Mark and Susan Boyter enjoying the honeymoon period of boat ownership. It would not last.
Mark Boyter was 65. He was a retired fighter pilot who had capped off his service, as one does, with a second career flying for an airline. Once truly retired, he and his wife Susan went about trying to fulfill their dream of sailing the Seven Seas.
Honed by the U.S. Air Force, Boyter’s sense of excellence aligned perfectly with the reputation enjoyed by Island Packet Yachts of Largo Florida. In 2021, the Boyters commissioned the company to build them a 439 sloop. They would name their 47-footer Redeemed. The pricetag: $857,000.
Five years later, the dream is dead, and the Boyters are feeling bettayed.
Having to replace the engine because of an installation mistake was bad enough, but nothing like what came next. Boyter had spent nearly eight months drinking water from what an experts say was a poorly designed and defective water tank.
All the while, according to lab testing, the unfinished fiberglass tank interior was leeching carcinogens. The tank was designed and fabricated by Island Packet, not outsourced.
Boyter was twice hospitalized. Doctors put him on a detoxification regimen that began two years ago and continues to this day. Blood tests had shown a likely correlation with the high levels of toxic chemicals found in the water, they said.
The good news, they told him, was that he did not have cancer.
Naturally, Boyter’s first move had been to complain to the factory, but he said Island Packet President Darrell Allen ghosted him. He finally got IP’s attention when he sued them, but an arbitration clause in the sales contract took precedence over the formal lawsuit.
Somehow, despite a pile of documentation, the Boyters lost the case, and the arbitrator awarded $86,000 to Island Packet for legal fees.
This story was put together using a vessel survey, which included lab reports. It included doctor statements, interviews with two former Island Packet employees, correspondence with Island Packet owners, an evaluation by a leading expert on fiberglass tanks, and interviews with Boyter’s lawyer and a lawyer for Island Packet.
And, of course, IP boss Darrell Allen was eager to talk. Allen, who bought the company with his wife in 2017, called everything you are about to read “B.S.” All you need to know, he said, is that Island Packet won in court.
‘Ugly Shit’
This water tank is almost new but it shows signs of falling apart.
“I was exposed to the water in the tank (by internal consumption) from 01 September 2022 until 23 April 2023. Both my wife and I were exposed to the water through washing dishes and occasional showers until we moved off the vessel on 09 June, 2023—281 days…One may wonder why my wife did not get sick form the water. The answer is that she was drinking canned LeCroix water exclusively.”—Mark Boyter, September 2026
The Absent 25 Mil
Twenty-five thousands of an inch—that can make the difference between drinking clean water or ingesting waterborne toxins that can cause organ failure and cancer. That is, 25 mils in the parlance of the boatbuilding world.
Twenty-five mils is the thickness of two coats of food-safe gelcoat, which a boatbuilder fabricating fiberglass water tanks should routinely apply to isolate the structural glass fibers and resin from the contents of a tank.
John Bannister is a well regarded marine surveyor working from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Bannister is a Coast Guard veteran, a licensed private investigator, a certified thermographer and advertises a specialty in the employment of consulting laboratories.
Boyter noticed that water from the tank had a funky taste, and a “grey/pink fibrous substance” kept clogging Redeemed’s inline water filter.
In May 2023, Boyter hired Bannister’s Suenos Azules Marine Surveying company to document a damage claim for problems with Redeemed’s Yanmar engine and a tank that produced foul-tasting water. The first step was to use a boroscope camera to inspect the inside to the tank while it was still intact. Later, the saloon floor was ripped out to remove the tank top for a better look.
But, in between, water from the tank was sent to a testing lab. Results came back showing highly elevated levels of the following “plastic leachates”: Benzene, Bromochloromethane, Bromodichloromethane, Bromoform, Chloroform, Dibromochloromethane and Dibromomethane.
Taken as a whole, according to the American Cancer Society, this mix can cause liver and kidney damage, bladder and other cancers, leukemia and a degradation of the human immune system.
Bannister recommended the replacement of Redeemed’s Yanmar because an improperly installed exhaust system had allowed seawater to be sucked into the engine, causing corrosion throughout interior components.
Similarly, he urged Boyter to remove the water tank and have a new one fabricated. Bannister said the tank failed to meet American Boat and Yacht Council’s voluntary standard for tankage, which says:
Materials in contact with potable water shall be corrosion resistant and shall not render the water nonpotable, or impart any undesirable taste, odor, or color. Materials in contact with potable water shall be nontoxic and comply with the EPA Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act.”
And, speaking of federal regulations, Redeemed’s water tank was an outright violation of those too, Bannister wrote in his survey report. “I believe the tank was not safe for water to be consumed by humans as per the safe water drinking standards by manufacturers as outlined in 40 CFR 143,” he said.
Ken Fickett has been building fiberglass boats in Gainesville, Florida, since 1972—more than a thousand altogether. He has built racing sailboats, sportfish boats, flats fishing boats, experimental aircraft and a host of non-marine fiberglass components, but his company, Mirage Manufacturing, is best known today for its of line of full-displacement trawler yachts.
He was an early adopter of integral fiberglass tanks, which, unlike standard aluminum tankage, have had a zero failure rate down through the decades. Fickett markets the tanks on his Great Harbour trawlers as “forever tanks.”
Fickett’s first reaction to the survey photos of Redeemed’s water tank was succinct. “Ugly shit,” he called it.
His second reaction was one of astonishment. Like many in the industry, he had always regarded Island Packet as a quality player. “I can’t believe it. I’d never, never imagine anything like that. That’s nuts,” Fickett said, referring to images of raw fiberglass.
A former Island Packet employee said the 250-gallon water tanks have been made using resin and glass fiber material over two male molds—the tank itself and a lid. There is never a food-safe coating applied, but this person said the parts are then baked, presumably to speed resin curing.
Boyter’s surveyor noted that baffles in the tank were made of plate aluminum, tabbed to the tank structure, which thermal imaging indicated was failing in several places.
Even so, according to the former employee, he had never heard of an owner complaining about water tanks over the dozens that had been built during his tenure.
This was echoed by Allen. “That water tank had been built for 15 years before I took over Island Packet. (IP founder) Bob Johnson installed that water tank in probably 2,000 boats. Exactly the same,” he said. “We used the proper resins. We did what we were supposed to do.”
Two things about aluminum, Fickett said: Unlike glass on glass, resin will not chemically bond a glass-fiber surface to aluminum. Secondly, aluminum corrosion is accelerated by exposure the chlorinated municipal water, which is what fills most boat water tanks.
Baking tank components may slow the rate at which chemicals leech into the water, but it will not eliminate the process entirely, Fickett said. He estimated that Island Packet’s cost to paint the interior of a 250-gallon tank with a coating approved for potable water would be about $50 for materials and labor.
That’s now a moot point, according to Allen. He said the company will no longer make its own fiberglass tanks, but not because there was anything unsafe about them. He said it was just cheaper to go with polyethylene water tanks. These are typically rotationally molded from FDA approved plastic free from harmful chemicals.
Interviews with two former employees suggested that the Island Packet production under its current administration has been chaotic, plagued by high employee turnover. “It’s a clusterfuck,” one of them said.
This raises the possibility that, in the case of Redeemed, the step that involved baking the water-tank components may have been skipped entirely. The surveyor’s report characterized the tank as “unfinished.”
At this point, some readers may be asking why Boyter was willing to keep drinking water that must have tasted bad. Boyter is a skilled aircraft pilot, and therefore he is not dumb. He is, however, a novice when it comes to cruising craft.
Boyter was cruising when he first noticed what he described as a “citrus-sweet taste” in water coming from the boat’s tap at the beginning of April 2023—eight months into their time on board. The water had no odor, however, and at the time it looked clean.
He said he asked other cruisers for advice and was told that maybe they had taken on some water contaminated with algae. “We thought that we had pumped bad water into the tank. Who could conceive that the supposedly safe potable water tank was literally coming apart beneath our feet?” Boyter said.
It was only later when the inline filter became clogged with fiberglass crud—those pink-grey fibers—did the Boyters realize the extent of their problem. And the taste was getting worse.
They took the boat to Stuart, Florida, where they hired surveyor John Bannister. On June 9, 2023, the Boyters moved their belongings off the boat and drove to Colorado to stay with relatives, having concluded that Redeemed was “unsafe and uninhabitable.”
Yesterday, Allen suggested that the surveyor photos of Redeemed’s water tanks had been somehow falsified. He had agreed to an audio recorded interview, from which this is drawn:
Darrell Allen: How do we know that those pictures are even our tanks?
Loose Cannon: So what you’re saying is that the surveyor falsified his survey?
Allen: I don’t know who falsified it. I can’t say that.
L.C.: Because he’s the one that took the pictures.
Allen: How does he know that tank was even in the boat? He didn’t see it when it was in the boat.
L.C.: Well, the pictures are of it in the boat. You haven’t seen the pictures?
Allen: No, I didn’t. I have not seen the pictures.
L.C.: Have you got a copy of that survey? You must have. They must have thrown it at you at some point.
Allen: No, we don’t have a copy of the survey. We went over with our own surveyor and did our own survey, but we were not. We didn’t. We’re not given access to the water tank.
L.C.: All right, so you’ve never seen that survey.
Allen: I didn’t think I needed to. I wouldn’t have trusted their surveyor anyway.
Six Months To Live
Dr. Gina Dattoli practices family medicine near Denver. Dattoli first met with Boyter on December 23, 2023 and prescribed a detox kit of over-the-counter medicine and a drug called Ketotifen. Though unsaid at the time, she later told Boyter she believed he would likely be dead within six months. In January 2025, Dattoli wrote:
(Mark) came to me with extreme symptoms of stomach/intestinal irritation, urinary symptoms. Labs showing liver/gall bladder damage with high AST, ALT and LDH, along with high bilirubin. These findings are consistent with damage from contaminated drinking water. Namely chemicals such as benzene, bromodichloromethane, bromoform, chloroform, dibromochloromethane and dibromomethane cause gastric irritation and liver damage.
For treatment, I began to work on detoxing the chemicals. We had to start very slow (most patients are able to do the treatment twice daily, with Mark we had to do the treatment once every four days). We weren’t able the do the treatment any faster because
Mark developed what is called a Herxheimer reaction. We see this reaction when the toxin burden is too high for the liver and it gets overwhelmed. Despite having to go slowly on the detox protocol, we have gotten tremendous improvement in symptoms. It will likely take another six to nine months of treatment before we achieve full healing.
The surgeon who performed a biopsy on Boyter’s bladder, Dr. Michael Lee wrote a note explaining the results from the May 2025 procedure:
Just as suspected, there was evidence of some inflammation and congestion, which probably correlates well with toxic exposures that you received related to your boat.
In any case, there was no evidence of cancer. Certainly, this is great!
Boyter said he will be adhering to a detoxification regimen for at least another two years, but the worst is behind him.
Justice, or Not
Mark Boyter said he tried to have a conversation with Darrell Allen about the problems with Redeemed, but Allen would not return his calls. He hired Admiralty lawyers in Stuart, Florida, who wrote a demand letter to Island Packet in December 2023—sent via FedEx with proof of delivery. Still no response.
Boyter had spent more than $150,000 of his own money to have a boatyard install a new engine and water tank in Redeemed.
That lawyer retired, so Boyter hired a new advocate. He hired a consumer protection attorney in St. Petersburg named Aldo Bolliger.
On April 30, 2024, Bolliger filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Boyters in the Pinellas County Circuit Court, alleging serious defects under the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and under Florida products-liability law. He said his client’s “faith in the vessel has been shaken, irreparably harmed, and the vessel’s value has been affected.”
At this point, Island Packet responded, and its lawyers presented IP’s contract with the Boyters, which had a standard arbitration clause. Such clauses trump formal litigation, and the lawsuit was put on hold while arbitration was underway.
Long story short: Arbitrator Lori Adelson ruled in favor of Island Packet and awarded the attorney fees to the company.
According to Bolliger and Boyter, the case never got to a point where the actual merits were discussed. Adelson never heard arguments about the engine installation case, the toxic water tank or other less series issues. Bolliger ruled against the Boyters in a series of procedural questions.
“We never got to the merits whatsoever,” Bolliger said. “All of this was wrangling, and basically this case got chopped up, and they got rid of the main claim, the breach-of-warranty claim.”
According to Bolliger, arbitrator Adelson upheld Island Packet when it was argued that Darrell Allen never saw the Boyters’ demand letter from December 2023, even though someone at the factory had signed for it.
Island Packet’s lawyer would not directly address Bolliger’s contention that actual facts were never addressed. He insisted that the Boyters lost simply because they didn’t have a good case.
Allen and his lawyer both accused the Boyter side of having “destroyed evidence.”
According to Boyter, the old water tank had to be ripped out the boat in pieces, and even though the yard workers had been told to preserve those pieces, they looked like trash and were thrown away.
Adelson entertained IP’s lawyers’ contention that this constituted destruction of evidence, even though the state of the tank had been documented in photos, video and by lab tested water samples.
When Bolliger tried to get evidence from a new Boyter doctor admitted, Adelson said no; the deadline had passed.
Boyter and Bolliger said something was fishy about about bringing in an arbitrator from Pompano Beach on the other side of the Florida peninsula, when there were probably dozens of arbitrators around Tampa-St. Pete who could have heard the case. They objected, but the defendants were happy with the choice, and she stayed on.
Boyter called the arbitration system “corrupt.” Bolliger was more phlegmatic as he explained why so many big-ticket purchase contracts contain an arbitration clause:
This type of stuff is not unique. The repeat customer in arbitration is the business, not the consumer. And so I’ve had a lot of negative experiences with arbitration, especially in front of the AAA, the American Arbitration Association. They only hire the most conservative arbitrators.
Systemic predilections aside, Bolliger called Adelson “the most unprofessional arbitrator I’ve ever had.”
The case of Boyter v. Island Packet ended earlier this month. According to Bolliger, the Boyters have the option to appeal to a higher state court or file a federal case, but the process has worn them down.
“He already has an $86,000 judgment outstanding against him. Does he really want to go and litigate again?” Bolliger said. “He’s kind of gun-shy, and I think his wife wants everything behind them. I don’t think she wants him to litigate again.”
(Allen insisted the attorney-fee amount was $160,000, not $86,000. The most recent court document that listed dollar figures showed $100,698, and a subsequent document mentioned a further reduction but not by how much.)
Whistleblower
Paulo Bonelli is a fired ex-Island Packet employee living in Clearwater, Florida. And he is a whistleblower. Bonelli was a salaried employee, hired in September 2023 as product delivery manager. His job included helping to correct the “punchlist” of problems that accompany any new boat.
Bonelli later made “protected disclosures” to the U.S. Coast Guard that gained him official protection under federal statutes that forbid retaliation against employees who speak out about their boses.
OSHA, the federal agency whose mission is worker protection, was unable to determine whether Bonelli’s firing was retaliatory or not and told him he would have to plead his case before an administrative law judge.
Bonelli did not, but he is still considered a whistleblower by the feds and under the plain English meaning of the word. His allegations against Island Packet and Darrell Allen include, among other things:
Failure to report a possible fleetwide critical safety defect to potentially affected owners, after one owner’s steering failed. IP also failed to report it to the U.S. Coast Guard, which, according to Bonelli, was a violation of federal statutes, namely 46 U.S.C § 4310(b).
How Allen instructed Bonelli not to tell Boyter or other owners about the steering failure.
How Allen instructed Bonelli not to tell Boyter that Redeemed’s engine problems had been determined to be the result of an improperly installed exhaust system. He was told to chalk it up to “operator error” instead.
Bonelli included the steering problem, Boyter’s engine problem and a third problem as examples of IP’s failure to disclose or report critical issues to the Coast Guard, so he reported them to the Coast Guard himself.
The Coast Guard followed up, but nothing much came of it.
Bonelli also helped Boyter identify the problems with his engine and water tanks early on. He said Redeemed’s engine and tank issues was discussed during some of Island Packet’s thrice weekly production meetings.
Bonelli doesn’t believe Allen’s contention that he never saw the Boyter’s notice of claim delivered by FedEx.
“The reason (Allen) didn’t go and honor Mark’s warranty is because he was broke. He had no money. He couldn’t afford to replace an engine and a tank,” Bonelli told Loose Cannon.
“That’s a lie,” Allen said. “I just bought a three-and-a-half-million-dollar facility and put one and a half million dollars down on it.”
To back up his claim that IP had been suffering financially, Bonelli cited financing that Allen had obtained at a loanshark interest rate of 68 percent.
The existence of this loan became public after the lender—ODK Capital aka OnDeck—sued Island Packet and Allen in Pinellas County Circuit Court in August 2025, alleging that the defendants had stopped making their $5,000-a-week payments.
The date of the loan was April 9, 2025, around the same time as the Boyter lawsuit against IP was being put on hold and arbitration was about to begin. Such an extraordinarily high interest rate begs the question of why anyone would take out such a loan if there were any alternative.
Allen would not address that question because he said no such loan existed. That was his first position, anyway. From the transcript:
Loose Cannon: What was that OnDeck loan about then? That was like 68 percent interest.
Darrell Allen: That wasn’t even real.
L.C.: That wasn’t real? They sued you.
Allen: No. No.
L.C.: You didn’t, you didn’t take that loan out?
Allen: No.
L.C.: Why did they sue you?
Allen: They didn’t sue me. I was never sued by OnDeck.
L.C.: Was it Island Packet that was sued then?
Allen: No.
L.C.: I mean, I’ve got the lawsuit.
Allen: There is no lawsuit out there.
L.C.: Okay?
Allen: That lawsuit was dismissed.
L.C. Okay? There was a lawsuit.
Allen: It was dismissed. A lawsuit when it was first brought up, and it’s dismissed. It’s not a lawsuit. I can go file a lawsuit against you. Does that make it real?
L.C.: Well, it means that there’s lawsuit filed against me.
Allen: Okay, so what does that mean? Means I paid an attorney to file a lawsuit.
L.C.: So why did this company say that you owed them, weren’t repaying a loan that you made with them?
Allen: That’s not true at all.
OnDeck’s lawsuit was eventually dismissed. Court documents show OnDeck receiving a final $239,000 payment (including $56,000 in interest) in July 2025.
Bonelli’s statements support the narrative that Island Packet’s production system was chaotic and lacked the kind of quality control that might have prevented Redeemed’s numerous problems, including the engine and tank issues.
While it is not unusual for a new boat punchlist to cite two or even three dozen problems, Bonelli said some owners had boats with more than 100. “There’s just absolutely zero quality control at the factory,” he said.
This narrative is supported by a second former Island Packet employee, who spoke to Loose Cannon at length on the condition that his name not be used.
Sometimes, Bonelli said, he would help owners fix problems that the factory was unaware of or would not acknowlege.
According to Bonelli, one of his previous jobs, while living in Texas, was as a civil rights investigator. Bonelli’s statements suggest that he felt more loyalty toward IP’s customers than the company itself.
And that became readily apparent to his bosses.
“Paulo’s an idiot,” Allen said. “We fired him because he screwed everything up that we gave him to do. And he became friends with the Boyters because he doesn’t like us.”
Darrell Allen and ‘Kahunas’
The president of Island Packet attributed the Boyters predicament to their own character flaws. The retired couple had made no secret that they had hoped to use Redeemed as a platform for missionary work in remote places of the South Pacific.
In his Loose Cannon interview yesterday, Allen repeatedly suggested the retired fighter pilot and his wife lacked the “kahunas” for a bluewater lifestyle.
(Cojones, maybe?)
“Let me tell you my side of it. When I sold the boat to Mark and Sue Boyter, I knew they didn’t have the kahunas to go cruising around the world and save the natives and give bibles to everybody,” Allen said.
Allen said the water tank and engine problems were a mere pretext after they lost their will or sense of purpose. He said he offered to buy them out when the engine and tank issues first came to his attention. From the transcript:
When it became obvious that the Boyers did not have the kahunas to do what they wanted, I reached out to them and said, “Look, let me sell the boat for you at a reduced commission and I’ll get you back every bit of your money…Every, every dollar of your money.
And they refused to even listen to me because (a boatyard) had convinced them that all their problems were the boat, not themselves personally. And that’s exactly what Mark Boyter wanted to hear. Because he’s the type that nothing’s ever his fault, okay? He would never admit that he didn’t have the kahunas to take the boat offshore, out of sight of land.
During the portion of the interview about the OnDeck lawsuit, Allen seems to have become agitated, then issuing a warning to Loose Cannon. The following exchange refers to the vessel Salamander and her owners, a couple named Atkinson. (Their story is for tomorrow.)
From the transcript:
Darrell Allen: I’ll take you on…Okay? If you want to take on Island Packet, we’re ready. We have proof. And we can prove we’ve done everything right. Okay? So I’ll take you on if you want to do that.
Loose Cannon: What do you mean, take me on?
Allen: If you publish anything that’s derogatory against us, I’ll take you on, just like I did the Boyters, and I proved the Atkinsons wrong as well. Okay? That’s the people that own Salamander.
L.C.: Okay, got it. So, you’re threatening me?
Allen: No, I’m not threatening you at all. I’m just saying we have proof that we’ve done nothing wrong.
‘Redeemed’
Unloved, she lies at Bruswick, Georgia, sporting a new Beta Marine engine and a new water tank. Redeemed has been listed for sale with a broker in Stuart, Florida; she is listed for $988,759.
Boyter said his wife may never get on any boat ever again.
Obviously, a story like this is not going to help the Boyters sell their boat. Even so, Mark Boyter said he cooperated because he wants to get the word out:
My concern is that other Island Packets have water tanks that have yet to delaminate. The unprotected resin in our tank began to break down almost immediately. Depending on how lucky you were with the resin used the day your particular tank was constructed, many other owners and their guest could be exposed at some undetermined point in the future.
Likewise, the same with other engine installations. The only way an Island Packet 439 owner can be assured that their boat is Darrel Allen-proof is to have the engine and water tanks borescoped and to have oil and water samples taken. Then, if problems are found the only way to guarantee a a reliable main engine is to repower. The only way to ensure safe potable water is to cut out the sole in the saloon and install a food-grade water tank. Both of which we have done.
The problem is that Island Packet did not inform other 439 owners of these issues. Owners may get sick without warning or even knowing WHY they are sick. Murphy’s Law says that their engines will fail when most needed.
Beneath this saloon sole lies a brand new water tank.
LOOSE CANNON covers hard news, technical issues and nautical history. Every so often he tries to be funny. Subscribe for free to support the work. If you’ve been reading for a while—and you like it—consider upgrading to paid.
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