Livid locals are planning to pelt billionaire Jeff Bezos’s superyacht with rotten eggs – after officials in Rotterdam agreed to dismantle a historic bridge so the £400 million mega-vessel can pass through.
The luxury boat – set to be the world’s largest sailing yacht – is being built by a Dutch firm and is too large to fit through the Koningshaven Bridge on its way out to sea.
The mayor’s office said the 1878 steel bridge, a national monument, would be temporarily taken apart.
Officials argue the boat’s construction will bring jobs and economic benefits.
But the decision has enraged people in Rotterdam. More than a thousand residents are set to hurl eggs at the yacht as it passes through the middle section of the bridge, known locally as De Hef, this summer.
The plan was hatched by Pablo Strörmann, who has created a Facebook event.
He wrote: “Take a box of (rotten) eggs with you and let’s throw them en masse at Jeff’s superyacht when it sails through De Hef in Rotterdam.
“Rotterdam was built from the rubble by the people of Rotterdam, and we don’t just take that apart for the phallus symbol of a megalomaniac billionaire. Not without a fight!”
By Saturday afternoon more than 1,700 people had said they would take part, while 6,300 were interested in attending.
The 417ft yacht, known as Y721, was first spotted being rolled out of a shipbuilding yard shed last year and features a black hull, white superstructure, and a 40-metre trio of masts.
Amazon founder Bezos – the world’s second richest man – has offered to to pay for the work alongside the boat’s builder, Oceanco.
Rotterdam’s local authority project leader Marcel Walravens said it would not be practical to finish the yacht’s construction elsewhere.
He said: “If you carry out a big job somewhere, you want all your tools in that place. Otherwise you have to go back and forth constantly. In addition, this is such a large project that there are hardly any locations where this work is finished.”
He told the Rijnmond website the project was “very important” economically, and spoke of Rotterdam’s reputation as the “maritime capital of Europe”.
“Shipbuilding and activity within that sector are an important pillar of the municipality,” he said.
De Hef was renovated from 2014 to 2017 and officials said it would not be dismantled again.
“Employment is important, but there are limits to what you can and may do to our heritage,” Ton Wesselink, of the Rotterdam Historical Society told RTV.
