Depends on how the boats were bought by the dealer. More than likely the "banks" have recourse against the mfg and they will have to take them back at a portion of invoice (60-80%). The diff will be paid by the dealer principals, etc.

DollaBill, or anyone else familiar with floor planning.....

It seems to me from observing this Passport situation that those at Key Bank keeping up with Passports boats fell down on the job. GE pulled out of their floorplan financing several months ago because they had problems locating many of Passport Marines boats. Things weren't jivving. The boats were/are all over the place. Behind private homes, behind investors homes, some at Hi-Lift, some at the Port Marina, moved from location to location in Tampa and elsewhere. A total cluster mess. Shouldn't Key Bank have kept a tighter reign on what was going on before the current situation came to pass?

You never know exactly what happens. Depending on the size/worth of the principals involved there is a degree of lattitude when it comes to the location of the boats. Boats are always at shows or poker runs or at the factory getting warranty work, etc. Depending on the geographic location of the dealer they may also be kept at a principals house or other marinas if storage is a problem. It should always come together pretty quickly and be verifiable or the sh!t will hit the fan.

I know a couple large dealers that keep boats behind their homes in so FL. No problem. It seems these guys got a liitle out of hand. I always had my 42 Ex on the raod to a poker run or in Ft. Lauderdale, BUT every other piece of inventory was exactly where it should be at all times. They didn't break my chops too bad.

As for GE, they decided about a year ago they wanted to get out of the marine side altogether. I'm sure they got involved because of a business relationship with Formula. Just a guess.

Thanks.

The problem with Passport , from what I hear, is even the principals didn't know where some of the boats were at any given time. They got rid of all of the people that knew what was going on. More than anything else, I think that was their biggest mistake.

Maybe they got rid of certain people for just that reason, they wanted to bluff the lenders as long as they could?

My thoughts exactly. They got rid of some of the sharpest people that were there whan they bought the marina, and replaced them with "yes" men (and women) who never questioned anything.

Don't you think that was the plan? If you knew too much or questioned anything you were fired or demoted....

Just heard that Passport had about 70 new boats in inventory . Some of the boats taken from the Tama/St. Pete area are at the Loggerhead Marina in Riviera Beach.

Andy Sturner had hired a woman who supposedly is a high priced top notch bankrupcy expert to try and cut a deal with Key bank. No Go. Couldn't come up with enough money.

I passed by Hi-Lift Marina today. So Weird. The first time in about thirty years there are no boats in the showroom. The old owners, the Ellis brothers, were so careful and conservative. They watched every sale and every trade-in. They kept it small, but kept it all. I looked at one of the articles put out by Jim Dillon and Andy Sturner about Passport Marine, which I quote "......This aproach helped Dillon, and Co-Founder and partner Andrew Sturner take a STRUGGLING Formula boat dealership at Hi-Lift Marina in Aventura, and turn it into a top selling Formula dealership in just two and a half years...." Well, WHO'S STRUGGLING NOW PAL

Update....

I have been told that Key Bank tried to get Andy Sturner to sign a paper voluntarily relinquishing his Passport Boat inventory to the bank He refused to sign. That is why they had to "forcibly" remove the boats by sending in the Sherriff and eight squad cars. Also, the president of Key Bank was at the marina seizure . Sturner himself was conveniently at a sports tournament during the re-posession . I have been told that Key Bank is sitting on 1.2 BILLION DOLLARS in bad boat loans. looks like financing boats will be tough.