Vessels to remain in Erceg boatyard

HSBC wants chattels including boat hulls removed from Ivan Erceg's Sensation Yachts yard. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Creditors of bankrupt boat builder Ivan Erceg have been given a break as the High Court denied an application to have vessels removed from his former West Auckland property.

Erceg left the country last year and has since been bankrupted. He is believed to be in the south of France.

His luxury boat building company, Sensation Yachts - which catered to the world's super rich - has been placed into liquidation.

Erceg is appealing against the High Court decision that bankrupted him.

HSBC's application to have chattels removed from his 5ha boatyard in Henderson was declined.

Justice Raynor Asher said he agreed, under the proceedings HSBC filed, that the chattels should not be removed.

The bank wants the chattels, which include three incomplete boat hulls, removed so it can sell the property and recoup its $6.5 million investment.

It will now have to file fresh proceedings to remove the chattels.

A chambers hearing in the High Court at Auckland today will determine whether the case will go to trial.

The closed hearing will be between HSBC, Erceg's representatives and other parties such as Balenia and Dorchester Finance.

The three boat hulls belong to Balenia, which paid Erceg more than $100 million to build five luxury vessels for Russian clients.

The yachts, due to be finished by 2007, were never completed.

Balenia opposed HSBC's move to relocate the chattels because it claims it is not "practical" to move the hulls.

Each hull is more than 50m long, 10m wide and weighs in excess of 100 tonnes, and Balenia says there isn't another site available to house them.

Erceg's exact whereabouts are not known, but he is believed to be in France.

At the end of last year he was based in Marseille, where he is believed to have sailed his multimillion-dollar superyacht, Sensation, which he inherited from his brother Michael, the liquor industry billionaire.

HSBC's lawyer, James Burt, said the bank could not sell the property until the chattels had been removed.

Burt told Justice Asher during a hearing last month that the bank was between a "rock and a hard place" as the chattels were a contractual agreement between Erceg and the related parties and had nothing to do with the land HSBC wanted to sell.

The lawyer said if the court agreed to HSBC shifting the hulls and they were not taken off the property, it would be treated as trespass.