Bora bora anchoring

[gilligansail]

A few changes in Bora bora.

Bora bora mooring service now manages the lagoon. New mooring balls are available at a few spots in the lagoon with plans to install more. Francis from BBMS will likely approach you to take your trash and payment for the balls.

If you are anchored you may be asked to move. Francis will provide you with a chart showing mooring and anchoring areas as well as restricted zones. The chart is incomplete as it shows mooring fields that do not exit yet. Also you are apparently only allowed to anchor in the designated zones. It’s not enough to stay out of the restricted red zones.
We anchored outside the red zone, but not in a green zone. We were in sand with no boomies. We were forced to move.

Francis will accept payment from you for a mooring ball but neglect to mention that a 62 foot cat is too large for the 4-5 tons blocks

Cost is 30 francs one night, 50 3 nights and 100 for 1 week

Their goal is to get everyone on a mooring ball and discourage anchoring. Francis is very energetic in pursuing this goal. He is at the same time friendly.
His number is 89440888

Based on Noonsite info it appears that anchoring is allowed with in the mooring field. The balls are spaced far apart making that possible. BBMS did not mention this and I have not had a chance to confirm.

[chouliha]

Gee that’s really cheap works out to be 30 cents US. I think you mean 3000 a night?

[gilligansail]

Yes 3000,5000 and 10000
My bad
Thanks

[Viv1stMate]

We were in Bora Bora for number of weeks last month, and encountered the enforcement of mooring ball payments. We were rather suspect of the whole thing, since it was executed in a totally chaotic and not very official-seeming way. What's going on there with these fee-collectors (Francis?) may actually be legit, but their approach hardly lends any credence to that.

Our experience over a number of weeks was that two guys in a large RIB pull up to the boat, failing to show any identification or official documentation of their positions or responsibilities, seem to make up prices (2000 per day? 10000 for a week? 5000 for three days?), make claims about owning/managing "all" the mooring balls in Bora Bora but then denying ownership/responsibility of the one mooring ball that snapped off while we were tied to it (sending us drifting though the Yacht Club mooring field in the middle of the night), and when pressed for some sort of business and/or insurance documentation hem and haw and eventually show a monsterous 6-7 page long boilerplate long-term mooring leasing contract in French but never producing any proof of insurance for eventualities like mooring balls snapping in the middle of the night. While Francis(?)(sketchily) tries to charm/cajole sailors into coughing up whatever fees he's decided to present to them, a colleague (pretends to?) write down the boat details, but somehow the next time they show up, never remember who you are or have any record of previous interactions.

It is also important to note that many of the mooring balls clearly belong to other organizations, like the Tahiti Yacht Club, but Francis (?) seems to be willing to collect his fees for use of those balls as well. In fact, while we were there, he managed to collect a few weeks worth of fees from a Swiss vessel that was *anchored* (i.e. not on any mooring ball) near the Yacht Club.

We never ended up paying him anything, because the whole affair seemed just a bit too shady. We prefer to err on the side of not supporting criminality, in the case that the situation isn't clear.

If this fee collection is indeed sanctioned and legit, I would recommend to whomever is responsible for this to provide Francis and his boat with some official identification; set up a website detailing the fees, terms of the mooring agreement, any relevant rules and/or laws, and the contact info of the relevant authorities as well as whoever runs the mooring ball managing organization/company, in both English and French, at least; and paint the URL on the mooring balls (the domain bbms.pf is available, and only two letters longer than what is already on Bora Bora Marine Service's mooring balls). With this, sailors can be fully informed of their obligations and be ready to comfortably comply with the applicable laws and rules governing anchoring and mooring in Bora Bora.

I think it is safe to say that cruisers are a law-abiding bunch, and more than happy to pay for the resources they use. Conversely, I think there are very few cruisers who are comfortable supporting fraud, so if Francis and Bora Bora Marine Services want to get the happy cooperation of Bora Bora's cruisers, then they need to do much better with their corporate communications, and not present themselves in the current manner, which is most reasonably interpreted as an illegal shakedown by fraudulent grifters.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Viv.


See ➥ https://www.noonsite.com/report/bora...l-yachts-2019/



Unfortunately, French Polynesia is rife with Francophones.

➥
https://old.voiliers.asso.pf/regleme...LlnoFlpGhKET_U

➥ https://www.service-public.pf/dpam/

➥ https://www.service-public.pf/dpam/

[Viv1stMate]

Thank you for this info (and translation) Gord! Hopefully, this thread will show up on searches done by cruisers visiting Bora Bora and help avoid some of the confusion, uncertainty and unsettled speculation that is circulating around cockpits full of sailors drinking beers and trying to figure out what the heck is going on in the waters of the island...

[RSAMariner]

Originally Posted by Viv1stMate

We were in Bora Bora for number of weeks last month, and encountered the enforcement of mooring ball payments. We were rather suspect of the whole thing, since it was executed in a totally chaotic and not very official-seeming way. What's going on there with these fee-collectors (Francis?) may actually be legit, but their approach hardly lends any credence to that.

Our experience over a number of weeks was that two guys in a large RIB pull up to the boat, failing to show any identification or official documentation of their positions or responsibilities, seem to make up prices (2000 per day? 10000 for a week? 5000 for three days?), make claims about owning/managing "all" the mooring balls in Bora Bora but then denying ownership/responsibility of the one mooring ball that snapped off while we were tied to it (sending us drifting though the Yacht Club mooring field in the middle of the night), and when pressed for some sort of business and/or insurance documentation hem and haw and eventually show a monsterous 6-7 page long boilerplate long-term mooring leasing contract in French but never producing any proof of insurance for eventualities like mooring balls snapping in the middle of the night. While Francis(?)(sketchily) tries to charm/cajole sailors into coughing up whatever fees he's decided to present to them, a colleague (pretends to?) write down the boat details, but somehow the next time they show up, never remember who you are or have any record of previous interactions.

It is also important to note that many of the mooring balls clearly belong to other organizations, like the Tahiti Yacht Club, but Francis (?) seems to be willing to collect his fees for use of those balls as well. In fact, while we were there, he managed to collect a few weeks worth of fees from a Swiss vessel that was *anchored* (i.e. not on any mooring ball) near the Yacht Club.

We never ended up paying him anything, because the whole affair seemed just a bit too shady. We prefer to err on the side of not supporting criminality, in the case that the situation isn't clear.

If this fee collection is indeed sanctioned and legit, I would recommend to whomever is responsible for this to provide Francis and his boat with some official identification; set up a website detailing the fees, terms of the mooring agreement, any relevant rules and/or laws, and the contact info of the relevant authorities as well as whoever runs the mooring ball managing organization/company, in both English and French, at least; and paint the URL on the mooring balls (the domain bbms.pf is available, and only two letters longer than what is already on Bora Bora Marine Service's mooring balls). With this, sailors can be fully informed of their obligations and be ready to comfortably comply with the applicable laws and rules governing anchoring and mooring in Bora Bora.

I think it is safe to say that cruisers are a law-abiding bunch, and more than happy to pay for the resources they use. Conversely, I think there are very few cruisers who are comfortable supporting fraud, so if Francis and Bora Bora Marine Services want to get the happy cooperation of Bora Bora's cruisers, then they need to do much better with their corporate communications, and not present themselves in the current manner, which is most reasonably interpreted as an illegal shakedown by fraudulent grifters.

I just watched the horrific video of the cat Archer on YouTube (The Sailing Family), where they document how their mooring ball line snapped while they were ashore for dinner and the boat drifted into a hotel with some real damage. BBMS denied any responsibility according to Seth of Archer.