Sunsail cat aground at Dead Chest Island?

Report from a FB group that someone witnessed a Sunsail cat aground/sinking off the SE side of Dead Chest Island. Said they saw it this morning when they woke up. Visar was on scene and apparently no one was aboard.

Anyone else have any other details?

Could be the Pneuma, Lagoon 46

There are not really any hidden obstacles in that area. Hard to understand what they might have hit. Perhaps poorly anchored in Deadman’s bay or broke off a NPS ball in the area.
G

We sailed by there yesterday and did notice a grounded boat with two powerboats nearby. Looked to be on the N to NE shore. Wind was NNE 18-20. Did not get close enough to see details but I imagine was challenging to get in there.

We were just passing Peter Island and saw the boat being towed out of Great Harbor with the port hull supported by float bags. I got some pictures 😢

Apparently the Sunsail boat was at Cooper and somehow became un-moored while crew was ashore. They reported the boat stolen and stayed the night ashore. It drifted to Deadman's bay and grounded. Got this from Moorings staff.

You would have thought they might have asked for help and looked for it! I had a interesting experience once at Sandy Isle where a powercat pulled up next to us and dropped about 12 feet of chain out in 8 feet of water. They jumped in the dinghy and went ashore to hike the island. Took about 2 minutes for the 15knot wind to start moving the boat. Once the water got to 12 feet it took off! Surprising how fast a boat will drift. We jumped in the dinghy and retrieved it. While we were anchoring it properly they came back from their hike and starting screaming like lunatics about us stealing their boat!
G

Don't these boats have chips in them so they can be located with GPS?

Somehow came unmoored - sounds like pretty negligent behavior unless the mooring ball was damaged or they tried to anchor outside the field and we all know most charter boats don’t have enough chain for properly doing so. (Again, negligent). Reporting it stolen is ridiculous.

If any part of the mooring ball had failed that should have been obvious when they engaged CBIC staff.

Wonder why they didn’t look for the boat - CIBC has vessels - unless of course it was dark before they “noticed” the boat was gone.

What would Moorings/Sunsail do in a situation like this - charge the charter group for damages incurred in grounding?

Maybe its just me but I am constantly looking over at my boat while on land...maybe more than I checked on the kids when they were little. Surprising at Cooper where there isn't far to go. I guess i could set a remote anchor watch but not that paranoid (yet).

Agree, my first thought wouldn't have been that it was stolen. Surprised a search wasn't organized - I would have gotten on the hook with Cooper, VISAR, Sunsail, channel 16, etc and let them know the boat was adrift. Should have had lights on and easy to tell which way it was going with the wind/current. Dead Chest only ~ 3 miles away. Decent chance of recovery IMO unless they were shutting down the bar.

The surprising part is no one noticed it leaving.

I had the same thought George. It must have been later in the evening and they must have been on an outer ball.

AIS would be an easy way to track the charter boats. Not sure the charter fleets have AIS transmit capability.
VHF radio would need to be turned on for this to work. Anyone could track the boats location.

"Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a system that provides real-time information such as tracking and monitoring for ships and other marine vessels designed to improve maritime safety. This system is comprised of transponders fitted into your boat that use short wave VHF radio signals to broadcast the vessel’s position. "

Aftermath

Holy hell. If I were responsible for that catastrophe I would never want to show my face in the BVI again.

A $20 device, like this https://www.amazon.com/Tracker-Vehicles-Magnetic-Tracking-Location/dp/B09TGM47SB will do the job. I put one on my boat (cost more like $120 back then). Worked perfectly. Still didn't stop a bunch of a******* from dropping anchor in Great Harbour JVD, going ashore, and letting the boat drift ashore. Did mean I could prove they did it though

The question is, is there a list of charterers kept by the charter companies of people not to bareboat charter out to? Like a too irresponsible or too dumb or just not qualified list? Seems like a prudent measure.

The "do not rent" lists at the rental car companies are brutal!

Since many of the companies are related --(Enterprise/Alamo/National) you could be "sol" if you need to rent a car since they share information.

Might behoove the charter companies to have an association in the BVI to protect themselves from this sort of mishap??

Great idea. I would like to submit the idiot who ran my boat onto Colquhoun blaming it on lack of programmed waypoints and curtains at the helm.

Can you imagine waking up to that email with picture?

Only 2.7nm from Cooper to Dead Chest - probably took less than 2 hrs to drift there with a 10~15 kt breeze and the usual E->W current. Charterers were probably still waiting for their dinner main course by that point.

Can BoatyBall confirm that their mooring and pennant did not fail?

If the mooring didn't fail, I've got to believe the charterer only ran one mooring line from the bow to the pennant eye and back, and this line was either sawed through by the pennant eye as the boat swung or the charterer tied a very lousy cleat hitch.

If they had run the recommended two independent mooring lines from each bow to the pennant eye, there is minimal chafe at the pennant eye so it would have taken two lousy cleat hitches to both fail. I'm sure Sunsail confirmed the configuration of the mooring line(s) when the boat was discovered.

It is a very scary situation.

BoatyBall can confirm that the boat was on a first come first serve mooring the night before at Cooper. The boat did not pay for the mooring through the BoatyBall application. They paid Cooper Island Beach Club directly. Management at Cooper Island Beach Club confirmed the next morning that there was no damage to the mooring ball equipment that the boat was tied up to.

Please be safe out there!

Very interesting.

Moot Point anyway. The Master in Command is always in total responsibility to properly secure the hull and maintain an adequate full time watch for the conditions and safety of the hull, cargo, passengers, and any of other property. The captain is fully liable here for failure to secure the vessel and complete failure to maintain an adequate watch for the conditions. Proof: "I have no idea what happened.. I guess someone stole the boat under my command". Full Liability would fall to the master in charge then the owner of the hull. 1.) Failure to secure the vessel. 2.) Failure to maintain a proper watch. Always read the contract from your underwriter.

So are you saying that a boat with no crew in an approved mooring field in normal conditions needs to keep a watch?

What responsibility does the charter company have to vet the charterers?

The owner and master both have a responsibility to properly secure the vessel. In this case the vessel was not properly secured. Failure of basic duty #1. The owner and master have the responsibility to maintain an adequate watch for the condition no matter where the boat is. Marina, At Sea, or in a "Approved Mooring Field". The location does not change the responsibility or duties to maintain an adequate watch for the conditions. The boat was in at best a partially protected location where the hull could float away into the open sea poorly secured to a single fitting. The hull that was not properly secured and somehow slipped its moorings and was damaged. Likely marine life and environment suffered damage. The owner and captain are clearly guilty and liable for both failure to properly secure the vessel and the complete failure to maintain an adequate watch for the conditions. All liability for any and all damages rests with the master in command and the owner. “Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing as well by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.” In case the hull was involved in a collision and suffered major damage. The responsibility lies with the person in charge and the owner for multiple failures including failure to make a a full appraisal of the situation. The boat drifted off an no one in the chain of command noticed or took adequate action to protect from and mitigate any potential damage.

PLUS no lights

What light are shown by a vessel not under command?
A vessel not under command, sometimes knows as a NUC vessel, shall according to Rule 27(a) exhibit: two all-round red lights in a vertical line where they can best be seen

If there is one knot I went over with my crew before and during the trip it was the Cleat Hitch.

Last thing I did before leaving the boat or going to sleep was take a walk up front and double check everything.

Normal I know, but apparently not for everyone.

Boats I have seen come off balls generally were tied with a single line that sawed through the loop or the line itself. I don’t know the weather that night at Cooper however it’s not generally a place where you get the kind of winds that could cause that. I cringe whenever I see the single line technique. I also try and anchor when the winds are going to exceed 20 knots overnight. I have seen to many ball failures including personal experience.

We were at Privateer that night and the wind did shift around from ENE to NNE around 16-18.

Have not experienced sawing through the line but then again I have never used a single line on a ball.

Has anyone found a good anchor app that accurately monitors the boat? I have Anchor and Anchor Pro, but either I am struggling with proper placement of the anchor location (to accommodate for wind changes and swing) or GPS accuracy is inconsistent. I have had multiple false alarms during the night that obviously freak us out. I need to study up more to confirm that it’s not user error, but if you’ve had the same experience and have found a more accurate app, please share.

Not an anchor alarm, but something like the Garmin inReach would allow you to monitor the boat's position while you are ashore if you can't maintain eyes on it or a proper watch. Can share the tracking link with anyone. Ping's satellites for position every 10 minutes, and it has plenty of battery life. Just need wifi/cell service on your cell phone. Device is ~$350 and you can pay $15/month for the service. Believe there is a more expensive plan to ping more frequently, every 2 minutes. Also has SOS and texting features.

There may be a more appropriate marine-type device that does something similar, I'm just not familiar with it. Concept would be the same. If the captain of the Sunsail cat were checking the tracking app every so often, they would have seen the boat adrift and could have taken action to organize a recovery.

We just used the inReach for a backcountry trip in the Grand Canyon and it worked great. Friends/family had fun tracking our progress.

It is a real stretch of the COLREGS to need a watch on a boat this size at a marina or in a designated mooring area. Properly securing your boat is obvious here. I would enjoy seeing a rule or case law that my personal boat properly secured in its marina needs a watch. Although the COLREGS rule quoted above (#5) doesn't specify "underway" I don't think it applies to a marina situation.

A vessel in a mooring area according to COLREGS is not a vessel "not under command". I guess technically when it left its mooring for a joy ride it could be considered NUC.

In fact because the boat this size is in a designated mooring area/anchor area it actually doesn't need any lighting. In practice I have many lights lit at night in the BVI when moored or anchored regardless of location.

And I do have an anchor watch on at all times when moored or anchored

All IMHO

I use Anchor Pro . You may need to increase the distance for GPS accuracy if that is what is alarming(set alarm noise different for GPS accuracy). Try to set anchor as soon as deploying, ideally from bow, but Late Set works nice as well. (This does not help when you leave boat and go ashore, as it is not tracking boat, but obviously tracking your phone).

Also you can see track on the map on phone. When Anchored, I leave chart plotter on (dimmed) with tracker on so that you can readily tell if you are swinging and/or dragging.

Our FloatHub will monitor position using its own GPS and I can access it online. But of course you need a WiFi or cell phone connection. Would be practical in a limited area like the BVI and is cheap.

I use Anchor Pro as well...

Thank you for the replies! I’ve upgraded Anchor Pro to premium and I’ll study up a little more.

Someone said they attempted to use the anchor bridle to secure to the ball. I mean, if it was one of the hook snubbers and they tried to just grab the eye with it, that could have done it.

I assume you saw my thread where someone tried to do something very similar.

Missed that, but now I'm caught up. Crazy...

I own the Pneuma. The hull was declared a total loss by the surveyor this week. We have a 6 year old, 7yo and a 9yo and we love sailing in the Sunsail program. We are very sad. I have asked Sunsail to consider allowing us to buy an identical boat to replace the Pneuma and keep her in the program. Insurance should pay much of our damages but not all. Does anyone have suggestions from a similar experience or have advice for me? The photo is of my boys hiding in the life raft compartment in January.
The boat was chartered by people from Minnesota. If anyone knows who they are, I would like to share some pictures of my family enjoying the boat they destroyed. Because of the pandemic we only sailed her 3 times.

sorry to hear my friend...i wish you luck

I really feel for you, so sorry about what happened to your boat. I happened to be passing by in the channel when the boat was towed out of Great Harbor and towards Virgin Gorda. I have pictures in the unlikely event (insurance) you should need some more.

Your owner statement should show the last name of the charter party. Maybe ask for a copy of the charterer statement.

maybe start a new thread relating to your current questions?

Very sorry to hear !

Parrotheadfl - Sorry on the loss of your yacht.

Did Sunsail determine the specific cause of your yacht going adrift? Would be useful to share as a possible learning moment.

As the skipper, if anyone on board screws up, it is ultimately your fault. You are responsible. I don't like to leave the boat to go ashore. I will leave the boat for a short time if I am confident that she is well secured, but I never fully relax when I have left a boat without a proper watch aboard. I would rather be in the boat with a drink on the rocks, than in the drink with the boat on the rocks.

Still no word on cause of this incident?

I don't share the certainty of others that we have enough info to know that operator was plainly out of bounds here, as likely as it may seem. I was in BVI this winter for a stretch and ended up hanging out with some of the captains from Tradewinds who work down there. TW at that time was not allowing their captains to use mooring balls at all because they'd gotten so unreliable. Not a great situation when many charter captains are required and probably better off using them than anchoring. Whether the captain must keep watch over a boat whether at mooring, anchor, or even dock (!) also does not pass the sniff test.

[quote=SVNorthStar]I don't share the certainty of others that we have enough info to know that operator was plainly out of bounds here, as likely as it may seem.{/quote]

I don't think anyone has implied he was out of bounds; rather he failed to properly attach to the mooring.

Just saw this on Facebook, the owners looking to find out who chartered their boat. Seems they are still looking to get compensated.


link to Facebook post

The boats at Sunsail and the Moorings are well insured. Monthly owners statements show the name of the charterer. Looks to me like they just want to know what happened. I kind of wonder how a boat drifts away from Cooper Island and not one person notices. I have fetched two drifting boats over the years.

Well insured is not fully insured. Our fleet is well insured as well but boat insurance certainly isn’t like home owners insurance. With all the crap I have seen out there, especially over the last two years, I am starting to rethink having a boat in charter. For many it is a business decision - for me it is a little more than that. I get emotionally attached - yeah my bad - but the disregard I have seen on Facebook etc for others personal property just amazes me. There wouldn’t be boats for people to charter if all the owners pulled out.

In all the situations I am aware of with Moorings/Sunsail boats the insurance made them whole and generally actually better off assuming the owner has been applying the full lease payment against the boat note. The insurance pre Irma was actually fantastic. Post Irma it is not quite as good but should leave the owner in decent shape.

It sounded like they were looking for replacement value, as they mentioned that yacht costs had risen. If 90% of charterers are terrific, treating the boat as though it were their own, then 10% will still be a hazard. Potentially a very big hazard. If the rental company is not trying to weed out that 10%, then owning a boat in charter will come with risks.

We have a new neighbor, rebuilding an Irma-wrecked house, who plans to rent it short-term. I pointed out that the biggest problem is abuse of the boat that comes with the house, which he has already seen with other properties. It's the number one issue.