The tide has turned and the ship has sunk for Clipper City Tall Ship owner John Kircher.
Baltimore-based Clipper City had hosted weddings, daily boating excursions, parties and the like while cruising from the Inner Harbor to the Key Bridge and back, according to court documents.
“Clipper City isn?t sailing for the foreseeable future, and the business under my ownership is ending,” said Kircher in a news release. “Mortgage holder Regal Bank is clearly determined to take control of the ship, despite our Chapter 11 filing last month.”
Baltimore-based Clipper City Kircher, in a move to prevent Regal Bancorp, the first lien holder, from foreclosing on the business, filed for bankruptcy protection on May 21. But recent actions by the U.S. Coast Guard, which revoked the company?s certificate to sail, have scuttled his operations and put Regal back in the driver?s seat to seek permission from the court to reclaim its $750,000 interest in the ship.
On Wednesday, Kircher?s attorneys went to U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland to ask that his Chapter 11 case be dismissed, citing sagging revenues, extensive repairs and mounting financial debt estimated to be more than $1 million.
“To further complicate matters, soon after this case was filed, the U.S. Coast Guard informed the [Clipper City] that it would not extend its certificate that is set to expire May 31, 2007 unless certain repairs were made to the hull,” court documents read.
In court filings, Kircher?s attorney Lori Simpson said that finances, lack of insurance, revocation of its certificate by the Coast Guard, and Regal Bancorp and General Ship Repair?s unwillingness to consent to the use of cash collateral or approval of alternative financing forced the company to withdraw its bankruptcy petition. Regal Bancorp and General Ship Repair have agreed to the withdrawal.
Regal Bancorp Vice President Thomas Esposito said the “bank will not be commenting at all regarding anything dealing with Clipper City.”
Clipper City?s former general manager, Doug Butschky, is reportedly redirecting clients who had signed on with the ship to other boats for their booked events. “He is doing all that he can on his own to assure that people?s events go forward,” said Larry Levy, owner of Biddle Street Catering.
Previously, Kircher said that all prepaid charters and events had been canceled and that he would not be able to refund monies already paid. “I found [Kircher] to be very disingenuous,” Levy said. “Even when the Coast Guard boarded the ship while I was in a meeting with him, he was not giving us the whole picture.”
