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 four engines capable of generating 5,846 horsepower apiece.But when a small skiff was in trouble off the coast of 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 U.S.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 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 U.S.
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 USCG 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.The Wilderness Legacy, which was completed in 1984 and is a replica of turn-of-the-century coastal steamers complete with Victorian-style wood cabinetry, was the first to respond.
It scooted around the Launchpad and towed the stranded skiff back to the safety of Farragut Bay, the news outlet reported.The local story went viral after Love, a software developer from New York City, posted about the incident on Bluesky.“I’m on a small-ship Alaska cruise with my son; our boat rescued a stranded vessel last night and apparently we did that after the Coast Guard radioed Mark Zuckerberg’s yacht — which was closer — and they repeatedly refused to respond,” he wrote.
Zuckerberg spokesperson Brian Baker said the skiff was already in the process of being rescued when the Launchpad crew le...