$30,000 Lawsuit Filed Over Storage Fees for Ghost Prototype Ship

The tab is climbing by $1,087 every single day, and the debtor is an aluminum-and-steel military prototype that is difficult to find with sonar.

Portland Yacht Services filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland, reporting that the New Hampshire-based owner of the ship known as Ghost owes the yard more than $30,000 in unpaid storage fees. According to court filings, the vessel’s storage agreement expired on Sept. 30, and repeated notices sent to the owners regarding the mounting balance have gone unanswered.

The boatyard, located on West Commercial Street, is asking the federal court to issue a process of maritime arrest. Under this legal mechanism, a detained ship remains locked down until debts are settled, a settlement is reached, or the court steps in with further orders. Once a judge signs the warrant, any entity claiming a financial interest in the vessel has a strict 14-day window to announce themselves, followed by 21 days to formally respond to the claim. If the owners fail to file a statement of interest, the 38-foot prototype may be sold off to satisfy the debt.

Gregory Sancoff, who designed the craft, said Tuesday that Juliet Marine Systems has dissolved as a corporation and that he resigned as president of the company months ago. Sancoff declined to comment further on the litigation. Meanwhile, Grayson Szczepaniak, an attorney at Archipelago Law representing Portland Yacht Services, also declined to comment on the pending suit.

Built back in 2009 in a hangar at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Ghost is far from an ordinary boat. The 38-foot vessel utilizes a specialized super-cavitating hull designed to lift it out of the water, allowing it to run at top speed even through rough seas. Constructed from aluminum and stainless steel, the craft was engineered specifically to be difficult to find with sonar. Court records show the vessel arrived at Portland Yacht Services three years ago and has remained there under a succession of storage agreements. The most recent contract ran from July 1 through Sept. 30, carrying a stipulation that failure to execute a renewal by the autumn deadline would trigger daily penalty fees of $1,087.

Back when the project started, Sancoff had previously made millions from building and selling medical technology companies, according to a 2014 report by Bloomberg Businessweek. Juliet Marine Systems launched as an 18-person startup backed by $15 million in initial investments. The vessel was originally conceived as a manned platform for covert insertion and extraction missions, though subsequent pitches to the U.S. military failed to secure a contract. Sancoff claimed at the time that the craft could operate in denied-access ocean areas for up to 30 days, monitor cellphone conversations, launch operations, and depart without ever being detected.

Instagram

The calculus shifted somewhat in early 2025, when General Dynamics partnered with Juliet Marine Systems to test Ghost as an unmanned or optionally manned platform. At the time, Matt McGonigle of General Dynamics Mission Systems told Defense News that testing operations were actively underway in Portland. Attempts to reach representatives at General Dynamics for comment on the current lawsuit were unsuccessful.

As the legal clock ticks down in federal court, the unusual vessel sits quietly in the Portland harbor, racking up another thousand dollars in debt with every sunrise.