Agree with the wear and tear by many of the bare boat charterers to the boats. There is actually a great deal of unknowledgeable people who also lack seaman ship who are bareboating. The good side, there are also highly experienced excellent sailors who do take care of the vessels that the charter for a week or two.
Add in the charter company base lack of maintenance, and the charterers not squawking or listing the problems that existed or that they created.
We have bare boat chartered with the moorings for 35 years, world wide, That also includes sunsail. Presently we now bare boat with Conch Charters.
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Why the change ?
The moorings : Last time, was the last straw. Very expensive, and we SAIL monohulls. Very little
engine use.
Since we started with bare boat chartering, we spend a couple of hours or more going thru every system on board.
Anchor, standing
rigging, running rigging, the
engine room, all pumps,
marine head, running rigging,
sails,
electronics,
electrical, fresh
water, and
fuel, etc, etc, that we can at the docks. That is before the systems briefer gets on board . I have a four page check list that I have type up .
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The last moorings,
monohull, 35 or 36. Just Erica and I.
During our
inspection, I found a large tear at the lower luff , near the tack of the
mainsail . That type of tear occurs when the main is not properly reefed and the sail is actually turned the wrong way and the rams horn tears completely thru the sail.
I pointed it out to the
mooring systems briefer and he said he would send someone down from their
BVI base sail loft to replace the main. Well , no one came.
I walked up to the sail loft, the guys were all sitting around, and explained the situation. They just looked at me, knew nothing about it, and went on with their personal conversation.
What would you do ? Sit at the docks for a few days until someone got off their okole.
Not going to happen:
I told them I would handle it myself. I put in a double reef, that stopped any stress what so ever on the lower luff of the main, and off we went.
Another problem :
Outside Whickhams cay, we hauled up and stowed the fenders, and the docklines, and raise the main. There are just two of us, so I engaged the auto pilot as we made up and secured the running rigging lines.
The
weather was rain, low clouds and very low visibility that you could not see Norman or any of the other islands.
The auto pilot showed the proper heading. We have the vessel all squared away, reef in the main, dink painter paid out and secured, and I see that the visible Road Harbor land marks are not correct as to our carted D/R track line heading. We are off course.
I check the ships
compass and the auto pilot course reading. They do not agree, they are off by 50 degrees or more. I also bring along my own hand bearing
compass, and compared my hand bearing compass with the ships compass with the auto pilot.
The ships compass was correct, the auto pilot was not. So we turned off the auto pilot, and did not use it all the rest of the two week trip. This is not a big deal to us, since we navigate using coastal piloting and
navigation. And we enjoy sailing the boat hands on, with no electronic wonder involved. We swap out
helm and crew /nav duties every 30 minutes or hourly depending on the length of the
passage.
After the two weeks of sailing the BVI, and using our usual 7 to 8 gals of fuel, mostly to charge the
batteries and pick up moorings,
Back at the Moorings base, for the post sailing check in.
I presented a written list of 16 squawks on the our moorings vessel. Some should have absolutely been taken care of before the next charter party boarded .
The moorings staff person came on board, sat down, with their clip board. I explained each of the descrepacies. The person put their pen to the paper , and did not write down or note a
single thing. I do not believe they understood a one word of nautical termonology , or names of the boat systems.
That was the last of the high priced
mooring boats for us. We switched over to sunsail.
But , again, they are expensive, and all part of TUI, the great conglomerate of corporate numbers.
We wanted a new and different charter company. For our next BVI trip, I called Conch, that next BVI trip would be number 15. Immediately , we got a $ 1100.00 discount, plus another discount . Our next two BVI bare boat charter were with Conch. Super friendly, great people, both of the boats were older, but well taken care of.
We remembered , the old days, actually the beginning or our international bare boat sailing vacations with the moorings. They were human beings who related to the charterers and their crews. Those were very special days and wonderful memories.
Not only the BVI, but
Tahiti,
Tonga, Windwards and Grenedines,
Australia, . Then, TUI took over the moorings, sunsail and footloose. Different style .
The last straw with the moorings was the ripped main, and the inop auto pilot, ( that most people who bare boat now, would have turned on, and in those limited vis conditions would have just kicked back, had a brew, and expected to go to their
destination and totally missed the island. ) Hello
Atlantic ocean.
And, at Check in, when all of those sqawks, including ripped
mainsail were ignored, that was it. We were Done with the moorings.
That list of 16 descrepancies ... the staff never even looked at it. I left it on the chart table. Probably was tossed out when the
cleaning crew boarded.
As to putting a vessel in charter, and keeping after the
contract with charter company is up, a lot comes into effect. The quality and actual seamanship, knowledge and ability of the bare boater. Plus respect for the vessel by the bare boat
skipper and also the passengers .
Then comes the base maintaining the vessel , the systems, the sails, rigging, engine, etc. and general up keep by the charter company itself.
As to keeping the vessel at end of
contract, It may come down to the roll of the dice. Everything could turn out just fine, but, personally our trust in huge corporations in regard to the boat charter biz, is now zero.
Also, from what we observe , while out there sailing, there is a great lack of seaman ship. Not everyone, but a great majority are totally into water world disneyland week in the BVI. That does not bode well for a long life of the vessel.
Again, this is what we have experienced, and many of the bare boats over the years have been just fine. But, it seem the times they are a changing,
As others here have mentioned, in relation to the O.P. plans, do your own very thorough inspections, as well as getting a very professional
survey, and make sure all of the noted problems by you and the surveyor have been fixed , or replaced .
for us it was sad, to see the moorings and sunsail change . 35 years ago, they were our first bare boat experience, sailing ( BVI) ,the caribbean, Shortly and for many years, followed the fabulous adventures in paradise world wide. We felt a kinship, and actually friendship with them, and were very loyal. Several decades.
We trusted and knew that the boats we were assigned were in good condition.
That was not just Erica and myself, I actually was fotilla leader for out sailing club, with up to 12 moorings vessels in the BVI, Windward and Grenadines,
Tonga and
Tahiti.
It actually was very disappointing, to say good bye to the moorings and sunsail, but they are not the original Moorings that we came to love and respect.
So, we now
bareboat with a
family owned charter company, and so far they and their boats, staff, briefers, office personnel have been great. That has been two , 2 week sailing vacations, and the third is approaching quickly, this May.
Fact is boats in charter get worn, and well used. They really do need to be taken care of , but, continual use , and sometimes abuse will take its toll.
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