After YACHT's first publication about the massive problems at Thinius, various other affected charter clients and agencies contacted the editorial team, essentially confirming the suspicions that had previously emerged: the agency had apparently withheld payments in several cases for ships that it did not have under its own management.
We received reports from the Lemmer base from crews who said they were standing in front of locked doors. No staff were present on the day of handover and there was no prior notification from Thinius that the ships were not available. Other customers awaiting refunds report that payment has still not been received.
In an email dated 18 October to a Dutch agency to which Thinius managing director Andreas Kühn also owes payments, he declared his Spanish company on Mallorca to be insolvent. The editorial team then tried to contact him for a statement as to whether an official insolvency petition had been filed, but no one could be reached today.
As Thinius does not issue security certificates to its direct customers, they now have to worry about their payments being refunded. The extent to which other Kühn companies besides the Spanish company are affected by the insolvency remains unclear for the time being.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
