Is Boaty Ball still working

Sorry to bring up a delicate subject, but is Boaty Ball still active? I signed up earlier today (back up plan for our upcoming trip we still plan on FCFS) but have yet to receive a confirmation email. I realize its a sore subject here on TTOL but I want to be sure we have access to a mooring ball.
That being said how crowded is it typically starting next Wednesday the 30th. Is it still somewhat quiet down there?

Yes, its still active. This time of year it will not be crowded. You should have no problem finding moorings. I just check the BB app and they have moorings available at all of the anchorages.

It will be quite. You will have no problem finding a mooring. Unlikely that BB will be necessary - there should be plenty of FCFS moorings.

We're right behind you starting on Nov. 1 for a short trip.

There are no Boaty Balls in the Bight

We land on the 30th and set sail on the 31st, October, look us up, We're on Leopard Island Fun, flying an Ohio State University flag. GO BUCKS!

As for boatyball, have NO plans on using them.

Use them as a "moorings availability" proxy...you can look at the website and as long as some are open you know you will be fine to end up on them as last resort if you cant find a FCFS ball. I am sure plenty of people are squatting on them as well since there is no physical collection mechanism.

They just sent this link out today.

BoatyBall Partners

Yawn, who cares, why bother with something you likely don't need.

We’ve been down here for 2 weeks and there are plenty of open balls everywhere. We did use one last at Anegada for piece of mind. Worked great.

Stayed in CGB last night about 15 boats on FCFS balls, all Boaty balls empty until one boat came in late and took one(not reserved). Saw the young man collecting this morning stop at that boat and he told me he did collect the $40 from them.

It’s sad that boatyball took the best balls in CGB and they now sit mostly empty.

I don't know why these are the best balls in CGB? They are not in the front, not in the back, not closest to the dock, and not farthest from the dock. Not sure how much more neutral they could be.

If I felt they were the best balls in any anchorage, I guess I'd be happy to pay $10 extra for that great mooring ball.

Boatyball has almost the entire row closest to the beach. I like those balls so the kids onboard can go back and forth to the beach. They run almost from the dingy dock down towards Myetts.

Glad to hear that we shouldn’t have any issues finding mooring balls. I’ve given up on trying to get the app to work anyways, I’ve used multiple emails to sign up with no answer from them. FCFS it is.

Wrong. The row closest to the beach is all FCFS. BoatyBall has the second and third rows. I just checked from my window to be sure. If you're looking at the map on their website, it does appear that way but it's because they don't show the FCFS balls on their map.

Gosh, Jason, color me shocked that BoatyBall would represent themselves that way.

The whole enterprise has sounded to me like a frat-house dream project for Micro-Economics 201, dressed up as some bodies Masters Thesis

I don't know why you would think they would represent themselves any other way. They have no control over when other operators add/remove balls so it would make no sense to put other mooring balls on their map.

They are also trying to buy the FCFS balls from other mooring ball operators so they can own their own balls which would adversely affect their partners as they would sell their own balls before the other boats balls that they only recieve a percentage of.

How would they sell their balls first when people pick the ball they want at the time of booking?

Can non-belongers hold seabed leases?

At the very least it would make sense for boaty ball to indicate that there are other balls so one would know booking a boaty ball mooring they wouldn't be the closest boat to shore.

Non-belongers can hold a seabed license, but it is neither a quick nor easy process.

Is anything a quick and easy process there? (Asking for a friend....)

Hi Jason,

they write the program so very easy to make their ball numbers come up first a simple change.

I write programs and considering its a visual map of available moorings I don't see how theirs would come up first unless they pretend the others are sold out until they sell all theirs.

And why would they not program it that way?

They move the goalposts all the time on the website they control it its easy to make a random selection for each mooring field once they own their own balls.

Mostly because it would be pretty obvious that a group of balls suddenly became available after they showed as unavailable earlier in the day. Since they mostly sell out during high season, I don't see why they'd bother.

Ended up not needing a BB on our ten days, a few were taken when we arrived at Leverick, closer to the dock I guess, we were probably the 5th boat into Great Harbour on Wednesday and only 1 was being used but by nightfall the place was full up.

When was your trip?

We are here now and there have been both Boatyballs and regular balls open at Anegada both nights. Regular and Boatyballs were all full at Cooper.

We will be using Boatyball for the Full Moon Party at Foxys.

I discovered the secret to boatyball. You need someone at home with fast internet to log in and get the ball booked for you during peak times.
G

Question: how many total balls does Boatyball have? Looks like 53 judging by the website

I see 43 on the map - 42 plus the one we have booked (red flag icon)

I see that this morning, last night they showed 10 more in Leverick Bay....
Either way, that doesn't sound like very many. I wonder how many total fcfs balls there are in the bvi?

Ok, now they show 54, 14 at Cooper and 10 at Leverick. Why dont they show all their moorings, reserved or not? It would help with planning

There are 55 reservable BoatyBall moorings in the BVI. From the map it will show this regardless of whether they are reserved or not. Bay owners have the ability to "hide" moorings, if they need to take them offline; that is why it showed that there were 43 a few days ago and 54 now.

Ah, thank you

How many first come first serve balls is boatyball ball managing?
G

It's getting to the busier time of year...just read about an incident (on the BVI Abroad - Hurricane Irma FB page) at Coooper where a person let a boat loose since they were squatting and refused to leave.

The fact that someone unhooked someone’s boat from a mooring ball ( even if someone else paid for it) demonstrates a major problem with boaty ball and actions people are apt to take The potential damage and injures that action could have caused is crazy. Apparently he had no clue of the personal liability not to mention the criminal actions he committed. That sort of action puts everyone there in harms way. Just plain stupid.

It’s highly illegal to release a boat from a mooring. I just got back and observed several boatyball issues. I also got a interesting point of view from two business owners at Cooper. We were discussing how almost all the boatyballs were empty at 3PM. Every FCFS ball was occupied. They explained they were losing a lot of business because in the past those balls would have been occupied and many of the people ashore spending money. That’s no longer the case and the boats arrive as the concessions close.
G

We have always stopped at Coopers for lunch on our last day of sailing. We were down in November and at 10:30 we got the next to last “open” mooring ball. None of the boaty balls were being used. Unless they get rid of the boaty balls, we most likely won’t keep doing lunch at Cooper just because it’s too hard to stop there.

Cooper is off our list rotation now...to be fair to BB (which is the major reason) other reasons include bad service and better options coming back online post Irma

As i mentioned before the "boatyball" donut hole is one reason why this is bad for businesses down there...glad they are starting to figure it out

Stunning someone would actually release a boat

We have sailed the BVI for many years, and most recent was may 2019.....

We also kept life simple and totally passed on Boaty Ball.

We picked up FCFS moorings at :

* Peter island for the Willy T
* Leverick Bay.....we reserved a slip and that worked out fantastic....taxi to the baths, and top o the baths, Back for the BBQ and dancing and mocko jumbies. actually taxi was an VG tour as well. There were open FCFS slips.

* Marina Cay
* Monkey Point

*Diamond Cay ( Arrived to find several boaty ball moorings empty, they were just taken over a couple of days earlier, Found one FCFS mooring . Several other FCFS moorings opened up a bit later. No problems.
* Nanny Cay Really enjoyed a couple of days there docked at the new marina slips. Taxi to Brandy Wine on Tortola for Erica's Birth Day. Plus at Nanny Cay friendly good times at Peg Legs, pool and beach.
* Norman Island, and the Indians ( I think the Willy T is back at Norman....good news ) Indians and Pelican, dropped of early for snorkeling . Filled up pretty quick.
* Cooper Island Beach Club
* Peter Island and returned tor last party night on the Willy T.

Returned to Conch Charters

Great trip, great sailing, great people, grand fun, good times, and narry a boaty ball for our entire two week itinerary.

Again, this was may of 2019 ( before hurricane season begins ).

Have a great time....good on ya.

Just returned home. Last week we found The Bight to have plenty of FCFS, although Kelly's Cove was full. Next day I planned to book BoatyBall for Cooper at 7:00 am, but got to talking over coffee and neglected to check until 8:00 am. Only one Boatyball remaining, which I booked. When we arrived mid-afternoon there was a boat on our ball, although with a dinghy with small family returning to the boat at the same time. We advised the ball was reserved by us and they apologized and quickly departed. The Cooper Island mooring field was completely full later in the afternoon with several late arrivals motoring through the boats looking for a ball. Several boats anchored just off the mooring field in what I understand is deep water. It was a calm night and no issues with any boats that we observed. The restaurant was very busy, food and service was excellent.

Next day was Leverick Bay where we observed both BoatyBall and FCFS available, but we stayed in the marina. It was windy and seas were a bit choppy out in the mooring field. We found Tito's personality has not improved, but he was responsive to our needs. The other dock hands were helpful. Charged us $1.50 a foot plus ice and electric (fair enough). The marina office contacted 'Tiger' to take us to Hog Heaven. Fantastic view and visibility, although cold and windy. Took some chopped pork back to our boat for later sandwiches. We found the pork to fall short of what we expected. The Upstairs Restaurant was excellent. We noticed more than a few boats were anchored over by Prickly Pear.

Next day we visited Oil Nut Marina. Very nice experience, and we had it to ourselves at lunch time. No charge for dock space for a temporary stop. There were numerous mooring balls that have been installed. I didn't ask about the charge for overnight.

Planned to meet some friends overnight at Diamond Cay. I checked BoatyBall and all were reserved. We did find two FCFS across from B-Line when we arrived in the early afternoon, all were taken by evening. We had dinner at Foxy's Taboo, where the service was okay, although the food was terrible.

We spent one night in the marina at Spanish Town. We found the marina and the surrounding infrastructure to still be in poor repair. We did have water and electricity at the dock. No ice available. Our dinner at Coco Maya was absolutely out of this world, and we spent way too much money … but had fun doing it.

We chartered with Dream Yacht Charter out of Scrub Island. The resort is as good as ever, perhaps even better. We found that DYC now controls the marina slips and has first option on all the space. Other charter boats are subject to availability upon arrival.