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Chattanooga Times/Free Press

Sep. 7--True to its name, the luxury yacht "Liquidity" is moving on to greener waters in Florida.

Chattanooga millionaire Henry Luken, who brought the 157-foot ship to Chickamauga Lake this summer, said he hopes to cash out his investment by selling his ship to a New York auto dealer in Fort Lauderdale on Friday.

But as part-owner of the Christensen Shipyards that builds the three-level ships, Mr. Luken expects to soon replace the Liquidity with a comparable ship he hopes to anchor along a new 165-foot floating dock he wants to build adjacent to his Chattanooga home.

"We have a buyer that wants one of our ships right away," Mr. Luken said after returning from Florida on Sunday. "But I should have another one back in Chattanooga in another few months."

Mr. Luken, who sold the long-distance company Telco Communications in 1997 for $230 million, said he has owned four luxury boats over the past decade. He is one of the principal owners in the Christensen Shipyards in Vancouver, Wash., one of the biggest yacht builders in the world that completed the $25 million Liquidity earlier this year.

Christensen Shipyards is currently building six 157-foot yachts, which feature a unique exterior styling and customized interior. The ships are expected to be erected within 24 months, Mr. Luken said, after the company expands its 130,000-square-foot plant in Vancouver.

Mr. Luken is undeterred by the rising costs of diesel fuel required to operate the luxury yachts.

"For the type of people that buy these ships, $3 a galloon diesel fuel is not going to affect their decision to buy or not," he said.

Christensen Shipyards is one of the four businesses which Mr. Luken has invested in and serves on the board. Others include the Chattanooga-based Covista Communications, the Knoxville-based Jewelry Television and the Equity Broadcasting Corp. television network.

Mr. Luken said his interest in the ships is both for pleasure and business. The 45-year-old investor personally drove the Liquidity to Fort Lauderdale last week and was on the Tombigbee Waterway in Yellow Creek, Miss., when Hurricane Katrina struck the region.

"We tied up and waited for about 30 hours, but we didn't have any real problems," he said.

Mr. Luken hopes to sail through even smoother waters in his bid to locate a floating dock on south shore of the Tennessee River near Maclellan Island. The proposed 165-foot floating dock would be built adjacent to the Battery Place home Mr. Luken bought earlier this year for $2.75 million from former UnumProvident CEO Harold Chandler.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority, which must approve such docks in the Tennessee River, are accepting public comments until Sept. 26. But the home already has a dock permit and the proposed dock, although bigger, is still on the opposite side of the river from the main shipping canal.

Mr. Luken said he's not sure which boat may be anchored at the new dock, if it is approved. Christensen is building several speculative ships and some buyers are likely to trade in other yachts.

"I may buy an older boat or take one of the Christensen yachts, if they are not already sold," Mr. Luken said. "But you're probably soon going to see another boat of some type."

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