$35 million luxury yacht gets stuck off Sentosa; MPA investigating

SINGAPORE - A foreign-registered luxury yacht ran aground near Sentosa on Monday afternoon.

The yacht, named Australia, is reportedly owned by mining magnate and former Australian member of parliament Clive Palmer, reported various Australian media outlets.

It is not known if Mr Palmer was on board when the incident happened.

The 56m vessel is worth about A$40 million (S$34.7 million), and boasts luxury features such as a jacuzzi, bars and a VIP suite.

An ST reader who resides in Sentosa said he realised the yacht was stuck and listing when he looked at the sea at about 5.30pm.

He said he was aware that there are a lot of rocks in the channel the yacht was in, with some visible only at low tides.

Mr Quek Wee Teck, 45, director of yacht charter company Wanderlust Adventures, told ST that this was the second time this month that he had seen such an incident in the area.

Contacted by ST, a Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore spokesman said that the Maritime Safety Control Centre, which the authority operates, was notified of the incident at about 4.30pm on Monday.

There was no pollution reported, and no injury to the crew of the Malta-flagged yacht, which ran aground off Buran Channel near Sentosa.

“The yacht has since been refloated and will be anchoring to facilitate an assessment of damage,” said the spokesman.

“There was no disruption to port operations as a result of the grounding. MPA will be investigating the incident.”

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