Catalina Yachts, Florida, owner Michael Reardon has been ordered to remove himself from the Largo, Florida factory days after saying production will return in early November.
On October 15, company president Patrick Turner announced via Facebook that Catalina Yachts was pausing production of all boats due to “short-term financial challenges.”
A copy of the eviction notice from plaintiff Catalina Yachts to defendant Michael Reardon at the Florida factory.“Rather than pushing ahead in a way that could compromise quality or consistency,” wrote Turner, “we have chosen to take a responsible pause while we finalize the support needed to move forward stronger.”
The news arrived just five months after Reardon, founder of Daedalus Yachts, acquired the American sailboat giant. Since then, rumours have emerged that under Reardon’s leadership employee paycheques have been skipped and insurance policies ended. In an interview with PY, Reardon said the employees have since been paid:
“I think social media went a little bit nuts on a couple of disgruntled employees.”
On October 23 Catalina Yachts issued an eviction notice to Reardon. According to court documents from Pinellas County, Florida, filed September 18, Reardon owes the company a $50,000 security deposit, $20,000 in rent for May, June and July and $50,000 for each month the lease would be in effect.
Reardon says the company was already in shutdown when he acquired it. “And then on top of that,” he said, “the factory got hit with a hurricane and tornado. So we’re really coming from, let’s say, a ground floor position and building up now.”
Largo, Florida was hit by a tornado on June 25, 2025. Reardon says it tore up several roofs of the facility.
At the Annapolis Boat Show, Reardon told dealers he was planning a temporary shutdown. “I announced to the dealers, the closely held ones, that we would be doing 30 days of triage, and I said it will be major.”
Screenshot from the leaked footage of president turner allegedly laying off Catalina staff on October 14.One day before the shutdown went public, leaked footage shows president Turner laying off an unknown number of staff, “hopefully for just about two weeks.”
During the shutdown, Reardon says the company’s two priorities are retaining senior staff and finding a new factory for Catalina Yachts.
“We’ve had one layoff and that’s it. I think we’re going to be bringing back 95 percent of the people that were there and then we’ll be adding to that as well,” said Reardon. “I’d made a promise to Mrs. Butler (widow to Frank Butler, founder of Catalina Yachts) that I would keep all the employees.”
Turner agreed staff and their institutional knowledge is vital to the company: “It’s really core staff that push on the boats and gets them out the door, and they’re very valuable to us.”