Update: Boat sold for $41,000

HOUGHTON LAKE, MI — It's been sitting on blocks overlooking a construction yard, but with the right bid and some hard work and polish, this princess could be someone's new floating home, business, or both.



The Cumberland Princess, a two-story 80-foot party barge with a colorful past, will be auctioned to the highest bidder Friday, June 7, by the Roscommon County Sheriff's Office.

The boat was built in 1991 in Monticello, Ky., according to its original owner, Susan Hatcher.

She and her husband, John, spent much of the 1990s with a crew on the ship, carrying tour groups in the double-decker princess down the Cumberland, Little Tennessee and

Tennessee–Tombigbee waterway

in Tennessee.

When John Hatcher died in 2007, Susan sold the boat to a buyer in Michigan in 2008, and the boat was later used at Comfort Suites Lakeside at Houghton Lake to give tours and dinner cruises.

When the boat was taken out to have its hull repaired in 2011, it never made it back into the lake.

Roscommon County Sheriff Randall Stevenson said the hull was punctured when Houghton Lake froze in the winter of 2011.

The Houghton Lake Resorter reported that the boat's hull was damaged in a storm in May 2011, and the boat was pulled out for repairs and was to be inspected by the Department of Environmental Quality before being put back into the water.

When the boat's owner contracted with Porath Contractors Inc. in Houghton Lake to have the boat removed so it could be repaired, the contracting company never got paid, said owner Jim Porath.

That is what led to the sheriff's sale.

"I have a judgment against the boat for work that I performed," Porath said, "and they're selling the boat in order to get me paid."

Porath said the insurance company told him that the move was "a covered claim," and he believes the insurance company paid the boat's owner instead of the contracting company.

In April 2012, a circuit court judge ordered the sheriff to seize the Cumberland Princess because of the lien.

The sheriff said, at that time, the boat was in the parking lot of the Comfort Suites Lakeside, so he wrapped it in tape to denote it had been seized, but the township told him the boat was blight and had to be moved.

"What do I do with an 80-foot boat?" the sheriff said, adding it was the "biggest by far" he had seen on Houghton Lake.

The sheriff's department asked Porath to move the boat a second time, adding to the bill owed to Porath, the sheriff said.

Porath would not say how much money he spent moving and storing the boat, but Sheriff Stevenson estimated the total cost owed to Porath is about $58,000. Court documents confirm that number.

There is no starting bid for the Cumberland Princess, the sheriff said.

Porath said the hull never was fixed, but damage is minor. He said of the six compartments of the boat, one compartment has taken on water because of the damage.

"There wasn't that much water," he said. "There's a lot of value there. The only thing holding it back is someone's imagination."

He suggested that maybe Kid Rock would want to put the boat on Torch Lake, or that A&E's "Duck Dynasty" might want to live on it.

Asked about the condition of the boat, the sheriff said he understands both diesel motors were "flooded and shot," but noted some boats in the 60-foot range sell for up to $200,000.

"This is an 80-foot houseboat," he said. "If somebody got it for a reasonable amount, say $40,000, and put $20,000 in fix-me-up on it, and moved it someplace..."

A successful bidder will have to pay the full amount on the day of the sale, the sheriff said. The buyer will be given a "reasonable" amount of time to move the vessel, he said.

Despite the recent financial history of the boat, Hatcher said it was profitable when she was running it, and she has many good memories on board.

"It was used to take tours down rivers, and we would spend three days on the river," she said. "We explored rivers, any that were connected."

"It could easily be made into a house boat," she said, noting the crew would live on board for extended periods.

The boat has a full bathroom with a shower and a second bathroom with three toilets. A kitchen with a full-size fridge and island sits in the large central room of the boat.

Upstairs, a second steering wheel and seating area are are the front of the boat, while the majority of the top level is open and surrounded by railings. A canopy frame that covers most of the second level is also included.

Hatcher said it takes a professional to drive the vessel.

"If they're not boat savvy, they're not going to want to touch it," she said, noting she would steer it down the river, but wouldn't dream of docking it.

"We always had a licensed captain on board," she said.

While it is rated to hold about 50 people, the boat was designed to withstand a group of 100 people standing on one side of the boat, she said, and it would tip just 8 inches.

"It's much more stable than an average boat," she said.

The auction will take place at 10 a.m. Friday, June 7, at Porath Contractors, 960 S. Harrison, Houghton Lake.

If you had the money and know-how to turn the Cumberland Princess into true royalty, how would you remodel the vessel? Are you heading to Houghton Lake tomorrow to bid? Let us know in the comments section.

Brad Devereaux Email | Facebook | Twitter | 989-372-2442