Maritime law in DR, detention of yacht for debts due.

I need some urgent advice on how I may proceed with this matter.

I have a (former) friend who decided to construct a large catamaran for charter in La Boca De Cumayasa (near San Pedro de Macoris) . He asked me to invest in the project , which I declined to do.
I did agree to lend him and his business partner ?70,000 Euro (approximately 4 million Peso) for a few years. I also purchaced and paid for, a large amount of electrical and other parts in the USA and Europe for the boat. Due to several cost over-runs etc. I lent several subsequent sums of money and spent 7 weeks doing the electrical and electronic installaion on the catamaran in December 2012/ January 2013. Eventually after lending several subsequent amounts of money I was owed almost ?240,000 (approximately 13.7 million Peso) by the end of last year.
The boat was eventually completed in May 2013 and commenced charter work in July 2013. I agreed to delay repayment until January 2014 and after that ?5,000 (287,000 Peso) per month. I eventually received 2 payments in March and May of this year amounting to ?7,088 (405,000 Peso) and nothing since then. I have e-mailed several times during the last few months and received no replies. I have spoken to him today on SKYPE and he has basically told me that charter works scarce and to go away and stop annoying him.
I am very very worried and have only a relatively small amount of money left to pursue this. The catanaran is registered in the DR an he is now permanently living there. I have all the documentation of the money transferred and the parts purchased for the boat.
I speak only a little Spanish and know nothing about Dominican law.
Can anyone tell me what my options are?
Can I have the boat detained until the debt is paid?
Does anyone know how I can contact the shipping registrar in the DR?
Am I likely to be succesful using a debt collection agent in the DR?
Any help or guidance would be really appreciated. I have some money still available but it is limited and I don't want to throw good money after bad unless I am sure of a positive result.

Thank you all for your replies. I really appreciate it. If anyone has any further help or information I would really appreciate it.Below are some replies to the many posters.

MerengueDutchie said:

Get a lawyer and go to your local fiscal and denounce him - he can help you get started on the process, provided you have a good paper trail.

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I will eventually get a lawyer, unfortunately there is not a lot I can do from here, my local fiscal are powerless in this situation .I will eventually have to get a lawyer in DR but I want to do as much investigation as possible first to keep costs down.

donP said:

You need to have an 'embargo' put on the boat.
A good lawyer is necessary.
Try to get a no cure - no pay arrangement. BTW, is the boat owner an expat or a Dominican?
donP

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He is an expat - French

LTSteve said:

With that much money involved I would consult a lawyer, first, in your home country and see what advise he gives you. Most likely you will need to hire a lawyer in the DR to see what legal options you have. You may have receipts but do you have any legal documents showing an agreement for lending and receiving payment. If not that could be problematic. You have know way of proving that this way a loan vs. a gift. If you feel that your former friend is not going to roll over and give up the boat than I would consider forceably reposessing it. You may need to be on the ground in the DR for this to happen. I would consider hiring a captain in the US and send him to the DR to grab the boat and bolt. Offer him a recovery fee. If you have that much money in the boat than it must be worth a pretty penny. Since you basically owned it I would say it would be justified. You may also want to contact a company in your home country that does repossessions. The problem in the DR is that once your ex-friend has been alerted to the fact that you want the boat he may pick up anchor and bolt and you will never hear or see him again. So, barring what options a DR lawyer can say you have, stealth may be a better option or you may have to kiss that amount of money goodbye. Have the boat sailed to a port of your choice and hopefully you will the right registrations to sell it

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I don't have legal documents but I have all the e-mails back and forth, confiming it is a loan and repayable over 4 years once the boat was completed, looking for extra money etc. and acknowledgment of the payments. I also have a full record of the credit transfers into his bank account.
I wouldn't consider doing anything illegal such as seizing the boat and running as it could never be resold. I will have to have the boat detained and sold by a court order.

Conchman said:

you can put a lien on the boat (if its registered in the DR) and an embargo on the furniture/equipment (movables) on it. There are some lawyers that have done this before, up here on the North coast, but I am sure there are some in the South too. You definitely need a lawyer to give you advice but I can tell you now its gonna cost thousands of dollars (but you may be able to find a lawyer who will do it for a percentage of any monies recovered, if you have a good case) and a few years of headache.

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Yes it is registered in the DR and that is the kind of think I want to doi.e. put a lien on the boat, have it detained (legally) for debts. due and sold or otherwise so that I can recover my money. My biggest problem is to find an honest and competent lawyer in the DR who won't rip me off too. I have read some scary stories about DR lawyers in these forums. Do you know of any case where someone had a yacht successfully detained on the north coast? any links or contact info?

mountainannie said:

and the rest of us are thinking

"What Were You Thinking?"

I hope that 240 Euro contains a LOAD of interest..

Best that I can suggest is to come down here and move on board

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What I was thinking is that if this damn boat finally got finished it might starting earning some money and have some value. I know of many cases of boats half built and abandoned because there was no money to complete them.

irishpaddy said:

if you were not going to invest.....why would you loan...loan.....and keep on loaning?

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Investing can be a very long term thing and I wanted to lend for 4 or 5 years at a maximum. The boat was supposed to be built in 18 months but actually took 3 1/2 years. I had to keep loaning to get the boat finished , if I didn't it would never have been completed. I was the only one with any cash left.

LTSteve said:

Again, if you don't have any legal documents showing the money was a loan than you are fighting an uphill battle. Your story also has a lot of holes in it. Why would you give this guy, who obviously seems shaky, this kind of cash. Is this all on the up and up because it almost sounds like you were laudering some money. This sounds more like some kind of illegal activity gone bad. We are waiting to hear more?

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I don't have any legal documents , because I have known this guy since 1985 and did work for him several times in the past - albeit on other peoples yachts and other people paying.
To be fair the guy is not shady , and a very experienced yacht skipper. I am sure if he had the money I would be paid. The problem is , this whole project is an absolute dead beat and the boat is still worth a lot of money, but I just cannot convince him and his co-investor that they can never earn the kind of money to pay off and maintain this boat and they should sell it now , repay me my money and take whatever losses they are going to take.
All money was transferred from my bank account to his or used to pay for parts and equipment both in Europe and the USA . Every penny is traceable and 100% legitimate. That is why I want to keep everything nice and legal.

mountainannie said:

It must be one of these boats

so there is clearly a public face to this all.. guess it really all depends on your paperwork.

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Yes it is one of those. The boat was origanally started at cumayasastrat but was not one of their designs. I was a far more luxurious catamaran. As far as I know there were problems between the owners and the boatyard.It was moved half complete to a private yard and completed by direct labour.

mountainannie said:

Electric.. Do you have anything that looks anything like this ***---
That is anything that is a signed paper which says that he owes you the money? Or that you have a secured interest in the boat?

If you have those papers, then it would seem that you have a possibility of getting the boat and at least trying to sell it to recover some of your money.

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I don't have any signed papers as he was in DR most of this time and I was in Ireland and we only met up for 6 weeks in Christmas 2012 when I went to do the electrics and electronics. I do however have a all the e-mails both mine and his pertaining to every transaction and acknowlegment on several occasions that the money is a loan and the terms etc. I have no problems proving that the money was lent , what it was for and the repayment condidtions.The interest was at only 5% - just a little more than I would get in a bank at the time., but I would have been happy with that once all the condition were met.

pelaut said:

I doubt there's much headboat tourist demand on the Cumayasa.
Furthermore, I doubt there's a boat built in the DR, up the Cumayasa, that's worth your original ?70,000.

I KNOW there's not a boat built anywhere in the DR that's worth your final ?240,000.

Another thing I know is that there aren't any "good lawyers" in the DR.

You're screwed unless you get yourself to the DR for long term, find powerful friends and pay money to get whatever you can out of this guy ? or at least manufacture a case to put him in a DR jail long term.

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I am sure that this boat is worth the almost 1 Million it cost to build. I know a lot about boats and this is a serious catamaran. It is the boat 2/3rds down the page called QUETZAL on this link Our boats - Who we are? - Pro Excursions Punta Cana, Bayahibe