An inside look at Jeff Bezos’ $500 million superyacht shows why it’s so expensive to keep afloat
- Jeff Bezos owns Koru, the tallest sailing yacht in the world
- The 417-foot vessel set its billionaire owner back $500 million
- It’s upkeep is even more expensive than you might think
Published on May 08, 2024 at 7:32 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on May 09, 2024 at 6:22 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
We see a pretty impressive superyacht or two here at Supercar Blondie – from the ridiculous to the sublime, but who other than the second-richest man in the world – Jeff Bezos – could own Koru?
The 417-foot vessel set its billionaire owner back $500 million – which is chump change to the Amazon entrepreneur – but the cost of her upkeep is perhaps even more surprising.
It costs Jeff Bezos even more than you might think.
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With Forbes putting his real-time net worth at a staggering $204.7 billion, pipped to the top spot only by Bernard Arnault and his LVMH dynasty, there’s no surprise that he goes big or goes home.
Incidentally, he recently bought a $79 million home on ‘Billionaire Bunker’ in Miami.
But back to Koru – it’s the tallest sailing yacht in the world, complete with a goddess-like figurehead on top of the $500m yacht that looks a lot like his fiancée, Lauren Sànchez.
The 417-foot Koru mega-vessel is so big, it even has its own 250-foot support vessel, Abeona, which cost $75 million.
The support vessel even features a helipad that Sànchez has been known to make use of.
It carries gear from the main superyacht and is equipped with four jet skis, two fast launches, and a dinghy that was spotted in 2023 on a trip to Mallorca, Spain.
The support vessel is also capable of lifting a small submarine – although, unlike Elon Musk, Bezos isn’t believed to has his own.
Additionally, the support ship has two extra staterooms, which can accommodate four guests.
This could come in handy if Bezos wants to entertain a larger group than can fit on the Koru.
The Koru took for the waves for the first time in 2023 and since has ferried the billionaire around the world.
Its three 229-foot masts allow Koru to hit a top speed under sail of 20 knots (37 km/p/23 mph).
It can accommodate up to 18 lucky guests, operating as a mansion on the waves.
Koru has three outdoor decks, with two swimming pools, a cinema, several lounges, and multiple business areas, per Luxuo.
Its masts are in-boom furlers, keeping the canvases at the bottom of the mast above the deck, keeping the spacious deck free from ropes.
From staff to drive and maintain the boats, as well as catering to the passengers, Koru and Abeona require a significant crew of up to 36 people and 45 respectively.
The annual cost to maintain a superyacht and its support vessel doesn’t come cheap, either.
In fact, Koru costs approximately $25 million in operating expenses per year, according to the Daily Mail.
Super Yacht Fan has also reported that Abeona sets Bezos back roughly $-10 million per annum for maintenance.
Even when on dry land, the cost of owning a yacht requires deep pockets.
In November 2023, the billionaire’s yacht arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida but was too big to fit in port with the other ‘normal’ superyachts.
Therefore it had to be docked with cruise ships at Port Everglades, at a rate of $16,500 per week.
However, when you consider that, even if he spent $1 million per day, it would still take Bezos hundreds of years to drain his bank account, he can certainly afford it
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All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
