Eight years after creditors forced Sensation Yachts into liquidation, site demolition is finally underway. Notably, though, a partially finished project is still sitting on the former New Zealand shipyard’s property. Therefore, SY32, the last Sensation Yachts superyacht, could be yours.
SY32 belonged to a customer who ordered three same-size yachts last decade. LOA: 162’4” (49.5 meters). Each project saw at least the hull started, with SY32 having the resin-infused hull and superstructure constructed. They remain untouched, never joined together, due to Sensation Yachts’ financial issues. Reports of mounting debt, for example, and bad relationships with clients plagued the builder in the mid- to late 2000s. HSBC liquidated Sensation Yachts in 2009, and a year later, the High Court in Auckland ruled it could sell the property. In 2011, the above-mentioned owner bought Sensation Yachts in an attempt to see at least SY32 become finished. The three yachts were long overdue. He expected hull number one in 2005 and the last in 2007. Years of legal wrangling followed over the fate of the hulls, with him reportedly eventually abandoning them and the shipyard.
Because of that abandonment, a trust has taken over. It appointed a demolition company to remove everything. That demolition company can legally sell what’s left. In an interview with Stuff.co.nz, Peter Ward, managing director of Ward Demolition, says the last Sensation Yachts superyacht is worth an estimated $12.766 million (NZ$18 million). “We have been told that it’s up to code to the point that it has been built,” he tells the website, meaning ABS classification.
Featuring naval architecture by Sensation Yachts, SY32 has a beam of 30’2” (9.2 meters). In addition, draft is 6’9” (2.1 meters). If finished, she’d displace 280 tons and accommodate 12 in the owner’s party as well as eight crewmembers. Interior outfitting would, of course, be up to the buyer—as would finding a way to remove her and ship her to another yard for completion.
Ward Demolition posted the above photo of the last Sensation Yachts superyacht on its Facebook page this week. “Santa brought us a half-built super yacht that wasn’t on our list,” the post reads. “If we don’t find anyone to buy it before March, she’ll be fed to the Demo boys.”
Fausto Rodriguez
Dear Sir/ Madame
Can you please let me know how much is the asking price for the Sensation’s hull above?, I live in the Galapagos Islands and I am looking for some one to invest with something like the hull above and I can run completion here in Ecuador. This will be a perfect match for high end visitors to Galapagos.
THANK YOU KINDLY
Fausto
Diane M. Byrne
The hull no longer exists. Since no one purchased it by June, it was scrapped.
Thomas
Hi Diane
I heard that Ward Demolition had sold the hull. Are you able to please confirm that the hull has in fact been scrapped?
Kind regards
Diane M. Byrne
It was scrapped, correct.