Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht is facing backlash after the 387-foot superyacht Launchpad reportedly stood by while a small cruise ship helped a stranded boat off the coast of Juneau, Alaska, last week. A spokesperson for the Meta CEO says the crew was on a different radio channel. Zuckerberg was not aboard at the time.
The incident happened Monday night when a 21-foot skiff ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau, according to Alaska Beacon. The UnCruise Adventures ship Wilderness Legacy made an unplanned detour to help. It towed the skiff to shelter in Farragut Bay even though vessel tracking showed the Launchpad was closer.
Michael Love, a passenger aboard the Wilderness Legacy, described the scene on Bluesky. He said the captain announced that Zuckerberg’s yacht was nearer and had not answered the call for help. The news, he wrote, was met with near unanimous booing from other passengers.
The Coast Guard told Alaska Beacon it received the call for assistance around 9:30 p.m. By 9:56 p.m. it determined the boat was not in distress. So it issued a general marine assistance broadcast rather than a formal distress signal, a distinction that matters for figuring out which maritime obligations applied that night.
Brian Baker, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, told Forbes the crew was monitoring a different radio channel than the one carrying the broadcast. By the time they reviewed it, he said, the assist was already underway. Baker also confirmed the couple and their children were not on board that night.
The Launchpad, delivered in 2024 and worth an estimated 390 million dollars, is the largest yacht ever built by Dutch builder Feadship. It has anchored in Southeast Alaska for much of the summer, drawing attention from residents and tourists alike.
This is the second time in two weeks that a small cruise ship has come to the aid of stranded boaters in the region. On July 30, the National Geographic Quest helped a family reach shore in Glacier Bay National Park after a humpback whale sank their sailboat.
UnCruise says the Wilderness Legacy refueled the skiff after towing it to safety. Its captain later heard the boaters made it back to Petersburg without further trouble.
