Luxury Yacht Supplier Sues Over Baltimore Bridge Collapse

A company that couldn’t get a $1 million yacht out of harbor is suing the owners of a ship that crashed into a Baltimore bridge.
Six construction workers were killed when the Dali collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26. Video footage shared online captured the bridge collapsing into the water below. All shipping in and out of Baltimore harbor was suspended until June, while the debris was being removed and the crash investigated.
The Australian yacht broker Marine Motor Yacht Sales stated in a legal filing in Maryland federal court on Monday that it has still not been able to deliver a $1 million yacht to its new owner.
The company “specializes in the sale, brokerage, and delivery of previously owned vessels” and “operates by transporting vessels from Maine which are trucked down to the Port of Baltimore and then shipped through the port to clients in Australia and New Zealand.”
In February 2024, it signed a contract to sell a 2024 Sabre 43 Salon Express yacht “at a sales price of approximately nearly one million dollars.”
It “then arranged to ship the yacht overland from South Casco, Maine, to the Port of Baltimore for shipping at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars in preparation for its arrival at the Port of Baltimore.”
It also arranged for a $10,000 cradle to be constructed at the port to ensure that the yacht could be safely stored while awaiting shipment. The yacht was due to be shipped from Baltimore to Port Kembla, in New South Wales, Australia, on April 7, 2024.
The legal filing adds: “However, in the immediate aftermath of the blockage of the channel and destruction of the bridge, there was an immediate stop on cargo exiting the Port of Baltimore.” It says the company was forced to store the yacht at Baltimore port “indefinitely at a daily cost.”
It finally shipped the yacht in June, and the costs of storage in Baltimore have yet to be fully calculated.
It also said the “extraordinary delay” forced it to “incur additional costs when the vessel arrived in Australia.” It added: “Due to the extreme delay, Marine has needed to undergo additional customs procedures and pay additional fees at port in Australia. Consequently, the vessel was stuck at port in Australia until July 16, 2024 and Marine had to pay additional storage fees until the vessel was released.”
“Because the ship has been delayed for nearly five months, Marine’s vessel has still not been delivered to its end user. As a result, Marine has had to front hundreds of thousands of dollars in shipping costs out of their own pocket, [which] caused tremendous stress to their business’s financial health,” Monday’s filing states.
The company has joined a class action lawsuit by businesses that lost money as a result of the bridge collapse.
They are collectively suing the Dali’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd, and the ship’s management company, Synergy Marine PTE Ltd, and say the Dali had a history of mechanical problems.
Newsweek sought email comment on Monday from Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine.
In legal papers filed in Maryland federal court on Monday, the group say they each lost at least a million dollars as a result of the bridge collapse.
The other plaintiffs include American Publishing, which publishes United States Cybersecurity Magazine and the Armed Forces Directory, which is aimed at military personnel at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade, which are “key military installations located strategically near the Francis Scott Key Bridge.”
It said its business was “flourishing” until the bridge collapse, when the local economy slumped and advertisers canceled orders with American Publishing.
“The immediate aftermath of the channel blockage and bridge destruction, however, was a dramatic halt in business activities. The local business community, stunned by the event, ceased communications, resulting in a sharp decline in service calls and sales for American Publishing. As a result, American Publishing experienced a significant increase in business costs, without any income to pay them.”
“Upon information and belief, the increased costs caused over one million dollars in damages for American Publishing,” the lawsuit states.