Court rules presidential yacht Sequoia to be sold for $0

A court has ruled that the renowned US presidential yacht Sequoia, is to be sold to FE Partners for $0.

On 14th November, Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the 31m vessel was no longer worth the original $7.8 million buyout stipulated when her current owners, the Sequoia Presidential Yacht Group, acquired her back in 2000.

At the time, the purchase was funded by a loan from FE Partners, who have now been given the option to acquire Sequoia without having to pay out anything further.

Judge Sam Glasscock commented, “Sequoia is sitting on an inadequate cradle on an undersized marine railway in a moribund boatyard on the western shore of the Chesapeake, deteriorating and, lately, home to raccoons.”

Originally built in 1925 by Trumpy, Sequoia was the official presidential yacht from 1969 until 1977, before Jimmy Carter sold her at auction for around $268,000. She has served some of the most prominent US presidents of the 20th century including Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard Nixon.

Sequoia was most recently chartered in Washington D.C, however in 2014 she was hauled out at the Chesapeake Boat Works shipyard in Virginia, and has remained there ever since. The court ruling means she now has the chance to be restored to her original beauty and, according to restoration expert Earl McMillen III, she could eventually be worth up to $13 million.

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