Enterprise

Amazon's Star Engineer Lives On A Gorgeous 52-Foot Yacht

By Julie Bort
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Dirona cropped 3
James Hamilton

We told you about James Hamilton, a distinguished engineer who makes sure Amazon's $4.5 billion tech infrastructure business runs smoothly.

About four years ago, Hamilton and his family made a decision to sell most of their belongings and "hack their lives" as Wired's Robert McMillan describes it. 

The Hamiltons moved aboard the Dirona, a custom-built, 52-foot Nordhavn yacht; they were intimately involved in the boat's design.

Hamilton often sails the Dirona from Hawaii and works remotely from there. He commutes on a bicycle and he does his shopping via Amazon Prime, picking up purchases at the local UPS store.

The Dirona is often stationed in Hawaii near Waikiki.

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James Hamilton

This isn't the couple's first yacht. They shopped for 10 years before choosing a Nordhavn 52.

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James Hamilton

Here's a shot of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor in Hawaii where they often live.

Amazon James Hamilton Dirona
Amazon engineer's James Hamilton boat, the Dirona James Hamilton

This is the boat's "pilot house"

Dirona Pilothouse
James Hamilton

The inside looks just like a condo.

Dirona interior
James Hamilton

Living on a boat gives a whole new dimension to the term "home repair." Hamilton hard at work.

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James Hamilton

Here's a look at his land vehicle of choice, a bicycle.

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James Hamilton

This is a view of the neighbors when docked in the boat harbor.

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James Hamilton

Sailing off into the sunset.

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James Hamilton

Here's a look into how other techies spend their lives:

Larry Ellison wine glass
AP

How 15 Tech Tycoons Spend Their Fortunes >

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Julie Bort
Julie Bort
Julie Bort was Business Insider's Editor at Large for the Tech team. She loves investigating stories and shedding light on the tech industry's most amazing people.Here's a small sample of some of Julie's work.Former Pinterest employees describe a traumatic workplace where managers humiliate employees until they cry, Black people feel alienated, and the toxic culture 'eats away at your soul'Sex, tequila, and a tiger: Employees inside Adam Neumann's WeWork talk about the nonstop party to attain a $100 billion dream and the messy reality that tanked itInsiders say WeWork's IT is a patchwork of cheap devices and Band-Aid fixes that will take millions to fixWeWork's toxic phone booths were created in-house by its Powered by We business70-hour weeks and 'WTF' emails: 42 employees reveal the frenzy of working at Tesla under the 'cult' of Elon MuskElon Musk works so many hours at Tesla, employees are constantly finding him asleep under tables and desksHow this woman went from a Pizza Hut employee to a founder of a $4 billion startupAn Oracle insider explains how some salespeople gamed the system to sell more cloudTHE TAKEDOWN OF TRAVIS KALANICK: The untold story of Uber's infighting, backstabbing, and multimillion-dollar exit packagesMicrosoft is in talks to buy GitHub, a startup at the center of the software world last valued at $2 billionThe alarming inside story of a failed Google acquisition, and an employee who was hospitalizedInside Facebook's plan to eat another $350 billion IT marketHow a registered sex offender wound up living in an Airbnb hosting unsuspecting guestsA controversial ex-banker is the person who really runs Twitter — and he's gambling the company's future on one risky betSecret passages and skipped meals: Oracle's CEO gave us a rare peek at what it really takes to run a $37 billion companyHP told some employees to choose between becoming contractors with no benefits or being fired without severance'I felt like we were being extorted': Customer says Oracle tried to strong-arm him into a cloud saleHow the queen of Silicon Valley is helping Google go after Amazon's most profitable businessAirbnb host: A guest is squatting in my condo and I can't get him to leaveLIES, BOOZE, AND BILLIONS: How one of the fastest-growing startups in Silicon Valley history raised $580 million then spiraled out of controlGitHub is undergoing a full-blown overhaul as execs and employees depart — and we have the full inside storyWhen she's not writing for Business Insider, Julie can usually be found on the trails, on my mountain bike, or on my skis, if you know where to look.
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