THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090483
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 66 lines
Not many people can afford a $100,000 motor yacht, so it comes as little surprise that there was little notice when Tidewater Yacht Sales Inc. went out of business.
The company sold new Bayliner yachts and various used craft out of offices in Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and Edgewater, Md., near Annapolis.
The Virginia Beach office closed first, in January. The other offices closed by the end of March.
After its lenders had repossessed most of its inventory of large boats, it filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in late April.
You probably didn't hear about it because Tidewater Yacht Sales filed in the federal bankruptcy court in Alexandria. Yes, Alexandria.
Why?
``There was a business office in Alexandria,'' said Bennett Brown, the company's bankruptcy attorney in Fairfax.
At the request of Central Fidelity Bank, which Tidewater Yacht Sales owed more than $300,000, a federal judge in Alexandria ordered the case transferred to the Norfolk federal bankruptcy court.
The case arrived here July 26, three months after the company filed for bankruptcy.
Tidewater Yacht Sales is not related to the prominent Tidewater Yacht Marina or Tidewater Yacht Agency in Portsmouth. The busy marina is located across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk's Waterside and Town Point Park.
Tidewater Yacht Sales did lease space at the marina, but now it just owes the marina money, marina owner Katherine Shelton said.
What prompted the bankruptcy seems to be a matter of some dispute among the company's owners.
John Atherton, Tidewater Yacht Sales president and half owner, could not be reached for comment.
According to Brown, the other half owner, Philadelphia attorney Franchot Golub, sold his stake to Thomas Rocacik of Hampton in January without notifying Atherton. Golub then withdrew his personal guarantees from the loans Tidewater Yacht Sales had taken out to finance the business, prompting the creditors to begin repossessing its inventory, Brown said.
``After the lenders had repossessed all the boats, we just wanted to bring some order to the company,'' Brown said of the bankruptcy.
Rocacik, who'd been a salesman for the company, disagrees. But he declined to say what he thinks happened.
``I don't have the books. They won't let me have books. Until I get my hands on the books, I don't know what happened,'' Rocacik said.
Besides leaving the usual creditors - such as phone companies and landlords - holding empty bags in any bankruptcy, Tidewater Yacht Sales also had borrowed $200,000 from Lynnhaven Dry Storage Marina, owned by Wayne McLeskey Jr.
Tidewater Yacht Sales' biggest creditor, Transamerica Commercial, is owed $37,000 of the $1.7 million on Bayliner inventory it had financed, then repossessed in February, according to the bankruptcy filing.
The bankruptcy court gave Central Fidelity the right in July to foreclose on several used yachts and an office barge that had secured its loans.
Tidewater Yacht Sales has no inventory and few, if any, other assets, bankruptcy papers show. Brown, its bankruptcy attorney, said the company probably will be liquidated. ILLUSTRATION: WHO: The company sold new Bayliner yachts and
various used craft. It is not related to the Tidewater Yacht Marina
or Tidewater Yacht Agency in Portsmouth.
WHEN: It filed for bankruptcy protection in late April in
Alexandria, and the case recently reached Norfolk federal court. by CNB