Michael Ryan, owner of Safehaven gave a one weeks grace period until Monday (20) to the boat operators to vacate his property. The boat operators have been using the property free of charge for 25 years.

Ryan wants to use the property for a new marina and had entered into a deal with the previous PPM government to swap crown land at Safehaven for Ryan’s proposed mixed use resort known as Dragon Bay. Ryan then would develop a new modern public marina in the area for local tour operators.

However, Ryan has lost control of some of his companies and in particular the Ritz-Carlton, and the sea captains as a consequence, have some concerns that the marina will never materialize. They have also doubted the legality of the entire deal as one of the companies originally involved in the land swap with government is in the hands of receivers.

Ryan has offered the boat operators a temporary location for their use during the construction of the new Port Authority marina but the sea captains have said the turning circle for their boats there is not adequate.

Ryan gave Shaun Ebanks, Vice Chairman of the Caymanian Land and Sea Co-op and a boat owner at SafeHaven, a licence that gives the boat operators permission to remain at the temporary location.

The Co-op vice chairman said he is obtaining a legal opinion on the matter. He described the temporary docking facilities as better than those the boat operators currently have but other sea captains do not agree.