TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Moorings Phaseout Nightmare

Our yacht Management agreement ended July 23, 2023 and our boat has not been refurbished. In addition, the boat , a 2019 514PC based in the BVI, was, without our knowledge or consent, moved to STL. We hired a Moorngs broker last summer, who told us the boat had to be retrofitted before it could be offered for sale. At the beginning of 2024, the Moorings Owner representative told us we had to have an offer on the boat before it would be put in the queue for retrofit.
514s like ours sold for $680,000 last fall , but are now selling for about $550,000.
We did have a fully executed sale agreement with a closing date of March 31. A non refundable deposit of $55,000. Was supposed to have been paid. We learned, on March 30 that the deal fell through with no explanation about why or where the deposit funds are!
Our Moorings broker has told us the boat sure would be easier to sell if it was in the BVI.
We can certainly go to arbitration in Florida over this as required by the contract ( 3 mean lawyers in our group) but even further delay would occur.
My best advice to myself is to take possession of the boat… get it repaired, file suit against Moorings, both in court and arbitration. But, and this is the kicker, I do believe this is happening because of a bad Moorings decision to open a Moorings maintenance base in STL. I think they have not been able to hire and keep maintenance staff.. so how would I if they can’t….
Proverbial rock and a hard place…..picturing my boat on blocks in a fenced yard in STL with Dobermans around it….
Your thoughts Moorings owners?

Do you belong to the Moorings owners group. If not join. Phaseout heavily discussed there.

Is it on this forum?

You should have been provided information when you bought the boat. The MOG as it is known is the owners liaison and quasi union in dealing with the Moorings. I will PM you info. It’s a private yahoo group.

STL? Where is that, is it St. Lucia? I'll be there in a week, and I'll be on the Moorings dock and know all the Moorings folks at that base.

St Lucia is where the Moorings is conducting phaseouts. I assume that is what he meant by STL. I would be interested in what the base manager has to say about timing and the process as I believe he is in charge. Let us know if you get a chance to talk!
G

Sq - That's quite a pickle they've put you in. I might be able to put you in touch with someone local in STL to either watch over Moorings or line you up with options to refit privately. PM me if you are interested.

St. Lucia for phaseouts makes little sense, the base is rather small and there is little to no space on the hardstand for boats. Parts are very pricey and difficult to come by compared to other places in the island chain and while labour isn't expensive it is hard to find specialists of any kind. Dockage is plentiful and cheap, and the marina overall is very safe and hurricane-secure. I stored my boat there for two seasons and am going back there; but I'm provisioning and getting spares here in St. Martin before heading south. I know several Moorings workers who are skippers and they often do BVI deliveries, so getting the boat back to the BVI for sale isn't a big issue - although I wouldn't take it there now as the hurricane season is fast approaching.

Zanshin - Where do you put your boat up for hurricane season? We are looking to take ours down island at the end of next season. Thanks.

I keep my boat either at Rodney Bay in St. Lucia in the water or at Tyrell Bay (new yard) on Carriacou, Grenada on the hardstand.

Zanshin, I recall that there was talk of the moorings opening a dedicated hurricane restoration facility in St Lucia in late 2017. Perhaps this happened and is now used for phaseouts.

They have been doing some phaseouts there since IRMA. Their space and capacity in the BVI was maxed out with IRMA boats.