Kadey-Krogen Files for Bankruptcy Liquidation, American Tugs Too

Kadey-Krogen Files for Bankruptcy Liquidation, American Tugs Too.​

Revenue Declines Dramatically Over Past Three Years​

Peter Swanson
Jul 08, 2026





Kadey-Krogens are considered among the best looking of the full-displacement trawlers.
Kadey-Krogen this week ended its 49-year run as one of America’s finest producers of full-displacement trawler yachts after filing for Chapter 7 liquidation in Deleware’s federal bankrupcy court. Nearly 700 Krogens have been built, but apparently only two were “in the pipeline” when the company called it quits Monday.

Kadey-Krogen’s fall has taken the American Tug brand down with it. Kadey-Krogen acquired the LaConner, Washington-based builder of semi-displacement trawlers in May 2023.

Unlike Chapter 11 bankrupcy, in which a company may continue to operate, a business that has filed under Chapter 7 ceases to exist and its assets are sold off to pay creditors. Documents on file with the court indicate that Kadey-Krogen’s secured and unsecured claims total $2.2 million. Nearly 100 creditors are listed.

Tucker West of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, signed the papers. He was president and CEO.

Back in 1977, marine engineer Art Kadey and naval architect Jim Krogen teamed up to create a vessel that combined the seakeeping of a fishing trawler with the yacht comfort and yacht ascetics. They were built at the Asia Harbor Yacht Builders yard in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Krogens, as they are often called in conversation, are the yin to the yang of Nordhavn within trawler-yacht world. Nordhavn boats, made by Pacific Asian Enterprises, are generally considered the more capable bluewater performer. Krogens, though, are prettier.

Trawlers, like other niche boating markets, experienced an “Covid bump” beginning a half decade ago. That is, a historic surge in sales, as affluent folks put money into outdoor lifestyles with built-in social distancing. That phenomenon has run its course, as Krogen sales revenue may reflect.

The company’s 2026 drop in gross revenue was precipious. According to the banruptcy filing, gross revenue was around $14.9 million in 2024 and $10.1 million in 2025. As of the end of June, 2026 revenue was just $403,962.

The documents mentioned two current boat orders. One was said to be 95 percent complete in Taiwan and 95 percent paid for. The other was listed as zero percent complete. There was no reference to whether a downpayment had been collected for the latter.



An American Tug underway at semi-displacment speed, or is it semi-planing?

I read somewhere that Catalina and a sister company are starting back up with new owners.

American Tug Buyers Go to Police with Fraud Claims after Kadey-Krogen Bankruptcy
Ex-Detective and Wife Seek Halt to Liquidation Proceedings
Peter Swanson

Jul 12




This is the model of American Tug—the 365—that was being built for Joe and Tana Ganete when the company filed for bankruptcy


According to the American Tug bankrupcy petition, four vessels are in various stages of completion at the La Conner, Washington factory. The buyers of one of those boats last week filed a criminal complaint alleging the company CEO had defrauded them in the run-up to insolvency.

Joe and Tana Ganete of Gig Harbor, Washington, went to the Sagit County Sheriff’s Department with a timeline and a list of allegations and supporting documents. They say the department has opened a case file (No. 26-07957) and assigned an investigator to look into it.

Joe Ganete, who was a detective for 18 years before founding a company that provides services to law enforcement, said the charges might include theft by deception, exploitation of elders and financial crimes across state lines. Ganete named Kadey-Krogen and American Tug CEO Tucker West as the person most culpable.

Ganete said an investigation might well show that funds from American Tug were diverted to prop up Kadey-Krogen as its revenues declined, though it is not clear whether that, by itself, would be illegal.

Krogen acquired American Tug in May 2023. West filed Chapter 7 bankrupcy petitions for both companies last Monday. Unlike Chapter 11, which allows a company to reorganize and stay in business, Chapter 7 takes it directly to liquidation. That is, all assets are sold with proceeds going to creditors.

Attempts via text and email were made yesterday to reach Tucker West for his side of the story. There was no response, but if West eventually does reply, Loose Cannon will include his comments as a follow-up story.




Kadey-Krogen Files for Bankruptcy Liquidation, American Tugs Too.
Peter Swanson


·


Jul 8

Read full story

According to the bankruptcy documents, the Ganete’s American Tug 365 is 85 percent complete and 85 percent paid for. Other buyers with unfinished boats at the factory are: Keith Asplundh of Palm Beach, 70 percent complete and paid for; Jeff and Susan Parker of Harrison, Tennessee, 35 percent complete and paid for, and Benjamin and Christine Saitz of Seattle, 25 percent complete and paid for.

Ganete said the bankruptcy court will treat the buyers as “unsecured creditors.” He said the other buyers have expressed interest in contributing to any criminal case as supporting witnesses. Ganete hopes the criminal investigation will prompt the bankruptcy judge to pause any liquidation of American Tug assets.

Ganete said different buyers had different contracts with American Tug, some of which presumably included regular payments at various construction milestones. Ganete’s was different: He and his wife paid 90 percent down—$700,000—with the remainder due at delivery. In exchange, Ganete said, American Tug discounted the price by several tens of thousands of dollars.

The Ganete’s contract also stipulated that the boat had to be delivered by a specific date or the $700,000 would be refunded to them. There were unexplained delays during construction, and American Tug failed to meet the deadline, Ganete said.

He said that when he raised the issue of a refund with West, he was told there was no money available for that purpose. “He defaulted on the contract at that point already,” Ganete said. “He’s already telling me he’s defaulting, and he can’t fulfill the contract.”

According to Ganete, West suggested they meet at the factory, so they agreed to get together on July 9. The petitions for liquidation were filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on July 6. Ganete said he was never notified that their meeting was off.

“This is devastating. People had hopes and aspirations and plans, and, you know, no matter what walk of life you come from, whether you’re rich or poor, it hurts when you lose that much money,” he said.

American Tug Doom Spiral Was Even Worse Than It Looked
From Healthy and Debt-Free to Broke in Three Years
Peter Swanson





American Tug weathered the Great Recession and Covid 19 Pandemic without ever stopping operations or missing a rent payment, according to news articles. When the La Conner company was acquired by Kadey-Krogen in May 2023, it was building boats and reportedly had no debt.

No one characterized the acquistion as a rescue, described instead as a synergistic union that would help both trawler brands grow.

As recently as February 2024, President and co-founder Kurt Dilworth was still bullish, as he spoke to marine writer Norris Comer:

Our shared resources both from engineering to interior design work and then hopefully, at some point, assembly and building expertise will start to mesh. Who knows what that’ll bring?

From the American Tug standpoint, no one dreamed it would bring doom. The AT bankruptcy would not be the reorganize-and-keep-working Chapter 11 type, but straight to liquidation. In Chapter 7 bankruptcy assets are sold and creditors repaid, usually for pennies on the dollar all around.

When the Krogen executives filed bankrupcy papers earlier this month, American Tug had four boats in various stages of production.

According to the bankruptcy filing, progress payments for these boats totaled $1.5 million during the first six months of this year. Based on the price and reported stages of completion for the four vessels—two 435s and two 365s—American Tug could have collected another estimated $1.7 million if they were completed by the end of 2026.

That’s an estimated $3.2 million in revenue, even if no new boat were ordered.

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This would have been down from the roughly five-and-a-half-million totals for 2024 and 2025, but why would 2026 have been less survivable than the Covid years, during which only one boat was being built?

This is undoubtedly one of the questions that Joe and Tana Ganete of Gig Harbor, Washington, were asking when they convinced the Skagit County Sheriff’s Department to investigate the American Tug insolvency for potential fraud.




American Tug Buyers Go to Police with Fraud Claims after Kadey-Krogen Bankruptcy
Peter Swanson


·


Jul 12

Read full story

The Ganetes have put $700,000 down so far on one of the 365s under construction. They like the other three buyers are considered “unsecured creditors” under the bankruptcy—pennies-on-the-dollar people.

In the nine months since the acquistion, three boats were sold, according to Kadey-Krogen President Tucker West, as quoted in a magazine article. Based on a stated 25 percent completion, the fourth boat being built was likely since that January 2024 article in Soundings Online.

Other questions suggested by the AT bankruptcy filing include:

• If the company had no debt in mid-2023 and earned revenues of more than $5.5 million in 2024 and 2025 and $1.5 million so far in 2026, why does the company now owe $1.1 million in unsecured claims—a figure that does not even include the four boat buyers?
• Why does American Tug owe about $588,000 in unpaid state and county taxes, going back to fiscal year 2024-25?
• What was the purpose of 20 payments, totaling $499,000, from AT to Kadey-Krogen in the 90 days before the bankruptcy filings? The required look-back under bankuptcy regs is 90 days; what were the amounts and the pace of inter-company before that?
• What is the story with $177,000 in loan payments to third parties in those final days and thousands of dollars in credit-card reimbursements to Tucker West?

$499,000 Transfered to Kadey-Krogen Yachts






From the American Tug banruptcy filing of July 6.


American Tug declared bankruptcy at the same time as Kadey-Krogen, as part of the Krogen group. Krogen President Tucker West described the financial structure of his company up to and after the AT acquistion. He said Krogen had just created a third brand, Summit Motor Yachts.

West describes Krogen’s move to private equity funding ahead of the American Tug deal in an interview published by Soundings Online in January 2024:

Soundings Online: Soon after Summit was created, in 2021, the Kadey-Krogen Group had more changes. Tom Button retired and Larry Polster moved into a sales role. That’s when you moved up to president and CEO, with growth-equity capital to help the transition, right?

Tucker West: That’s correct. I ended up finding the first guy I ever met when I moved to Rhode Island in 1978, one of my best friends. He’s in private equity. He put together a group to buy out Tom and Larry. The group owns 67 percent and I own the rest. They’re silent partners. He doesn’t know the difference between port and starboard or bow and stern, but he loves coming on the boat if somebody who knows what they’re doing is running it. It’s great because he’s got strengths with financials, which is not my strong suit. It’s been a really, really good setup.

Tucker West signed the bankruptcy filings, but Gavin M. Gray is listed as having served as sole manager of Kadey-Krogen and American Tugs through KKY Holdings, whose voting members included three investors 2820 Partners LP, Yellow Leaf Investments LLC and Summit-KKY LP.

Any police investigation into the surprise bankruptcies of these two quintessential trawler brands is going to run into the challenge of gathering evidence to show criminal behavior and/or criminal intent. And, even then, what may look like nefarious conspiracy at first glance can often be later explained as simple incompetence.