A tussle over ownership and control of a luxury yacht has sunk a wealthy Cape Town businessman’s relationship with his son.
Boat manufacturer Peter Wehrley and his son, Mark, have been communicating through lawyers for some years. Mark traces the impasse to a R20m yacht his father’s company, Matrix Yachts, built in 2015. He had a 10% share in the business.
According to Mark, he reached an agreement with Matrix that he would use the yacht, Mirage, to operate charters and trips from Cape Town’s V & A Waterfront. But a dispute over the expense of building the yacht, its control and the proceeds of the charter business strained the relationship between him and his parents.
Mark sued Matrix in the Cape Town High Court in 2017 in a bid to confirm he was the “lawful holder of rights, title and interests in the yacht”. A litany of lawsuits followed.
The latest culminated in a judgment last month after liquidators of Matrix filed to sell the yacht. Mark, who is opposed to the sale, countersued for access to the company's books, documents and records.
Judge Lee Bozalek dismissed both applications with costs, saying the claims were “the most recent chapter in a long-running legal saga arising out of a bitter family dispute”.
This week, Mark (who, in another matter, has been “interdicted and restrained” from receiving an income from the yacht’s charter business) recalled the “stress and turmoil this impasse has caused” him and his family.
For every application you need an attorney and an advocate, and it takes almost a year. We keep winning and winning, and we are nowhere near resolving this.
— Mark Wehrley
“We ... decided to walk away from it all, sell our house and emigrate,” he said. “Matrix Yachts then filed two further applications in the high court, one of which was to attach our house.”
These applications were later abandoned and an arbitrator confirmed a 2015 oral agreement between the company and Mark. But before other issues in dispute could be arbitrated, Matrix applied to go into liquidation and the liquidators decided to sell Mirage.
“This came as a shock and we vehemently objected to this and reminded [the liquidators] of a ruling which interdicted them from selling the vessel until the court case has been concluded.”
Mark said there was no end in sight to the litigation, adding that he was not a “spoilt brat” fighting for the family silver, but someone who had been the Matrix technical director for about 16 years.
“For every application you need an attorney and an advocate, and it takes almost a year. We keep winning and winning, and we are nowhere near resolving this,” he said.
Wehrley said he was disappointed the relationship with his son had deteriorated. “It’s pointless for me to talk about this greed that my son has got involved with. Basically, it’s lawyers just making huge amounts of money out of it. It is very sickening and disturbing and disappointing.”
Liquidator Jurgens Steenkamp did not respond when asked whether they planned to appeal against Bozalek’s ruling.
