Rivkin Buys New Home For His Boat

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday December 18, 1999

By VALERIE LAWSON

This is serious toys for the boys stuff.

Sydney businessmen Rene Rivkin, Nati Stoliar and Wolfie Pizem have bought Elizabeth Bay Marina for $1.3 million ``so we can put our boats there", says Mr Rivkin. And he is not talking about runabouts.

The boats of the broker Mr Rivkin, the former owner of the Elizabeth Bay mansion Boomerang, Mr Stoliar, and the restaurateur Mr Pizem are super yachts, classified as over 25 metres, powered by either sail or motor and costing anything upwards of $5 million.

Mr Rivkin's 31-metre motor cruiser, Dajoshadita, complete with Bell helicopter, Mr Pizem's 27-metre Aurora and Mr Stoliar's 27-metre Cosmos will all be moored at their new home when it is rejigged to take larger yachts from next year, Mr Rivkin said.

On New Year's Eve, they will join about 17 others, forming a flotilla of gin palaces on Sydney Harbour.

The three gleaming cream super yachts, now tucked under the Anzac Bridge at Rozelle Bay, will be joined by Frank Lowy's London registered Ilona (47 metres), Russell and Jim Buckley's Dreamtime and Sally Ann, whose home base is Fort Lauderdale.

Sally Ann is owned by an American and registered to a company called Harlan Ltd in Georgetown in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands.

Dreamtime, registered in Southport, was bought by the directors of Hume Doors and Timber, Queensland-based Jim Buckley and his nephew Russell Buckley from Perth businessman Jack Bendat about three years ago. At 30 metres, it is dwarfed by the 47-metre Sally Ann, flying a red flag, although the Cayman Islands flag is dark blue with a Union Jack in the corner.

Sally Ann, built by Delta Boats in Seattle in 1994, has never sailed in the Caymans, according to a spokesman for the Register of Ships Department in Georgetown.

Skippered by an American, David Andrews, and with a crew of six living on the lower deck, its owner is not even going to be here for New Year's Eve, according to the whisper around the waterfront, but is due to join the yacht estimated to have cost $40 million, in Adelaide in January.

Mr Rob Stirling, owner of shipbroker and charter company Pacific Rim, says about 20 super yachts will be on the harbour to see in 2000. He is ferrying guests to the boats on water taxis at a cost of $150 a head, a fee Mr Rivkin refuses to pay. His children are holding a party for about 150 guests on board and ``I'm paying for it".

Among the other super yachts now in Sydney are Belle Aventure, a 30-metre 1929 yacht, owned by an English stockbroker, and Mr Packer's 88-metre Arctic P, now at Garden Island. Mari Cha III, (45 metres), due next Tuesday, is owned by duty-free billionaire Robert Miller.