TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Protecting charter boats?

While praying for the people on BVI to be safe, am wondering what all the charter companies have done to "save the boats?" Is there room to move them to hurricane holes? Can they keep them safe in their own harbors? Without floating docks can they protect from surge?

I remember when TTM Belize actually lost crew while trying to move boats ahead of a storm.

Most of the pilings on floating docks are under 6ft. then they are "boats" often teatherd to holding anchors....not good. Majority run to hurricane holes. very few get on the hard.

I know our boat with Marine Max can either be on land, in hurricane hole or tied up in their marina. They were done several days ago. I'm not sure about protection or what will happen. Things can always be replaced. Wondering how our friends are holding up...

I don't think there are any givens for a storm of this size. All we can do is wait and see.
G

Nolan... Most of them are moved to Paraquita Bay. Someone posted a link in an earlier post to the arrangements for each of the companies.

This is the first time I am truly glad I no longer own a boat in the BVI.

There will be a lot of losses. The sheer numbers of boats preclude getting them all in the safest shelters like paraquita bay. For a " normal" storm the south side of Tortola/ Virgin Gorda would be protected. Unfortunately the eyeball swallowed up Virgin Gorda and a good part of Tortola meaning they will be getting those 225 mph winds on north side wall..and then 140 from the south with the surge that brings. There will be tremendous losses I would bet. And those on the hard are likely not secured for eyewall velocity of this storm.

Great effort and great planning going back to Charlie Cary and 1973. There simply is not enough time, manpower, line, and spaces to protect the boats against surge and wave action. The only chance to survive the combinations of surge and wave actions is large space and many long lines. As soon as the boats are exposed to surf like wave action cleats, winches pull out and all kinds of gear busts. The boats end up piled up like dominoes. You can already see examples from St. Martin.

None of the bareboats come equipped for storm preparations.

The first photos from Paraquita Bay are sickening. The boats are piled up on each other.

There should not be any surge on there yet? Here is the 2017 seating chart. Those are supposed to be the lucky boats to keep the industry open until the insurance companies, banks, and builders catch up?


http://www.bvimarineassociation.com/downloads/1607PARAQUITA%20BASE%20PLAN%2026%20Jun17.pdf

link or source? thanks

FB: BVI Abroad shows several photos of destruction in Paraquita Bay. Moorings boats not too bad at base, but wait for the change of wind direction. Some destruction at Village Cay Marina.

Could this possibly be real? Goodness gracious...

https://twitter.com/jeremyskitchen/status/905493723190059008

Wow.. that is not good. I have always wondered about having them all tied up like they do - one goes, another goes and eventually I would think it is a domino effect once you get a few loose that is more pulling on the rest.

Hope everyone stays safe.. boats can be replaced.

Just sickening to see that. No doubt far worse images to come. Hope everyone has made it through.

...so I'm guessing its going to be a long time before anyone is chartering in the BVI again if the majority of the fleet has been destroyed?

There are many, many boats in the BVI. Some will have survived to be buffed out. Sunsail/Moorings alone have a very large global inventory and pipeline of new boats. By the time the real season comes around post Thanksgiving there will certainly be boats to charter. No doubt many things will be different.

White Bay and and a few others will be very crowded!

They won't be going to Ivan's because it was destroyed. Not sure how the rest of them fared.

Was just moored out front of ivan's in June... yes completely destroyed.

https://www.facebook.com/search/str/bvi%...3NzU4ZTk2In0%3D


I worry about Anegada... the entire north east eye wall was travelling right through it.

BVIs will take a long long time to recover...

web page

Someone will be nailing and screwing together beach bars pronto. There is just too much cash in the day trade there. Those that need to eat will get open. The $1250 a night hotel rooms the government craves will take a little longer. The likes of Foxy and Bomba will fill any gaps needed to support the thirsty boats in the meantime.

Now to the Moorings even with all the docks underwater the Moorings dinghys seem ready to get back to work as soon as the wind stops. That may have changed with some of the later breeze out of the south...

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t...amp;oe=5A1C4ED5

I was watching Foxy's cam until it got really wet then shut off. It was the last working cam in the area, and showed some of the workers getting ready. I really hope they are all ok.

StormJib, have you seen the pictures of Paraquita Bay and the Moorings docks??? Not much of that mess is going to buff out any time soon. Most of the buffing is gonna be with insurance adjusters.

It is doubtful that Moorings/Sunsail would have more than a couple dozen boats available by Thanksgiving.

Here is what we did to do our best to protect Catatonic: https://www.facebook.com/dadelo/videos/10213573873199054/

We received this from Sunsail / Moorings this morning:

"We have suspended charters until mid-September for the moment while we assess the damage.

We will be contacting customers who’s charter have been affected in due course, however we remain hopeful that your charter in January will be unaffected."

I suspect the Moorings will be able to Salvage about half the boats and have them in charter by 15 Dec. They will also pull boats from other bases to the BVI. It will however take years for the industry to recover. That will be devasting to local employment.
G

I'm sure insurance also won't just want to total them all either, so that makes sense. If they aren't sunk or have serious structural damage, they probably can be repaired.

I wonder what Moorings did with their 58's? That's a lot of money and a lot of windage..

I'll be able to give you our personal experience as we are waiting to hear about our boat. Seems like it is going to be a really long process.

Closest we've come to dealing with something like this was after Hurricane Irene, we lost a house we had bought 3 months earlier in Vermont. Got pushed right off its foundation and filled with 3-6" of mud and structure too damaged to salvage anything so it was a total loss. Insurance first gave an estimate of 60-70% of the value since flood insurance is based on depreciated value.. Since we had only bought it 3 months earlier, we argued it hadn't depreciated yet.. fortunately we said the right things and got full payout. Happened in August and we got paid in December I think.

I have not idea what boat insurance is like, but hopefully it would be similar, although my initial feeling is it is probably a bit more drawn out.

The banks likely will not wait or want to wait. The long standard industry process is for the underwriters and/or the bank to put a professional marine surveyor on the boat. That surveyor will document the damage and loss in very short order. The best practice but not required is for the owner(s) to put their own independent surveyor on the boat.

No two marine insurance policies are created equal. The variables are too long to list and are generally even more complicated in a named storm.

One worse case, is the bank and underwriter determine the hull is totaled or beyond practical repair with an insurance payment capable off paying of the loan but little or nothing more wiping out any owner's down payment, equity, or perceived equity. In almost every case of severe damage the finance partner will be focused on getting the loan paid off before the loan is delinquent and the moment they have a surveyors report that declares the collateral worthless or compromised.

Anything that takes more than buffing out will be very expensive on a good day in islands. Boats in a non assembly line are very, very expensive to fix.

Any experienced professional marine surveyor should be able to easily explain the marine industry practices here. Maybe on first step is to determine if the charter operator has already engaged independent professional survey resources on your behalf. Does the person writing the report(s) work for the owner, operator, finance partner, or underwriter? History shows at this point the bank always gets paid first.

Thanks for the info. Good questions to ask whenever we can get through.

Our minimum plan is to go down if we are not totaled to see for ourselves. Now I have a better idea of what's to come.

Thanks,
Ellen

Wish everyone all the best in recouping their losses. Hopefully, many have gap insurance that covers the difference in what is owed to the bank and the replacement cost (would include dollars invested in down payment and additional items on boat and loss of income)? Not sure that exists, but I've often thought that I would want that assurance (insurance) before buying a boat and putting her in charter - catastrophic losses are indeed devastating. Again, hope all will be back on their boats this year and that the locals will receive the support they need to rebuild. This is so sad!

New photos show most or all of Mooring's 5800 totally destroyed or severely damaged. One is upside down across the docks.

The new wide flat floating condo we call cats may end up redefining hurricane prep. They peeled up like a tin roof taking out everything down wind of them.



https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=21432760_10213921330377967_6105221953041374547_n.jpg