I could go watch the video again, and maybe someone else can confirm. He called the restaurant the prior week and "someone" told him he could use a mooring while he went for lunch. He came back a week later and took another of the three moorings, which broke. I understood the three moorings belong to private owners, not the restaurant. He said he spoke with the mooring owner after the debacle.
So he did not have permission, and I have not seen anywhere what size boats those balls were designed for, or if they have been maintained. The fact that another mooring held for 90 minutes doesn't mean it was intended for a boat that size.
Your version is correct. He did not have permission from the owners and on another forum it was posted the balls were sized for center console boats. His boat weighed 54,000 lbs! His boat is too large for even the overnight balls however virtually no one seems to observe that limit with the ever larger charter boats.
In the British Virgin Islands each mooring is suitable for a single vessel with a maximum length of sixty (60) feet and a maximum weight of twenty (20) net tons.
