Boaty Balls vs Mooring Balls

I have been to the BVIs for 10 Catamaran trips now.

We always moor overnights on the white Mooring balls and pay the dingy dude for mooring fees. Plus ice & garbage disposals.

Post Irma, are the mooring balls still in place and available?
How many at each Cay?
Is there a current list?


Boaty Balls? Are they at every Cay?
Is everyone using them now via the App?

what the scoop....:-}

Here is boatyball map....this gives you number of balls

Anegada, leverick & Cooper only

https://boater.boatyball.com/map

Balls open up at 700. Make sure you enter your account to include credit card number prior to trying to moor. You also need to enter you boat profile prior to mooring which I messed up. Start at 655 as they are gone by 701 especially at Cooper this time of year.

I got slip at Leverick.

Mooring balls seem to be the same number (pre Irma) with exception of BEYC/Saba which I dont believe have pennants yet.

May is less crowded and I go out week after you...

BoatyBall is great, but gone quickly especially if you began charter on typical weekend. However, if you intentionally get "out of sync" with most charter boats, then crowds are smaller and moorings are more plentiful.

Start charter Mid-week! If you look at BoatyBall NOW (11;00PM Saturday night), you will see that there are some BoatyBalls open at both Leverick and Anegada. Talking to locals at Anegada and Soggy DollarBar, they report Saturday as being the slowest day of the week.

Another strategy is to go against the flow and go clockwise instead of Counterclockwise.

You can use the Anchorages Page on BVI Mariner to get a pretty accurate number of moorings at each location. Boaty Ball counts are there as well. Note, it was just reported that the # of Boaty Ball moorings increased from 8 to 12 at Manchioneel Bay, Cooper Island.

Reminder ... the BVI Mariner site uses multiple sources to keep the information as accurate as possible and a key feed is for mariners to report their observations ... e.g. available mooring balls at a specific anchorage.

Thanks - Mark (www.sail-orion.com)

I'm on a mooring in East End Harbor off Foxy's Taboo and Bee Line, everywhere we've been there are plenty of moorings available. Don't try to over plan.

As someone posted on another Boatyball thread, the increased Cooper BB moorings come at the DECREASE of First Come First Served balls.
With the reality of BB moorings being gone by 7:01am. Cooper is seemingly becoming a stop only for those with good internet service, fast fingers on the refresh.
When is BB going to ADD moorings to the existing balls????????

We were on a charter 2/22-3/3. We used boatyball at all 3 spots (Cooper, Leverick and Anegada). Experience was good - we had an early riser who took care of securing a mooring.It was nice not to have to worry about rushing to a location. That being said-all 3 places still had a few moorings available when we arrived. We were at Cooper on Saturday, Leverick on Sunday, Anegada on Monday and Tuesday -only used Boatyball on Monday in Anegada. Hope that helps..

Step 1 convert more and more balls to boats balls, don’t add more balls.
Step 2 when enough balls in place at enough anchorages, raise rates in the name of better service.

I question why the gov of bvi would allow boaty ball when they have the potential to have a monopoly over moorings.

I understand the objective is to convert all of the Leverick balls to boatyball. Seems like cooper is on its way too.

Is boaty ball locally owned? I don’t think so.

How long will it be until prices double or triple? Is that not what a monopolist company does?

The problem was not enough moorings. That problem was not solved.

If more moorings were added then there would be no need for boatyball.

Boatyball should not be allowed to convert existing balls. Add balls, why not.

Could you imagine if boatyball ended up controlling all the balls in the bvi?

I would rather anchor than participate in this non solution.

Agreed Warren460 - not that it will make any difference to anyone but we will not be using it. Indeed, the sharp hook thing at the pointy end will be our solution.

Maybe we will anchor adjacent to you sometime. Sounds like you get down often enough.

Good plan Warren! We're next down mid-May to Mid-June

As I understand it, BB does not own or run any of the moorings. It is merely an app for reserving them, same as any 3rd party program that allows you to reserve a car, or hotel room or book a flight.

Moorings are not placed, owned or maintained by the government. An adjacent landowner applies to the government for a seabed license, places the mooring, maintains it and pays an annual seabed license tax to the government, same as for a dock. The expense of maintenance and tax is not insignificant.

There are no banks on Virgin Gorda, Anegada or Cooper, so not having to deal with cash is a real advantage. You reserve and the mooring’s owner get a direct deposit. They have to enforce the system vis-a-vis squatters.

I have no problem with them charging more, say in high season. Don’t you pay more to charter a boat in high season? As to adding moorings, that depends on geography. Plus, all those big cats need a lot more room than smaller monos.

The real change and I can assure you it is going to happen is when the balls are awarded on a preferential basis to charter boats from companies that pay a bonus. I give it 3 years max.
G