Dispute threatens boat’s future

Associated Press

ERIE, PA.

The future of a paddle wheel vessel that offers cruises on northwest Pennsylvania’s Presque Isle Bay is in doubt due to a long-running financial dispute.

The owner of the Victorian Princess, a stern paddle wheel boat, and Donjon Shipping have been feuding over what the shipbuilder says is an unpaid $45,000 repair bill, The Erie Times-News reported.

Donjon Shipping wants to impound the 128-passenger vessel to force collection of the bill, saying it has tried to resolve the dispute amicably with some kind of repayment plan, “but that never happened,” attorney Michael Agresti said.

Vessel owner Dan O’Neill, for his part, said he is the one owed money, blaming the shipbuilder for a 2011 fire that made the repairs necessary. The accidental blaze tore through the vessel’s engine compartment as Donjon workers were repairing the boat to meet Coast Guard regulations, according to court records and interviews.

“I have been fighting with them since 2012,” O’Neill said. “That boat is not going to be taken. I don’t owe them anything.”

Donjon is asking a federal judge to order a warrant to let it impound the vessel at its Bayfront shipyard, and would then seek a judgment that would allow the boat to be “condemned and sold” to collect the bill and litigation costs, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Erie.

O’Neill and two partners originally brought the Victorian Princess to Erie in 1998 from Marco Island, Fla., where the vessel built in 1985 had operated cruises for about 10 years.

Agresti said the Victorian Princess, if impounded, would not sail this season.