The builder of the ill-fated Corolla ferry says the state Department of Transportation still owes him almost $50,000 for the vessel, but he has written off the money.

The boat, which was intended to transport school children on the Outer Banks to schools on the mainland of Currituck County, has been docked in Mann's Harbor for about two years. Earlier this year, the U.S. Coast Guard advised it would be unsuitable for passenger transport on Currituck Sound.

Robbie Cunningham, the owner of the boatbuilder Trident Florida Trading in Tavares, Fla., maintains he built the vessel to DOT's specification, and state officials were overseeing the construction for some of the time.

He said Wednesday he didn't know what had happened to the boat but claimed the DOT still owed him $49,900 for the vessel.

"I was never fully paid for the boat. I wrote to the Department of Transportation asking for the rest of the money and received a threatening letter back from the Attorney General of North Carolina, threatening legal action," Cunningham said last week.

"It was quite a lot of money that was owed, but after receiving that letter I didn't pursue it. We're a small company with 10 people. We're not in a position to be spending money on legal action," said Cunningham.

The DOT has discussed the possibility of taking legal action against Cunningham, but the boatbuilder said he's heard nothing since the threatening letter from the Attorney General.

DOT spokesman Bill Jones said Wednesday no decision had been made over legal action against Cunningham or the future of the ferry.

In January David King, DOT's former deputy secretary for transit, said it would take the agency up to two months to decide what to do with the ferry. He later admitted he had been over optimistic.

DOT memos obtained by The Daily Advance last year said Cunningham's original bill to build the boat was more than $200,000 but the price rose to $304,000 with changes to the design.

Cunningham said these changes had been requested by the DOT.

"We built the boat exactly the way that they wanted it — to the letter," said Cunningham.

Last year when the ferry project was mired in problems over whether it was too big to operate in the shallow waters of Currituck Sound and able to dock at a pier near Corolla's Whalehead Club, Cunningham claimed an agent for the DOT had offered to sell the boat back to his company.

He said he has not received any such offer since then.

Ferry division spokesman Carolyn McDaniel said Thursday it was her understanding that the vessel was still in Mann's Harbor.