My wife and another couple will be on St. John next month and the thought of renting a powerboat for a day has come up. Our friend is an excellent powerboat driver but does not have experience anchoring close to shore like at white bay / soggy dollar since where he runs his boat there are docks pretty much everywhere you go. Neither of us have ever tried to grab a mooring ball either. Are there any beaches in the BVI's where a boat can be docked? I believe we could dock for a while at the Willy T and Foxy's Taboo but they are the only places I can think of. We would rent out of St. John so it would be a powerboat from Nauti Nymph at the Westin or Ocean Runners near High Tide. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

As I understand it, there are no longer companies willing to rent without a captain. Someone can correct me if wrong but I believe that is the current market.

Nauti Nymph rents power boats without Captain

Not so much anymore. Their web page says the 29 fountains which they are getting rid of are available bare boat with sufficient experience. The last time I tried to rent a bare boat from them or Nauti Nymph they wanted me to take a captain. I won't bother with my Resume but suffice to say they don't want to let boats out without skippers any more.

With the original posters experience I would recommend a boat with a skipper any way. My first choices St John based would be Palm Tree Charters, John Brandi is the owner operator or Isle Mon Charter, Kevin McKinney is the owner operator. You will get a better day on the water from either of these guys than you will get from Nauti Nymph or Ocean Runners.

Ocean Runners rents without a captain if you are qualified.

No they don't the new owner stopped it. The web page hasn't been updated.

Jay

Jay,

I was on STJ six weeks ago and rented from Ocean Runners. The owner Steve asked me for a boating resume before he would approve my taking one of their boats out without a captain. After reviewing my resume he approved it. I ultimately decided to use one of their captains since the cost to do so was only an additional $40 and I was then free to relax and not keep track of my painkillers.

We wanted to do the same thing last November and I would have had no hesitation in captaining my own boat, however in looking at what was available we booked with Cptn Wesso of Two Fish Flying as his rates were less than a bareboat. He is an excellent Captain, we had a great day and the Glacier Bay boat was very comfortable and very fuel efficient which you will be glad about when you top up the tanks at the end of the day. Highly recommended.