Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Green For Life Environmental founder Patrick Dovigi have more in common than a Breakthrough. Yes, the former ice hockey goalie is the buyer of the world’s most talked-about Feadship superyacht. The 390-footer, commissioned by a climate champion and philanthropist, is now owned by the CEO of one of North America’s largest diversified waste and recycling companies. That makes one thing clear: both men care enough about the planet not to pollute it for their pleasure.
Dovigi isn’t new to the world of superyachts, unlike Gates, who surprisingly still doesn’t own one. He already sailed aboard Lady Jorgia, a 377-foot, six-deck Lürssen masterpiece (formerly Ahpo), which was listed with Edmiston for $370 million. This ship too boasted a two-story owner’s apartment, IMAX-grade cinema, a foredeck helipad, and a vast beach club.
Now, with the approximately $645 million behemoth Breakthrough reportedly under his name, a vessel whose liquid-hydrogen fuel-cell system can power hotel loads and enable quiet, low-speed running with near-zero local emissions, there is little need for a polluting pleasure craft, no matter how pretty.
After all, Dovigi is a man who once switched from pro sports to business because he wanted to control his own destiny. The ball is now in Dovigi’s court, and along with his family, he is known to make the most of his superyachts, which means going for the grander, greener goliath!
The family of seven (five kids) reportedly spent several weeks each year aboard Lady Jorgia, exploring the Mediterranean and attending events like the Monaco Grand Prix. Breakthrough sounds more and more like a yacht tailor-made for the Dovigi clan, combining their love for the sea, global travel, and keeping their footprint clean, as a much welcomed bonus.
The 46-year-old has in a way replicated his record-breaking real-estate moves. The luxury real-estate world’s biggest whales has bought and sold some of the priciest properties in New York, Miami, Aspen, and his native Canada, where he owns homes in Toronto and Muskoka. According to The Wall Street Journal, in the past five years alone, he has flipped 10 properties in Aspen for more than $30 million each, six of them for over $50 million. Doesn’t the switch from Lady Jorgia to the beautiful Breakthrough make even more sense now?
Still, one wonders how this man, reportedly worth just over $1 billion according to Superyachtfan, became the owner of the $645 million Breakthrough. He is nowhere near Gates in terms of financial might, Gates, though he has slipped from Forbes’ top ten, is still worth $106 billion and would have been the “befitting” owner of Feadship’s flagship creation.
Yet in a way, Breakthrough has found a fitting home. Gates, through Breakthrough Energy, is investing in tomorrow’s clean technologies, while Dovigi, through GFL, is cleaning up today’s waste and turning it into energy. One is shaping the future, the other is fixing the present. Both are mavericks in their own right, and both care enough about the planet to make this hydrogen-powered masterpiece the right kind of indulgence.
Breakthrough is now headed to the Monaco Yacht Show (September 24–27, 2025) in Port Hercule. After the show, she will be available for charter with Edmiston as the exclusive central agent. At the time of writing, she was in Antibes, France.
