Court action launched to prevent scrapping of former America’s Cup yacht
The alleged owner of a former America’s Cup yacht has launched legal action to stop Queenstown’s council consigning the vessel to the knacker’s yard.
Late last week, the council confirmed to the Otago Daily Times NZL14, which has been moored at Queenstown Bay for over a decade, was to be towed to Kingston, removed from the water, and disposed of.
The boat was meant to have been moved last Friday, but didn’t due to rough weather.
It now appears to be staying put, for the time being, due to court proceedings initiated at the 11th hour by Auckland businessman Geoff Hunt, who purchased NZL14 in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.
Council comms man Sam White says between Friday and Monday, Hunt approached council ‘‘regarding alternative arrangements for its removal’’.
‘‘QLDC is in the process of exploring matters with them.
‘‘Since the matter is now the subject of legal proceedings we won’t be making any further comment at this time.’’
The yacht, part of the Team NZ challenge for the 1992 America’s Cup, skippered by Sir Russell Coutts, then raced in San Francisco, was originally brought to Queenstown from Auckland by Sail Queenstown Ltd in 2005 — that company stopped operating in 2010.
The year after Hunt bought the yacht, he put its ownership into NZL14 Youth Aid Ltd.
But last May, the council deemed the yacht ‘abandoned’ under the Maritime Transport Act 1994, allegedly on grounds its mooring fees hadn’t been paid.
Council’s decision “absolute madness”
Hunt’s disputed the yacht is abandoned, and told Mountain Scene earlier this year the NZL14 Youth Aid Foundation was willing to pay reasonable mooring charges, provided all action taken against him by council was dropped.
Council, though, forged ahead, calling for expressions of interest (EOI) in March from interested parties wanting to remove it.
Fourteen parties put their hands up — after expressions of interest closed, council regulatory boss Anthony Hall told the ODT they’d reach out to them before finalising a preferred operator with a firm proposal ‘‘that meets our objectives for the yacht’s disposal’’.
Scene this week asked what council’s objectives were for NZL14’s disposal and who the party was it ultimately selected.
While silent on the second question, White says City Hall ‘‘selected a partner that best matched the criteria set out in the EOI process which allowed for proposals including removal and disposal and alternative outcomes’’.
‘‘Each application was considered on its merits.
‘‘Having been abandoned for several years the yacht is currently in a dilapidated state with a crack in its hull which requires it to be regularly pumped out.’’
Meantime, news the boat was to be scrapped has been met with outrage from other parties interested in taking it over.
Auckland yachtie Mike Parker, who tells Scene he recently purchased another America’s Cup boat, NZL20, also known as Black Magic, says the decision’s ‘‘insanity’’.
He says he put in an EOI for NZL14, visited the resort twice to look it over and put his engineers over it to make sure it could be restored.
If he’d been successful, he planned to fix it to preserve the ‘‘masterpiece of engineering and design’’, and put it back into charter on Lake Whakatipu.
‘‘What it takes just to build these boats and race them, I can’t even tell you, they’re like Formula Ones.
‘‘It looked rough, but it could go back [on] the water.’’
He contends he’s got ‘‘all the parts’’ required to fix it, including new sails and rigging, but council didn’t come back to negotiate with him, ‘‘they turned it down and decided it was better just to get rid of it’’.
‘‘It’s just madness … it’s just so irresponsible.’’
Paul Munro also contacted Scene this week, equally outraged at council’s decision.
He says he also put in an EOI, planning to relocate the yacht to Rarotonga for use as a training boat.
‘‘We don’t even know if they got it; we never heard back from them.’’
Munro says it’s ‘‘a bloody waste’’ for the yacht to be cut up.
‘‘It’s iconic and they [the council] went the wrong way about it … it’s absolute madness.’’
Hunt says a court hearing’s scheduled early next year — till then, unless the matter’s resolved earlier, it’ll remain in situ.
