My Boat’s Buyer Is Not Making Payments. What Do I Do Now?

I sold my boat a couple of years ago and allowed the buyer to make payments for half of the purchase price. He signed a promissory note, and I recorded a preferred ship’s mortgage with the Coast Guard. He is now three months late on his payments, and I would like to know my options. Can I just repossess the boat, or do I need to get the U.S. Marshals involved? What kind of notice do I need to give? I probably should have looked into this before I sold the boat to him, but I really did not expect him to have any problems making the payments.  Our reader appears to have taken the necessary steps to record a preferred ship’s mortgage with the Coast Guard and thereby perfect a security interest in his old boat — and the boat will, therefore, serve as collateral for the loan that he made to the buyer.              When a borrower defaults on a loan that is secured by a preferred ship’s mortgage, the lender may, in most cases, foreclose on the boat under either a state law procedure or a federal law procedure.             The...