Hey You, There's a Schooner on the Auction Block

By CHRIS AYOTTE and DOUG GREENE

Updated 6:47 PM EDT, Mon, Nov 2, 2009

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The economy has given home buyers deals on foreclosed homes, but some sailing aficionado could get his or her hands on a 171-foot-long schooner for a deal.

The boat, called the Mystic, is on the auction block because the owner of the three-masted schooner, could not handle the $2.9 million she owes on the mortgage. She bought the boat for $6 million for the Mystic in 2007, Geoff Jones of Lignum Vitae, said.

Amy Blumberg, the owner, of Mystic Schooner Line LLC, wanted to run a charter ship company, but the stock market problems put an end to her dream, Blumberg's friend, Karin Soderberg, said. Blumberg did not want to speak with NBC Connecticut.

"Well I know the owner and she had her heart set on building a big charter boat so this was her dream. And it didn't work out quite the way it should have after the stock market went belly up," Soderberg said.

Blumberg has been unable to sell the boat, so Lignum Vitae LC has foreclosed on the mortgage and the boat will be auctioned off on Nov. 9 in U.S. District Court in New Haven, the Day of New London reports.

Lignum Vitae owns the dock where the Mystic is moored and it will hold onto the ship unless someone pays $2.9 million at the auction. Jones said he does not expect someone to buy it there but a sheik from Kuwait checked out the ship earlier this fall.

The boat had set sail on day and evening cruises and multi-day trips since being built in Florida in 2007, and operated out of Baltimore and the Bahamas in the fall and winter.

Lignum Vitae's lawyer, John Senning, says someone will have to bid more than $2.9 million to own the ship. A mortgage holder usually submits a bid in a case like this and tries to sell the boat later, he said.

So if you are lucky enough to place the winning bid, you'll be able to bring 33 of your friends on a cruising vacation.

The Mystic is a square-topsail schooner that first launched in 2007, according to Sailing Ship Adventures. The boat, which was built in Florida, has “wide decks for sunbathing and plenty of room for fishing,” and 17 cabin with luxury mattresses and bedding.

The auction is set for 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 9 in the U.S. Marshal’s Office in the courthouse at 141 Church Street in New Haven. The winning bid will have to give a 10 percent deposit and pay the rest within 48 hours.

Last winter, Blumberg was asking $12,000 for a six-day luxury charter cruise in the Bahamas. If all had gone right, the tall ship would be in the Bahamas next week, finishing a season of transatlantic cruises rather than going on the auction block.