I was over run by a Yacht Week group a bit less than two years ago, and it was awful. They came in at dusk, New Years Eve and proceeded to park about thirty boats in an anchorage that was already full, endangering everyone. In the interest of harmony, I approached the "staff" and asked that they be more considerate and met with a contemptuous rebuff. The staff, by the way, were clearly experienced boats and knew exactly where they were being unreasonable but did not care. There were about four staff, who supervised all of this, without regard for the boats already settled in. Only the fact that I am well established here (the BVI), know the laws and
regulations (they were doing quite a few illegal things, including violating
work permit regs) and also know the relevant enforcers, enabled me to tell them that I would call the
Marine Police, the
Shipping Registry , Immigration, the Labour Department, and the Tourist Board if they did not reposition more responsibly. Eventually, they saw I meant business and did so. They remained loud, inconsiderate, and obnoxious, but at least they were no longer positioned to damage boats that had been at
anchor for days.
As I am in the industry, I know how much their business is appreciated, but as a boater I could certainly see the collateral damage. The Interlined
Regatta, mentioned in a previous post, is also an annual
regatta regarded with eagerness for their business, but horror at their behaviour. None of us go anywhere near!
These affairs are all very easily identified, at the outset, and yes, they give us all a bad name. The simple solution would be to require a "lead captain", be assigned by the
charter company, for whom he or she wold
work. This person, who would not drink, would have overall responsibility to ensure behaviour is safe and not too inconsiderate of others. They could have their fun and all, just not at the cost of other boaters, whose business is also valued.
I think the OP makes a very good point, but I can see that many of the comments are made without any experience of the phenomenon. If you have the misfortune to experience it, you will never forget it.
by the way, all of us are privileged who sail, no matter how humble and basic the
boat.