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Bankrupt Nautilus
to return vessel
to previous owner

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By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin staff

The company that supplied a semi-submersible sightseeing boat to the now-bankrupt Nautilus Adventures partnership is set to get the vessel back for the amount it is owed.

Mary Lou Woo, trustee in the bankruptcy of the partnership, said today that the bankruptcy court has been asked to approve the sale of the Nautilus V to the boat's builder, California-based Sub Sea Systems Inc., for $342,206.

Sub Sea Systems won't actually pay that money, since it is the amount of its secured debt and the debt gets erased. However, Sub Sea also agreed to pay $5,000 to the trustee administrative expenses.

There is some other interest in buying the boat and there will be an opportunity to try to outbid Sub Sea at a Nov. 15 hearing in bankruptcy court in Honolulu, Woo said. Meanwhile, potential buyers may inspect the vessel at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Kewalo Basin.

Woo said another semi-submersible, Nautilus II, is for sale because the developers of the Ko Olina resort, who had offered $300,000 for it, withdrew their offer.

The former operators of the vessels, Nautilus Adventures and its affiliate Nautilus Sub Sea Adventures Inc., are undergoing separate Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidations after attempts to reorganize failed.

The vessels, designed to look like submarines, travel on the surface while their passengers ride below the waterline viewing reefs and sea life through large acrylic windows.

The businesses filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in May, while the court was preparing to enforce a foreclosure action. The cases were later converted to Chapter 7s, in which assets are liquidated to pay creditors without attempting to restart the business.