The job was to do a custom installation of electronics on a brand new 55' Chris Craft. I made teak facials and what have you and when done it looked like the instruments came with the boat. I took photos but need to find them. Maybe in a later post I'll show some of my custom installations.
When I was done with the job I gave the owner the invoice for $5K. He refused to pay a penny of it saying that he could have done the job himself and threw me off of the boat. The yard manger from the marina was there as well and saw the whole thing.
I went home and later that night I went to the marina where his boat was docked with my custom built boat. I tied up the the starboard side (right side for landlubbers), climbed aboard and untied him from the dock. I towed his boat out of the slip and went across the bay to a marina that I was friends with.
I manuvered that Chris Craft into the launching pit where the yard manager was waiting for me with the slings of the travel lift in the water. Once the boat was in the pit and over the slings he hauled the boat out of the water. We then blocked it and out stands around it for the night.
The next day the guy came back to the slip to find his boat missing. He looked across the bay and there is was all blocked up in the marina. He came into the yard screaming and yelling and brought two police cars with him. Also the yard manager from his marina was there as well.
I showed the police that the guy signed the work order giving me permission to work on the boat. On a big job I always get a signature. In the fine print there was a statement that an express mechanics lien is placed upon the boat to secure payment. The yard manager from the marina said that I was there working on the boat and that they guy refused to pay me. The police read the work order and told the guy that I am within my legal rights and he has to pay me.
Grumbling away he wrote me a check for the money that he owed. I told him cash only. He freaked out and the police told him that if I want cash, he has to give me cash. Now this was Sunday and the banks were closed. At his slip was a party of people that he was going to take out for a Sunday cruise. Not now.
He came back the next day and paid me in full in cash. Great. I told my friend that he paid me. Now my friend rubbed some salt into the wounds by telling the guy he now has to pay for the hauling and blocking of the boat and the washing of the bottom plus one day storage and launching fee. That ran him another 3 grand.
Needless to say not only was his Sunday ruined but the rest of he week as well. Bet he never tried to screw someone out of money again after that.
'till next time.
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