Eric Schmidt is a billionaire, a boat-lover, and an incredibly patient man. The ex-Goggle CEO bought Oceanco-built superyacht Alfa Nero for $67.6 million at an auction held on 16 June 2023. Despite purchasing the luxury vessel nearly two months ago, the Alfa Nero hasn’t moved an inch from Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. 68-year-old Schmidt was given a seven-day deadline to pay the Antiguan government. However, cautious lawyers advised the billionaire philanthropist to wait before transferring any money until the court controversy was ironed out.
It has been more than 60 days since the auction, but the technologist hasn’t been able to sail his pleasure craft home. Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov, the daughter of Russian oligarch Andrew Guryev, succeeded in halting the sale of the ship by claiming to be its rightful owner of the 267-footer.
During a meeting on 28 June, the cabinet communicated that Schmidt had shown “a willingness to dispatch the resources; however, because a judicial decision is pending, he was advised by the lawyer to wait a day or two until the court made a decision.”
One wonders why the billionaire displays such praise-worthy patience when he could easily buy any other superyacht. We can think of two reasons- one is that the $120 million superyacht in excellent condition sold for nearly half the price with all niceties intact.
Secondly, commissioning a new superyacht will obviously be an expensive affair but also take at least two to three years to build. Take the example of sports billionaire Shahid Khan for instance.
His latest boat Project Jag was sold to him in 2019 by Moran Yacht & Ship, and the $360 million vessel was launched in Rendsburg, Germany, only this week, after four years. Affluent yacht enthusiasts know that waiting for a yacht for so many years, along with all the back and forth over designs and technicalities, is time-consuming.
Why else would the Dutch shipyard Feadship’s 229 feet long superyacht Sakura sell in just six weeks? With a Japandi-style interior and family layout Sakura Yacht, one of Feadship’s 16 ongoing projects without a finalized owner, sold without any trouble owing to the relatively short delivery time and the opportunity to bypass the waiting list.
Eric Schmidt is an experienced yacht enthusiast with not one or two but four yachts over the decades. While the elegant Alfa Nero is his latest purchase, Schmidt already owns a 254-foot commercial icebreaker-turned- luxe superyacht Legend and the $25 million Feadship vessel, Gladiator.
He once owned Lurssen Oasis worth $40 million, which he sold in 2017. Will the businessman wait and win victory over the daughter of the fertilizer tycoon Andrew Guryev and sail the stunning Alfa Nero home? It certainly looks like it.
