Last May, the Queenstown Lakes District Council classed the yacht as abandoned and earlier this month put a call out for parties with the necessary equipment and resources, to apply to remove the yacht from its current mooring in Queenstown Bay.
Expressions of interest closed yesterday and council regulatory manager Anthony Hall said when contacted last Friday that more could trickle in before
the deadline.
He said there was no fixed timeline for the next steps of the process.
"Council will reach out to these interested parties with further information before narrowing them down to a preferred operator with a firm proposal that meets our objectives for the yacht’s disposal.
"Timelines for the disposal of the yacht will be agreed with the preferred operator once they’ve been selected," Mr Hall said.
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 originally brought to Queenstown from Auckland by a company called Sail Queenstown Ltd in 2005, which stopped operating in 2010.
In 2017, Mountain Scene reported the yacht had been bought by Auckland businessman Geoff Hunt for an undisclosed price.
Mr Hunt originally disputed council’s decision to class the yacht as abandoned.
It would be up to the successful party to decide what to do with the yacht once removed from the lake.
