Watch as superyacht squeezes down narrow Dutch canals

Photographer Tom van Oossanen has captured a series of stunning images of Project 817, a 94m vessel built by Dutch shipyard Feadship, as it weaved its way along narrow canals from its Kaag Island facility to Rotterdam, according to CNN Travel.

Oossanen says that around four to six superyachts are transferred along this route each year before going for sea trials, which usually take place in Amsterdam, although few are as big as Project 817.

“It’s always quite an operation,” Oossanen told CNN Travel. “Everyone loves to see it.”

But these manoeuvres lead to serious snarl ups on land and water. “Sometimes it takes an hour to go through a bridge, and with the amount of traffic we have in Holland, it soon builds up,” says Oossanen.

Kaag Island is one of two Feadship shipyards based inland (the other is in Aalsmeer, near Schiphol,) which means every yacht delivered from here has to be painstakingly pulled the same way.

Some parts of the canals along the route are only a few feet wider than Project 817, which spans 44.7 feet from port to starboard, so to say the transfer required great care and attention is something of an understatement.

“This boat has been fully designed to actually fit the waterway,” says Oossanen, pointing out that he’s only ever seen four superyachts of this size taking this same journey.

“They [the designers] maximised the design by using the limitations of bridges and waterway. It takes a long time. No one is in any rush, because you don’t want to scratch the paint.”

The transportation of Project 817 took around four days.

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