St. Barths

[ashland]

I'm a sailing new guy and took my first course in Nov. 09. My wife and I are meeting some family in St. Barts this summer and I wanted to charter a sailboat for a day or so. Can anyone recommend a good charter boat or service in Gustavia.

This may not be the best place to post this but I wasn't sure.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Charles

[GordMay]

The Moorings ➥ Gustavia Yacht Charters & Sailing Vacations | The Moorings

[Zanshin]

I would suggest you contact Sunsail or Moorings in St. Martin, from their base in Oyster Pond to St. Barts is only a couple of hours sail and at the customs/immigration desk at St. Barts they have all of the paperwork for those boats on file. I've been to St. Barts many times and didn't even know they had a charter base there; I am fairly certain that they have no permanent boats but get them from St. Martin on demand. The (only) harbour is quite small and full.

[ashland]

Thank you both. My family has been going there for many years but never chartered a boat. There are a couple of boats there that do day sails but I just wanted to see if anyone on this board had used them or knew of good charter boat down there. It always looked like a good area to sail and I thought while I was there I might get a little time on a boat. I'll send Moorings an email.

Thanks
Charles

[Zanshin]

I loved anchoring out in Anse Columbier but anchoring outside of Gustavia is usually a bit rolly to very rolly. Isle Forchue is also a nice anchorage - but there one needs to pick up a mooring ball while Columbier lets you anchor between the two mooring fields. The French mooring balls have no pennant so picking up a ball is a lot more work than elsewhere. If you want to nestle amongst the superyachts at the Gustavia promenade then you will be looking at about €70 per day plus water/electricity and they warned me that if a real behemoth anchors next to you then you need to pay for the (required) diver that sorts out the anchors.

[ashland]

Darn, sounds like alot of trouble to anchor in town. The last time I was in St. Barts. I walked to Columbier and spent the day on that beach. It's probably my favorite of all the beaches on that island. Very gentle surf. Not as much "scenery" as St. Jean but a great place to get away. Think I'll hire a sailboat with a captain and let him worry about all those fees.

[Zanshin]

Sorry to confuse it, the fees at St. Barths are only if you want to do a med-moor at the quayside along with all the 150+ foot megayachts. If you just anchor it is included in the clearance costs, which are just a couple of Euro. You can't anchor at all inside Gustavia, the anchor (or two for the big boats) is dropped so you can med-moor. The anchorage outside of the harbour is just a medium-length dinghy ride away and only the really rich or really big boats stay inside. There are some moorings, but those are reserved for local boats and not, to my knowledge, available for rent.

[GordMay]

Gustavia Pics:
Over all (left) & Inside (right)

[ashland]

Made our flight reservations last night. Headed there in June so I've got time to check things out.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

Charles

[Zanshin]

Those pictures go a long way towards explaining the layout. The island in the distance on the left picture is St. Martin, just a short hop away. The fees I mentioned are if you want to join the med-moored yachts at the promenade seen at right of the left picture and the left of the right picture The really big megayachts sometimes drop both anchors and require one or more divers in the water, the smaller big yachts in the right picture probably got away with anchoring themselves, but if a big one anchors next to them they will have to pay a diver's fee if they leave first. The left picture shows the mooring/anchoring fields in the distance off both sides of the entrance channel. Saint Barthélemy

[speciald@ocens.]

Thre is a smaller inner-harbor in Gustavia for boats upto about 60 ft. It tends to be full in-season and requires fore and aft mooring. Clumbier moorings are free to use and the bay is a maritime presevre but does allow anchoring. I'm on St. maarten with a view of Bt. barths, 15 miles away. It is raining here today. The St. Barth's harbor was closed to megayachts on New Yera's Eve because of large swell in the harbor. Very expensive megayachts in the outer harbor were bouncing around and had to send their passengers to the party by tender

[John A]

When I was there for New Years 2009 the fee to anchor outside had risen above $20US a day. Sailing the 15 miles from St Maartin is to windward and may require a tack or two.

Taking a LAAT flight into their little hillside runway looked rather hairy.

I enjoyed my stay.

John

[ashland]

We used to visit there during the high time but found the early summer to be more laid back and less expensive. The heat is bad but not much different than it is here in the summer. Columbier seemed like the perfect place to moor to me. There is an island between St. Barts and St. Maarten that looked like it had a quiet mooring. I can't remember the name of it. We've been visiting St. Barts for about 10 years now until the sailing bug hit me last year. I've got a young family and my wife is not interested in sailing so any chance I get, I'm going to try and get on the water.

[Zanshin]

The island belongs to St. Barts and is called Île Forchue

[ashland]

Ah, thank you. Anybody every moored there? Is it a nice place to swim and walk on the beach? If I do get a sailing trip together, I would rather spend time sailing but might want to swim a little.