What to Watch out for: Buying a boat from Moorings/SunSail

[Captain Scott]

I bought a boat from Sunsail and had an independent surveyor. I also sailied the boat for a week between islands. Both a must! They were GREAT at fixing anything I brought to their attention except. We all missed the poor batteries that needed replacement. Also, they took a lot longer than they said they would. I was on them constantly. Had a due date they agreed on (that was really a week earlier than I needed) then when I should up, when everything was supposed to be done, it took another week and they got everything but the horn fiinished
This is Virgin Gorda next door to Tortola after Irma. On the Hard.

[jim King]

I'm into my second Leopard 45 with Sunsail and chose them over Dreamyachts for the excellent maintenance I saw on their boats. I have had nothing but good experiences with Moorings/Sunsail in over ten years with them. I know the owners can go over their boats before they are mustered out at the end of their contract and all items are fixed to satisfaction. Having said that I wouldn't buy a boat from M/S or anyone else without an extensive survey by a private reliable surveyor in the BVI. Better yet, bring your own, It may be worth the price of survey and plane fare to have someone independent you can trust.
With any charter boat you can expect more ware and tear, but also get a lower purchase price. I like the option M/S gives allowing you to take the boat out into Sir Frances Drake sound and testing the boat for a week. You will probably have to pay the charter price for the week, but it will be well worth the cost.

[jim King]

I can't imagine a better location than Moorings/Sunsail in BVI to have work done on a boat after survey. Their BVI charter location is arguably the largest in the world and they have hundreds of boats they work on every day of the week. I sail out of Roadtown several times a year and have always been impressed with the M/S team of workers and repair people. They can fix anything that needs to be fixed.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Captain Scott

Also, they took a lot longer than they said they would. I was on them constantly. Had a due date they agreed on (that was really a week earlier than I needed) then when I should up, when everything was supposed to be done, it took another week and they got everything but the horn fiinished
This is Virgin Gorda next door to Tortola after Irma. On the Hard.

Just sittin back a grinnin. A week is nothing, you got away earlier than a lot of others. I deal with this all the time. I hear it all the time, a customer tells me their boat is on the hard and it will be splashed in two weeks after the new engines are installed, new rigging and sails, new electronics, bottom job, davits built and installed and 1,000Watts of of solar and that I need to get my three days of work done as well. ....two weeks? Sure.


PS Most in the Marine industry know owners pull the "I only have so much time to get all this done" Always add time to the work you need done, especially if you are having multiple different things done from different trades. Not going to argue about right and wrong here. Just stating 20 years of fact. It almost always takes longer.

[jmschmidt]

Bought two boats out of the Moorings fleet, one in Raiatea (French Polynesia) one in Tortola. Jim Adams (broker) and Richard Vass (contact person in Tortola) were excellent. Smooth sea trial, survey, engine survey and haul out. They took care of everything on the survey and then some.

Raiatea base, not so much. We paid $1,000 for what proved to be a worthless survey. We discovered that there were many discrepancies when we got the boat to Honolulu but Moorings offered a cash settlement which took care of most of the problems.

As others have mentioned the quality of maintenance varies widely from base to base. The Raiatea base was not exactly into proactive preventive maintence. But all in all they did right by us.

If Richard is still in Tortola say "hi" from Jack (buyer of ex Big Bucks), sorry we couldn't get together for lunch.

[Cool Hand Luke]

Congratulations!! I also bought a boat from Sunsay/Moorings. She's a 40-foot monohull and bought her in November 2016. Other than a few minor issues, the last 4 years have been amazing and I'm glad I went that route. Remember... it's a used boat, but so long as the major things are fixed, anything cosmetic you can do yourself in the future.

[joelhemington]

Originally Posted by Errant1

I have an accepted offer on a Catamaran from Moorings/SunSail . Its apparently about to start its re-fit process...would love anyone's input on what to watch out for, anyone want to share any 'lessons learned' would be appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxSeTG-w12Q&t=408s

[RickG]

We bought a Beneteau 40 out of Moorings Tortola. It is important to be involved with the phase out work. That is hard now with travel restrictions. We used Hirst Marine as our surveyor. We found issues with electric, sails, spreaders, swaged end fittings, sails, batteries, bilge pump, out of date fire extinguishers. They just swapped sails and batteries from a newer boat. The spreaders and swaged end fittings we got a $3K quote to replace and had that fixed after closing. What we did not catch with the dampener plate and the transmission. We had to replace the dampener plate and repair the transmission in the first year. We replaced the transmission in year 2.

Another issue I found was mildew between the hull and the liner/structural grid. That was pretty much impossible to clean.

We enjoyed that boat for 4 years before she was destroyed by Irmaria.

Cheers, RickG

[Errant1]

Originally Posted by RickG

We bought a Beneteau 40 out of Moorings Tortola. It is important to be involved with the phase out work. That is hard now with travel restrictions. We used Hirst Marine as our surveyor. We found issues with electric, sails, spreaders, swaged end fittings, sails, batteries, bilge pump, out of date fire extinguishers. They just swapped sails and batteries from a newer boat. The spreaders and swaged end fittings we got a $3K quote to replace and had that fixed after closing. What we did not catch with the dampener plate and the transmission. We had to replace the dampener plate and repair the transmission in the first year. We replaced the transmission in year 2.

Another issue I found was mildew between the hull and the liner/structural grid. That was pretty much impossible to clean.

We enjoyed that boat for 4 years before she was destroyed by Irmaria.

Cheers, RickG

Thank you RickG, would you hire Hirst again?

[RickG]

Originally Posted by Errant1

Thank you RickG, would you hire Hirst again?

Yes, I had an insurance survey scheduled with Locky before the COVID shutdown. Mike Hirst, mike@hirstmarine.com, *(284) 494-2399‬. Lauchlan Leigh, Locky@hirstmarine.com. Good luck.

Cheers, RickG

[Rennsail]

Originally Posted by joelhemington

SIDENOTE: The O'Kelly's videos are really good. Less focus on the glamour and more about the realities of long-term, part-time cruising.


They have another video in their series where they test out the Plastimo life raft that came with their '46 Leopard cat from the Moorings. it is pretty apparent there may have been some "funny business" related to when the raft was actually repacked vs. the documentation provided. Furthermore the raft literally disintegrates after sitting in a pool for 24 hours. IDK, maybe it was the chlorine that made the seam tape detach from the raft? Regardless, it was certainly an eyebrow raiser for me.

[markiobe]

Have a look at the O’Kelly’s YouTube channel. They bought from the Moorings and have a couple of videos with their thoughts and lessons learned

[Nauti Cat]

My boat was in moorings from 2004-2008, while in rental it was duck taped and chicken wired to get it back out on next charter on regular basis. Then when I took possession, they agreed to abide by contract for fixing everything properly , but unfortunately there was not a time frame in the contract, so after 4 months and weeks after week of nothing getting done and promising the vessel each week, I finally gave in and signed the "as is" release just so I could get the boat back. $50,000 later i finally got it in the condition I expected it to be in. So, lesson learned have a time from with penalties for tardiness.

[tm8545]

I just purchased a 2015 Leopard 44 from The Moorings in BVI, purchase was all virtual because of the travel restrictions, after all of the paperwork was completed they had a skipper deliver to St. Thomas where I flew down to pickup later that afternoon.

Checked things out and was quite surprised as The Moorings added a few things to make my Shakeout cruise a bit better:
1. Fueled up and water topped off
2. New 10 passenger Viking life raft.
3. Fully stocked with cookware and bed/bath, just as if you were going on a charter.
4. Dingy and outboard for a small fee.
5. All safety gear and navigation aids.

Dealt directly with The Moorings broker Bill Regan and could not be any happier with purchase. Great price and Bill helped all the way and kept track of journey via AIS.

My "Shakeout Cruise" was from St. Thomas to Kemah, TX. 2024 nautical miles, dodging two hurricanes and a few squalls with only a broken alternator belt and a couple of lines along the way to fix.

Would deal with them again.

[dvop]

Ask them to give you the complete printout of the boat maintenance and problems.
If they refuse or say that there is no such document then it is a big red flag!

Engine gear can be an issue with these charter boats as the customers either don't care or sometimes don't know how to use it properly. You may end up with few thousands additional expenses fixing them.

If it is from Tortola and it is 5 years old most likely it was damaged by Irma and Maria hurricanes. This is not necessarily bad. The main question is if it has been submerged. Ask them for Photos after the storm and before repairs.
One way to verify if it was not submerged is to check the electronics, windlass, engines. If it was submerged all electronics will be new, sometimes also engines and windlass and sails, they had to replace it.
So verify it carefully.
Submerged boats may have long term electric cables problems.
If it was damaged but not submerged it may not be a significant issue. If they claim it was on the hard ask for receipts for hull in and out, most of the boats were in the water not on the hard.
Sometimes damaged boat, not submerged and repaired properly may be better then used boat that was not damaged but poorly maintained.