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 was not because of rough weather.
It appears to be staying put for the time being, due to court proceedings initiated at the 11th hour by Auckland businessman Geoff Hunt, who bought NZL14 in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.
Council spokesman Sam White said between Friday and Monday, Mr Hunt approached the 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 Mr 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 had not been paid.
Mr Hunt has disputed the yacht is abandoned, and said earlier this year the NZL14 Youth Aid Foundation was willing to pay reasonable mooring charges, provided all action taken against him by the council was dropped.
The council, though, forged ahead, calling for expressions of interest (EOIs) 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 said it would reach out to them before finalising a preferred operator with a firm proposal "that meets our objectives for the yacht’s disposal".
The council was asked this week what its objectives were for NZL14’s disposal and the party ultimately selected to remove it.
While silent on the second question, Mr White said council "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."
Meanwhile, news the boat was to be scrapped has been met with outrage from other parties interested in taking it over.
Auckland yachtie Mike Parker said he recently bought another America’s Cup boat, NZL20, also known as Black Magic, labelled the decision "insanity".
He said he put in an expression of interest 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 had been successful, he had planned to fix it to preserve the "masterpiece of engineering and design", and put it back into charter on Lake Wakatipu.
He contended he had "all the parts" required to fix it, including new sails and rigging, but the council did not 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."
Mr Hunt said a court hearing was scheduled for early next year. Until then, unless the matter was resolved earlier, NZL14 would remain in situ.
