MERRIMACK – From yachts to tugboats, the lot at Skip’s Marine is full to the brim, but the business itself is taking on water. Fast.

Last year, a civil lawsuit left the boat repair shop springing a quarter-million dollar leak. A Hillsborough County Superior Court jury, which heard the case over two weeks in April 2010, held business owner John “Skip” Moir responsible for more than $250,000 in damages and loss of use to a pair of former clients, who claimed Moir had failed to repair their boat, leaving it unseaworthy.

Moir, who moved the business to Merrimack in 2004, has been struggling since to meet his monthly payments.

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t afford that,” he said last week, pausing briefly between work assignments at his boat shop, located on the Daniel Webster Highway, near the Nashua line.

“Right now, it looks like I’m going to have to file bankruptcy to get rid of these guys,” he said. “I don’t want to, but I don’t know what else to do. I just don’t have that kind of money.”

The court proceedings, first initiated by Moir, date back to 2002, when the business owner agreed to refurbish a 35-foot Duffy manufactured boat for the Peter and John Kakridas, of Allston, Mass.

Over six months that fall and winter, Moir and his crew gutted the boat, retrofitting the hull and replacing the motors and shafting. But the Kakridases fell behind in their payments, failing to pay more than $50,000 of their bill. And Moir sued the men, charging breach of contract.

Soon after, Moir completed the job and had the boat, called “the Kristine,” transported to Cape Cod, where he joined the Kakridases on a test sail, which showed the boat to be unseaworthy and “riddled with defects in workmanship and materials,” according to court documents. So the Kakridases filed a countersuit against Moir, along with Richard Morganstern, the boat hauler, charging them with negligence, misrepresentation and breach of warranty, among other claims.

“(The Kakridases have) been billed and/or paid over $250,000 for a worthless restoration that left the ‘Kristine’ in an unseaworthy condition,” the Kakridases’ attorney, David Pinsonneault, of Nashua, wrote in the counterclaim. “Moir is legally responsible for the debts and for the acts, errors and omissions of (Skip’s Marine).”

Over seven years of pre-trial hearings and motions, among other court appearances, Moir argued he performed the work necessary on the boat, leaving it in strong condition, and that Morganstern, the boat hauler, was responsible for the damage.

“I had a boat surveyor come on the day it left to evaluate the boat,” he said. “Everything was going perfect.”

But when the case finally reached trial, last year, the jury disagreed. The jurors ruled in the Kakridases’ favor, freeing Morganstern from any financial responsibility, and leaving Moir on the hook for the $250,000.

They also required the Kakridases to pay Moir the $50,000 in outstanding bills.

Morganstern could not be reached for comment for this story.

Moir also claimed throughout the case that the Kakridases misrepresented the damage to the boat, and that they continued to use it while they awaited trial. Reached last week, Pinsonneault, the Kakridases’ attorney, declined to comment, saying only, “the court record speaks for itself.”

Ordered by the court, Moir submitted his June payment to the Kakridases, according to court documents. But he’s not sure how long he can last.

Saddled with more than $200,000 in remaining bills, Moir’s is considering ways to reopen the case.

“My wife doesn’t have a car right now. We can’t afford it,” he said last week.

“So what am I going to do? I could file bankruptcy, start over again. Or I could try to fight this. … I’m a fighter. I can’t just back down and take this.”

Jake Berry can be reached at 594-6402 or jberry@nashuatelegraph.com.