Buyer says he paid $4M for new boat he never got

Wellington-based contractor Kevin Turner says he just wants the new 74-foot Sport Yacht he paid $4 million to have built by prestigious England-based Sunseeker.

“It’s a very sleek and sexy boat. It’s about 1,000 square feet with a nice master cabin and king-size bed. There’s a little kitchen with a sitting area, plus two other staterooms,” Turner said.

But his money has seemingly vanished, and Sunseeker refuses to release his completed boat, Turner is charging in a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in Broward County. Turner says it’s being held hostage amid a dispute between Sunseeker and the Fort Lauderdale-based company that had been its largest U.S. dealer, Richard Obey & Associates.

“The money that’s involved here, I had to work a long time for,” Turner said.

Turner said he’s one of six buyers who paid Obey’s company to have boats built by Sunseeker, and now all are in limbo while Obey and Sunseeker battle each other in court, each claiming to be owed about $13 million.

“None of the defendants have made any efforts to address the plight of their customers,” Turner said in a lawsuit filed in May against Obey and Sunseeker. “Instead, the Defendants have devolved into finger-pointing, namecalling and gamesmanship as they attempt to avoid liability for their malfeasance.”

Turner said the dispute destroyed his plan to spend the summer with his wife cruising the Mediterranean in their new boat.

Obey’s Fort Lauderdale-based attorney, Robert Goldman, said Obey “feels bad that customers are in the midst of this litigation” but that it’s ultimately Sunseeker’s responsibility to release their boats.

In an emailed statement, Obey said Sunseeker is holding $3.8 million of his company’s money, “which is more than enough to release Mr. Turner’s boat … but

Sunseeker refuses to do so.” Sunseeker’s attorney did not immediately respond to a message left at his office Friday.

Obey, a longtime yacht broker, sued Sunseeker in March, claiming the company unlawfully terminated their five-year dealer agreement prior to the end of its term, which has prevented Obey from being able to sell Sunseeker vessels.

Sunseeker also stopped reimbursing Obey for warranty work it conducted on Sunseeker products, and began negotiating with other dealers to sell in Obey’s Florida territory, Obey’s suit claims.

The relationship began to crumble when Sunseeker delayed taking responsibility for a catastrophic engine failure that occurred on the maiden voyage of one of Obey’s customers in March 2018, Obey stated in a court filing.

Goldman said Obey took the defective boat back and sold the customer another boat but was out $7 million for a year before the repairs were made. In the meantime, Obey “slowed down” payments it was scheduled to make to Sunseeker for purchase of other boats, the filing stated.

Turner contends that Obey had stopped paying Sunseeker for five boats it ordered on “spec” and planned to sell at its dealership. That caused Sunseeker to hold back delivery of six boats ordered by Obey’s customers, he said.

In the suit it filed against Obey in April, Sunseeker said it was contacted by several Obey customers wanting to know the status of vessel orders placed with Obey “for which [Obey] accepted deposits.”

Obey, Sunseeker’s suit states, “is either holding back customers’ deposits which should have been supplied to (Sunseeker) … or has absconded with its customers’ money.”

Obey also has refused Sunseeker’s request to audit the dealer’s books and refused to provide purchase and sale agreements for customers who ordered boats through the dealer, Sunseeker’s suit states.

An invoice attached to the lawsuit lists 12 boats that Sunseeker said Obey ordered with a total balance due of $12.8 million. Sunseeker sent Obey a letter saying it had no choice but to try put nearly all of the boats back on the market.

Turner says the invoice states he still owes $2.4 million on the boat he ordered. But Obey has acknowledged that Turner paid the full $4 million purchase price, including $2 million in trade-in value for his old boat.

Obey accepted the tradein from Turner and about $1.5 million more without disclosing its “fraying business relationship” with Sunseeker, Turner’s suit stated.

When he accepted Turner’s payments, Obey believed the two sides would still be able to resolve their disputes, Goldman said.