kevin's new boat

Thrilled to see our Chairman's new 100' motor yacht 'Euphoria' steam into Sydney Harbour to take advantage of the Festive Season in the Emerald City. Obviously like the rest of us Watpac shareholders, he too is doing it tough. I was reminded of an article I remembered from The Courier Mail from September '08 in which he said it would be inappropriate for him to spend so much money on a yacht so cancelled his plans to do so - yeah right Kev. Perhaps we could submit your name to The Vatican to become Paton Saint of Hypocrisy:

"PROPERTY developer Kevin Seymour has cancelled construction of his new superyacht, saying it would send the wrong message in tough economic times.

"This is not the time for extravagance," the 67-year-old tycoon said.

"In tough times, corporate Australia needs to be prudent and cut back on luxury items and our company is no different.

Mr Seymour last month was ranked 14th on The Sunday Mail Queensland's Top 100 Rich List with an estimated $570 million fortune.

"People like myself have to set a bit of an example," he said.

A doyen of the state's property development business, he said conspicuous consumption sent a bad message when many people were having to tighten their belts.

"I'm supporting a pay rise for pensioners who are living in poverty," he said.

Mr Seymour's 32m tri-deck vessel was on order with a boat-builder in Taiwan. It was expected to cost the Brisbane-based developer about $12 million and was due for delivery early next year.

The new boat was to replace 26m yacht Serenity that Mr Seymour sold to fellow developer David Devine last year.

"I haven't impressed the grandkids (by not buying the new boat) but when I explained the issues, they understood," he said.

Mr Seymour said his privately owned Seymour Group had introduced "a very strict cost-cutting regime", including reducing the wages bill, in anticipation of an economic slow-down.

They would also be cutting back on the level of corporate entertaining.

But the company had cashed up by selling assets months ago and was "very comfortably" placed to ride out the downturn and take advantage of new strategic opportunities as they arose.

"You have to make your business lean and mean, cut out unnecessary overheads and get out and be competitive. You will see the difference between the good operators and the fat and sluggish ones," Mr Seymour said."