The 56-metre vessel, named Australia, has gained attention for its luxurious features but on Monday night the focus was on it for another reason.
A $40 million super yacht owned by mining magnate Clive Palmer has run aground off the coast of Singapore’s upmarket Sentosa Island.
The 56-metre vessel, named Australia, has gained attention for its luxurious features since Palmer’s of it in 2021, among them a jacuzzi, bars and a VIP suite.On Monday night, however, the focus was on the floating mansion for a very different reason. Locals at Sentosa were stunned to see the yacht run aground just late in the afternoon as it left the island’s marina, where Palmer’s prized possession stands out even among the toys of the south-east Asian financial hub’s ultra-wealthy set.
By early evening, as the sun set, it was still stranded there, just under one kilometre from shore, with no rescue effort taking place despite a police speedboat and other vessels transiting through the busy Singapore Strait. It appeared to have gone inside a navigational buoy marking shallow water. “It’s very, very difficult to make this kind of mistake, so maybe they had some problem with the motor,” said one onlooker, who asked that his name not be published.Credit:“This is just at the exit of the marina, it is absolutely very clear that you can’t put the boat between those two buoys. You can’t do that. Even if you are a jet skier like me, you know that.It was unclear if Palmer himself was on board.