Former America’s Cup yacht to be scrapped

The America’s Cup boat NZL14 will leave its long-time mooring at Queenstown Bay. Photo / Philip Chandler

The America’s Cup boat moored at Queenstown Bay for more than a decade is heading to the knacker’s yard.

The yacht, NZL14, will be towed to Kingston tomorrow — weather permitting — where it will be hauled out of the water and disposed of.

The yacht has been in Queenstown since 2005, but was classed as abandoned in May last year.

In March this year the Queenstown Lakes District Council had asked for expressions of interest from parties wanting to remove the former America’s Cup yacht.

Earlier this week, the council said the yacht was set to head yesterday from its mooring at Queenstown Bay, where it had sat since 2010, to Kingston.

A council spokesman said bad weather forecast yesterday forced the moe to be postponed, and it was now scheduled to head to Kingston tomorrow, where it would sit at one of the boat ramps.

From there it would be taken out of the water and will hopefully be disposed of by Wednesday. Any parts that are still usable will be recycled but it will no longer be a yacht once the disposal is completed.

The 23m yacht, with a 35m mast and weighing 22 tonnes, had been unusable for some time. It has a crack in its hull and water has to be pumped out of it regularly.

The yacht was part of the NZ Challenge for the America’s Cup in 1992, skippered by Sir Russell Coutts, then raced in San Francisco.

It was brought to Queenstown by Auckland company Sail Queenstown Limited in 2005, where it was used to take tourists out on Lake Wakatipu.

That company stopped operating in 2010 and the yacht has been permanently moored in Queenstown Bay ever since.

In 2017, the Mountain Scene reported Auckland businessman Geoff Hunt bought NZL14 for an undisclosed price, and established a registered charity the following year to help disadvantaged youth ‘’find a new way forward’' by teaching them how to sail.

He estimated the restoration of the run-down yacht would cost about $100,000.

Hunt did not agree with the council when it declared the yacht abandoned in May last year.