A $40 million superyacht owned by Australian billionaire and mining magnate Clive Palmer has become stuck off the coast of Singapore.
The yacht is believed to have run aground in shallow waters one kilometre off the exclusive Sentosa Island on Monday afternoon.
Palmer purchased the 56-metre Benetti – which he named “Australia” – in 2021 and features a jacuzzi and VIP suite.
The yacht departed the Singapore port at 4.25pm (local time) on Saturday and had logged a six-day journey to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, according to Marine Traffic data.
A local told the Sydney Morning Herald they thought mechanical failure was the likely cause of the problem.
“It’s very difficult to make this kind of mistake, so maybe they had some problem with the motor,” they said.
“This is just at the exit of the marina, and 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 is not known who was on board at the time of the incident.