The 6-year-old boy who fled the Soviet Union with his family is now on the brink of embarking on a new adventure. Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, is about to set sail to some of the world’s most exotic locales, joining the ranks of fellow centibillionaires Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg as he takes ownership of his stunning superyacht, Dragonfly. According to Boat International, the 466-foot yacht has departed Lürssen’s shipyard in Bremen, Germany, and is currently in Portsmouth in the UK before making its maiden voyage to the Mediterranean. With the holidays fast approaching, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
At a price tag of $450 million, this vessel is being hailed as the largest luxury yacht in the United States. Designed by the esteemed Argentine design office German Frers, with interior and exterior spaces curated by Nauta Design (2,000 square meters of interior space and 1,000 square meters of exterior space), Dragonfly is a marvel of engineering.
The megayacht will soon make her way to Barcelona, where she will spend seven days at the MB92 facility. During this time, safety rails will be installed on her transom to support her inflatable beach platform, ensuring it is secure and ready for use.
With a massive volume of 9,408 GT, Dragonfly boasts four expansive exterior decks, housing 12 luxurious cabins and two helipads. The shark-colored motoryacht features an innovative electric Azimuth Pod Drive, capable of running in electric mode alone or alongside its other propulsion components to achieve top speeds of up to 24 knots.
Though the ship took four years to construct, Brin, valued at $138 billion, hit the jackpot when he acquired this floating palace from a sanctioned Russian tycoon, Leonid Michelson, avoiding the long wait typically associated with such luxury assets. It’s a testament to the kind of luck that seems to follow tech tycoons as much as their intellect and fortunes.
A similar stroke of luck befell Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who snapped up the 387-foot Launchpad, originally commissioned by Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin, as soon as the Dutch government lifted restrictions on the sale of seized superyachts to non-Russians. Thanks to this timing, Silicon Valley’s elite didn’t have to wait years for the yachts to be completed and were able to acquire them at impressive bargains. The yacht, once known as Project Alibaba, made an unforgettable debut, quite literally, after a dramatic collision at the Lürssen shipyard. However, that’s now a distant memory, and as the yacht nears delivery, it’s poised to capture global attention for all the right reasons.
Speaking of the right reasons, Brin’s former vessel, the 240-foot Dragonfly, may no longer match his stature, but it played a key role in Brin’s rapid-response organization, Global Support and Development (GSD), delivering first aid and reconstruction aid since 2015. The ship, boasting a top speed of 25 knots, was active in search-and-rescue missions in the remote areas of Vanuatu to help the victims of Cyclone Pam. Let’s see the waves the new Dragonfly, a 466-foot titan, will create.
