Mark Zuckerberg’s mega-yacht didn’t respond to call for help from small boat in Alaska

When the captain of the boat that did respond announced Zuckerberg’s cruiser was closer and hadn’t answered the call, “there was near unanimous booing,” a passenger said.

Meta billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is the owner of a two-year-old mega-yacht called Launchpad that is 387 feet long, has a steel hull and is propelled by four engines capable of generating 5,846 horsepower apiece.

But when a small skiff was in trouble off Alaska last week in the same waters as Zuckerberg’s vessel, it was a 42-year-old tour boat called Wilderness Legacy that steamed to the rescue, according to the Coast Guard.

Mark Zuckerberg in Washington, D.C., in 2024.Matt McClain / The Washington Post via Getty Images fileAnd when the captain of the tour boat announced Zuckerberg’s cutting-edge cruiser, which cost between $300 million and $390 million to construct, had been closer to the stricken skiff and hadn’t answered the radio call for help, “there was near unanimous booing,” passenger Michael Love posted on Bluesky.

The Coast Guard got a call for help just after 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 3 after a 21-foot skiff ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau, the Coast Guard said in a statement to the Alaska Beacon.

“At approximately 9:56 p.m., the Coast Guard determined they were not in distress and issued a marine assistance request broadcast on their behalf,” the statement said.