My experience with Johnny Dominguez

My dream for the past 10+ years has been to learn how to sail, eventually leading to owning and sailing my own boat. I am so infatuated with the water and just want to be surrounded by her all the time. When I was 18 I moved to Florida and worked at a freediving shop for 2 years. During this time I got my STCW to start looking to crew on yachts and struggled to find any jobs. February 2023 I went to the Philippines for a freediving internship and was there for 7 months. I got in to a bad accident and came home and started working to save money to fund learning to sail.

Earlier this year, I quit my job and started looking for sailing opportunities. I learned that you could sail hitchhike a few years back and have not been able to stop thinking about it. I was having a hard time finding people on Crewbay and FindACrew because I wasn't being as consistent as possible. After a while I thought it might be a good option to finally post on these Facebook groups for sail hitchhiking, not really expecting much. I got several messages and comments.

One message in particular was for an Atlantic Crossing from Johnny Dominguez on June 10 discussing a crossing for the 6th of July from the Dominican Republic, going to Spain. He stated that there would be an instructor on board as captain. I asked why he wanted to use sail hitchhikers for the crossing and he said that the hitchhikers are only responsible to wake the captain up during night watches if anything looks wrong, and because it is cheap, this way he doesn't have to pay for help as well.

I started to ask questions about the opportunity and started to get to know him. And we connected well quickly. He recently purchased this boat and has been sailing on it since. Originally he had told me that he was sailing to Spain to figure out how to charter the boat in the Mediterranean and even offered a charter position for when we got to Spain.

I had posted my ad on June 10th. After I received Johnny's first message, I went through his profile on facebook to see if he had any ads posted for this particular crossing, as well as look to see if there was any ad's from the past. I ran a background check on him. He sent me 2 references and I did background checks on one of them as well. I was looking for any signs of physical or sexual abuse that had been documented against him, and found nothing. Just some fraud. I asked Johnny several times (3-5), for the instructors contact who would be joining us and Johnny got very annoyed and refused. I was really infatuated with the idea of a ocean crossing especially with a licensed instructor, any red flags that occurred while I was getting to know Johnny I would take note of, and keep planning my way to the boat. I was not fully committed to joining for the Spain crossing because of all the uncertainty, I was committed to checking out the opportunity in person in the Dominican Republic and making my decision from there. Johnny knew this as well.

For business filings and a public civil docket naming Johnny Dominguez a/k/a JD Rex / Vestige LLC, see Public record.

Also documented

After she arrived

On July 3rd 2026, I flew into Puerto Plata, and made my way to Luperon. When I arrived to the marina restaurant, Johnny was there to greet me and inform me that the instructor would not be there until the 6th, and there was another woman joining us the 5th. Later that night alone on the boat, he pressured me to drink and took the conversation into a sexual direction with a game of truth or dare. I did not drink and went to bed because I was uncomfortable. The next morning July 4th, things escalated. I would try my best to evade his sexual advancements and ultimately gave up. I was isolated and afraid of what would happen if I didn't listen.

On July 5th, Johnny told me that the instructor would be arriving on the 8th. Around 7:30 pm, Johnny and I went to pick up our new crew member! A woman, named (K). She has blonde hair and blue eyes and no previous sailing experience. Her first night aboard, Johnny pressured her to drink and when they were isolated at the end of the night, he tried to play truth or dare and take things in a sexual direction. K is older and better able to push back; she would shut this down immediately.

July 6th, K and I had our first moment apart from Johnny, at a beach surrounded by families who owned and lived on boats. Friends Johnny had made and introduced us to. Here, she informed me that Johnny had tried to play truth or dare and get sexual with her the night before when I went to bed. I told her about my first night and of the assault that took place on the 4th. From this point on we were constantly looking for any moment away from him to talk about how we were feeling and what our next steps were. We knew Johnny would most likely NOT be with us for the crossing. We were really hoping and trying to wait until we met the instructor until we had made our final decision to leave the boat or not. Johnny offered to buy K a flight to Europe instead of her joining the crossing, after being questioned about why he would take unexperienced woman with him as crew for a crossing. No more physical advancements were made this evening, everyone went to sleep.

The night of July 7th changed everything. We had spent all day from 1pm -9pm at the beach with the families and friends we met through Johnny. K and I were ready to wind down and have some space and time to ourselves. K went to leave the main cabin and watch the stars from the deck, only to find the main hatch locked. She messaged Johnny letting him know, asking for help. He ignored her concerns and kept messaging about other things. K texted me and we went out my crew cabin exit. K was frightened and scared at this point. Johnny kept messaging us while we were out there, he called me, I ignored. I pretended to be asleep. After about 20 minuets of chatting on the stern, the anxiety of him catching us ate us alive and we felt we needed to get back into our beds. I was able to sleep after about an hour; for K in wasn't as simple. Johnny kept her up all night. When K went back to her room, the main hatch was unlocked and wide open. After she laid down, he started peering in her room asking if she was awake and when she responded he began questioning what her and I were doing outside, and yelling and threatening to throw the both of us off the boat the next day. He also told her she needed to do a "practice night watch" at 12am. She would be expected to be awake from 2am to 5am and message Johnny while she was awake. She was not to go outside for this night watch, she could, "do it from bed." He would yell through the walls to check on her status throughout the night. When she wouldn't respond he would persist and would she would answer he would escalate.

The morning of the July 8th, K told me everything that had happened the night prior. We messaged one of the couples we had been introduced to and let them know things were weird and that we might need help. They came right over and offered a ride off the boat if necessary. Around 11am, Johnny came out of his room for the first time and informed me that the instructor wouldn't be aboard until the next day in the afternoon. At this moment I knew we were getting off the boat that day, I just didn't know entirely how. We went to the marina restaurant for breakfast and met up with other boaters. While at the marina, I contacted a taxi driver and asked him to meet me at the marina restaurant at 5pm. I also informed my family that K and I would be leaving the boat. When we got back to the boat around 3pm K and I packed our bags the best of our ability and then chilled in the midship area. Luckily enough, Johnny was so tired from keeping K up all night that he took a nap on the boat at around 4:40pm. We told him good night. Our taxi texted us. We texted the couple. They picked us up. Took us to the main marina dock on their dinghy. We got in the cab. And headed to somewhere safe.

My whole goal for this website and page is to inform any woman or person who is looking to maybe do business with this man, of what he is capable of and where his intentions may lie. Hopefully this page offers a pause to anyone who's dreams are being used to real them into a dangerous situation.