After Flynn’s death in 1959, Zaca stayed at her berth at the Club Nautico, the crew keeping her up with the little money Patrice could get them. The attorneys for Flynn’s Estate in the meanwhile were plotting to get rid of her. Eventually they agreed to consign her to English millionaire playboy Freddie Tinsley who promised he could sell her in France. Once in France, Tinsley stripped Zaca of everything of value and, in 1965, abandoned her in the boatyard of Bernard Voisin in Villefranche. Voisin eventually claimed Zaca for non-payment of rent.
Zaca further deteriorated and turned into a ghost ship. The locals claimed there were emanations of Errol Flynn coming from the vessel and the sound of wild parties at night. This all ceased after a dual Anglican-Catholic exorcism in 1979.
In 1987 English electronics mogul Phillip Coussins purchased Voisin’s boat yard just to get Zaca but the deal ended up in French courts for two years.
In 1990 Coussins wound up selling a now sunken Zaca to Italian businessman Roberto Memmo.