Patrick Dovigi, a former Canadian hockey player turned billionaire, recently bought Breakthrough, the superyacht reportedly built for Bill Gates.
The thing is, Bill Gates never took delivery of the yacht, and the ship was almost immediately put back on the market.
Dovigi bought the ship and then sailed from Europe to North America.
So far, so normal – for a billionaire – but the fuel bill was atrocious.
Dovigi belongs to an elite group of former athletes
Patrick Dovigi is a former hockey player, but he belongs to an elite and narrow group of former athletes who made a fortune after they retired.
One of the most stellar examples is Mathieu Flamini.
A former Arsenal and AC Milan player, Flamini had a very good soccer career, but he made his fortune with something else entirely – biochemicals – after retiring.
Even Michael Jordan is a great example of this.
Jordan was one of the highest-paid athletes of his time, but that ‘only’ made him a millionaire.
What made him a billionaire was his career as a team owner, and his brand Jordan.
To this day, Jordan earns generous royalties for every single Jordan-branded product sold worldwide.
The math is easily done.
The superyacht that Bill Gates never used
Built by Dutch shipyard Feadship, Breakthrogh is a 118.8-meter vessel originally known as Project 821 and commissioned for Bill Gates.
The yacht made headlines for its hydrogen fuel cell system, and also because the tech founder reportedly never used the yacht.
The yacht was quietly put back on the market shortly after delivery and, in late 2024, ex-Canadian hockey player and current billionaire Patrick Dovigi stepped in and acquired Breakthrough in a deal that was reported to be worth more than $650 million, after selling his current yacht.
In theory, Breakthrough is designed to be sustainable.
But the word ‘sustainable’ has a pretty loose meaning when applied to yachting, which explains the massive fuel bill.
Breakthrough’s recent journey from Europe to Miami required around 605,000 liters of fuel.
That single eye-watering refueling stop cost approximately $435,000, just to prepare the yacht for the voyage.
You can buy a new Ferrari for that.
