Jobs go at Kiwi boat builders

by Mathew Dearnaley & Wayne Thompson on 18 Feb 2003 New Zealand boat builder Sovereign Yachts, once the boast of the Government's 'jobs Machine', is laying off workers while showing off its first luxury creation at the America's Cup regatta.

Four workers have received redundancy letters from the boat-building company set up by New Zealand expatriate Bill Lloyd after the Economic Development Minister, Jim Anderton, cleared the way for its purchase of defence land at Hobsonville.

More of the company's employees are believed likely to find themselves out of work after returning from leave.

The casualties are being thanked for their hard work in getting the 41m Sovereign Lady to sea a week ago - in time to be an official regatta vessel for the America's Cup - but are being told the company has no other yachts requiring their services.

They are understood not to have received any redundancy compensation, just holiday pay and a week's wages in lieu of notice.

Mr Lloyd, contacted on the vessel before the start of the second cup race on Sunday, said he was too busy to answer questions about his boatyard.

'Right now, I'm in the middle of a cup - the America's Cup,' he said, inviting the Herald to contact him yesterday.

But he was unavailable all day, involved in a management meeting until hastening back to sea, where an assistant said he could not be reached 'because he has got clients on the boat'.

Although the company insists its ownership of an imported hull to be built into a second superyacht is solid, an industry source said he understood there was some dispute about freight charges before it could be released from waterfront storage.

He said those laid off, including highly skilled artisans who had left other boatyards on the basis of assurances from Mr Lloyd, worked long and punishing hours to get Sovereign Lady in the water on time.

Mr Lloyd brought the hull of Sovereign Lady from his factory in Canada, where he made a fortune, and transformed it into a luxury craft at Hobsonville over 17 months while employing up to 60 staff and 30 subcontractors.

It was built 'on spec' to show wealthy cup regatta visitors what New Zealand can build. It is believed to be for sale for more than $27 million.

At its launch last week, Mr Lloyd said his next project was a 36m vessel for which the hull had arrived from Canada. A 42m vessel would follow.

But the second vessel is considerably smaller by volume than Sovereign Lady, and he said plans to be building 45m craft by now with 150 workers were hampered by inadequate launching facilities at Hobsonville.

Although Mr Anderton's office helped to fast-track the sale of 4ha of land to Mr Lloyd, the super-yacht builder and the Government have fallen out over plans to build state housing nearby.

Mr Lloyd said earlier the plans were blocking an option he won to buy a site for a $200m marine park and improve launching capacity.

Mr Anderton, although absent from Sovereign Lady's launch, sent congratulations to Mr Lloyd on producing a vessel of international class and said he was pleased 'to play a part in facilitating your return to New Zealand ... '

He told the Herald he was always saddened when workers were made redundant, but businesses always ran at some risk.

The company had not received a cent from the Government 'so what happens at Sovereign Yachts is entirely the business of Sovereign Yachts'.

The company had negotiated its land purchase with the pre-defence owners, and the Government's support was for the use of a site with deep water access by boatbuilders as an industry rather than one player.

He was confident in the site's success for such a purpose, despite Mr Lloyd's reservations.