the new superyacht meant there would be no room for a helipad. That’s where the “support yacht” comes in — a smaller vessel that will be able to accommodate a helipad.

Hat tip to Judd Legum, who has also suffered through the inconvenience of sailing a boat that had no room for a helipad:

I’m from Annapolis, which is a big boating town, but the bulk of my boating experience comes from sailing one of these for a few summers when I was a kid. It was pretty fun. One of the things it has in common with Jeff Bezos’ new boat is no room for a helipad. pic.twitter.com/amVIW24j60

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 10, 2021