The council last month called for expressions of interest to remove the yacht, and at least 14 parties responded.
The council went through the process after deciding the yacht was ‘‘abandoned’’ under the Maritime Transport Act 1994, on the grounds its mooring fees had not been paid.
Geoff Hunt, of Auckland, bought the yacht in 2017, seven years after it had last been used to take tourists on Lake Wakatipu, intending to use it to teach disadvantaged youth to sail.
A year later, he put ownership of the yacht into a company, NZL 14 Youth Aid Ltd.
Last month, he wrote to council regulatory manager Anthony Hall, reiterating the company owned the yacht, rather than him personally.
He told Mr Hall the council had ignored that ‘‘and continued to pursue me through the court for the payment of mooring fees which have never been invoiced to the owner of the vessel’’.
‘‘I wish to advise that the NZL 14 Youth Aid Foundation is willing to pay the reasonable charges for mooring in Queenstown Bay provided all action taken by council against me personally is dropped,’’ he said.
‘‘I must also advise that I am taking legal advice relating to defamation over the recent publicity which is factually incorrect and damaging to my reputation.’’
Mr Hunt also told Mountain Scene he did not accept the yacht was abandoned because he had someone look after it.
His letter to Mr Hall revealed he had also applied for resource consent to move the yacht to Frankton Arm, ‘‘which would have solved the ongoing problem’’, however he said it was not processed because of an opposing submission from local iwi.
Council chief executive Mike Theelen said ‘‘we’ve had a long-running engagement with this gentleman, and we’ve endeavoured to get him to comply’’.
‘‘He’s failed consistently to do so.’’
If Mr Hunt wanted to challenge the action the council was taking, ‘‘that’s certainly his right to do so, but we won’t be commenting on that’’, Mr Theelen said.
By Philip Chandler
