When Jeff Bezos’ yacht, Koru, sailed into Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on November 22 from Gibraltar, her crew quickly realized she was too large to dock with other private yachts. Instead, Koru, which is 417 feet long, had to dock among the commercial vessels and oil tankers in Port Everglades, Florida.
Commissioned and owned by Amazon’s founder, Koru was built in the Netherlands by Oceanco, costing around $500 million. She is the second-largest sailing yacht in the world after Andrey Melnichenko’s Sailing Yacht A.
This is not the first-time Koru has run into trouble. After her launch, Koru faced protests when her builders wanted to temporarily disassemble a historic bridge, the Koningshaven Bridge in Rotterdam, Netherlands, because Koru was too large to pass through.
The three-masted sailboat has a deck made for relaxation and entertaining with three jacuzzis and a swimming pool. A mermaid figurehead on the bow of the ship resembles Bezos’ current partner, Lauren Sánchez, although she has mentioned it was not designed after her. Supposedly, the figurehead is designed after Freyja, the Norse Goddess of love, fertility, war and gold.
Port Everglades charges yachts over 400 feet a daily rate of $309.50. Making space for a ship of that size isn’t easy, as her length is equivalent to four blue whales. Koru also has a support vessel, the 246-foot Abeona, which was built at one of the Dutch Damen Yachting yards and is now docked at Dania Beach, Florida. Among its many toys, the Abeona houses a D14 value helicopter, which cannot land on Koru because of her masts.
