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Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
#186503
03/07/2019 09:17 AM
03/07/2019 09:17 AM
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Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 16
Eagleboy
OP
Traveler
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OP
Traveler
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 16
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Been on a few bareboat and full service charters in the past but this summer is the first time my wife and I are renting for ourselves.
I always believed the Moorings was a high level organization, and as such was priced significantly higher. However, as I continue to get quotes from different companies, the quote from the Moorings for a newish 40 cat is the same or better than a number of other companies I have contacted.
Any reason not to rent from the Moorings?
Thanks.
Last edited by Eagleboy; 03/07/2019 09:17 AM.
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: Eagleboy]
#186634
03/08/2019 08:07 AM
03/08/2019 08:07 AM
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Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 105 Hillsborough, NC
OceanSong
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 105
Hillsborough, NC
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I will second Deepcut's comments concerning TMM Yacht Charters. I've been chartering in the BVI for 20 years. I've used the Moorings and been happy. I have found the Mooring's boats to be generally well maintained. However, I always thought TMM's boats were the best maintained to my eye.
Almost 3 years ago my wife and I took our first non-sailing trip to the BVI. We were shopping for used catamarans. That was our top priority, but we were also considering buying new and placing a boat in charter. Our goal is to live aboard in a few years. We scheduled visits with 9 of the charter companies operating in the BVI. Prior to our trip an acquaintance from St. Thomas who has been in the monohull charter business for 42 years tried to talk us out of a catamaran. When I told him we were definitely going with a catamaran he told me to go see Barney at TMM. They had been direct competitors for many years but he told me if I was going to buy a used cat or put a new cat in charter that Barney and TMM maintained their boats far better than anyone in the business.
We visited the other 8 charter companies in May, 2016. We were impressed by only two of the first 8 we visited. We intentionally scheduled our TMM visit for last to have the best comparison. Most of our visits were a couple of hours and very rush-rush by the charter companies. We were at TMM for nearly 4 hours one day and almost 3 the next day. TMM showed us every aspect of their operation, and not only did TMM not rush us around, we were invited back the next day because several boats were returning from charters and we could see how they handled quick turnarounds. We were sold (literally) and ordered a Lagoon 42, which entered the fleet just in time to be destroyed by Irma.
Our new Lagoon 42, Ocean Song, is now in the TMM fleet. I've literally walked onboard 90% of TMM's fleet and the boats are extremely well-maintained. TMM has a much more "hands on" approach than any of the companies (including The Moorings) we visited or have chartered with previously. TMM has a very high rate of return charterers. Give TMM a look and I think you'll like what you see.
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: Eagleboy]
#186649
03/08/2019 11:34 AM
03/08/2019 11:34 AM
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Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 216 Dana Point
captdennyj
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 216
Dana Point
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Our moorings experiences, many very good over 35 years, but things changed when TUI took over.
What we liked about the moorings in the BVI, was several positives . After all the travel, arriving at the Moorings Base, checking in with them, getting our room at the mariner inn at the marina, and getting out of our travel clothes and into board shorts, and swim suit. Just Erica and I. Then to the pool and swimming and treating ourselves to the poolside bar PAINKILLERS., and then a fabulous classy dinner at Charleys. Named after Charley Carry, the originator of the moorings. Chartering with the Moorings and Sunsail was fantastic.
Notice the word WAS.
The NOT SO GOOD and down right unacceptable: This was sad for us. Actually is still is a not good feeling in our hearts .
LAST MOORINGS BVI SAILING VACATION:.
Our last bare boat with the moorings, about a 35 ft. Beneteau, ( monohull ) since we absolutely love and enjoy sailing, and do very little motoring. Usual BVI fuel usage for Two weeks. Only used 7 to 8 gals of fuel for the whole 2 weeks of sailing, Mostly to charge the batteries and pick up and drop off moorings.
We generally do a very thorough pre sailing inspection. ( before the staff pre sail / systems briefer arrives for the check out )
At that time on our personal inspection, , I found in good sized rip and tear at the luff of the mainsail, above the tack, but below the reefing cringle. When the staff , boat systems pre sail briefer , came on board, i pointed out the the rip along the luff of the main sail of their Moorings boat.
The briefer had no idea that the main was ripped. Hmmmm, what about the dock staff that is supposed to inspect the vessel. What about the post sailing check in staff, what about the previous charterer noting it and advising the moorings staff ? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What else might be wrong ? We would soon find out.
We went thru the pre sail briefing and the Moorings briefer said he would report the main sail problem to the MOORING's SAIL LOFT.
No one showed up, so I walked up the docks to the sail loft , and three guys were sitting around, not doing much of anything except talking. I asked them if they had been advised that our particular Mooring boat had a good sized hole in the luff the the main, and our briefer requested that the Mooring Sail Loft, replace the main. NOPE.... they just shook their heads. Never notified, knew nothing.
Well, we are not going to sit in the docks for several hours or days, especially when paying the higher prices for a Moorings boat. I told them not to worry, I would take care of it, and we would be off sailing.
I went back to the boat, showers were beginning the winds were up in the 15 to 20 mph range, I double reefed the main , and the second reef cringle, that was like a new tack, and well above the tear in the main, the new foot was tight and flat, . No pressure at all on the fall of the sail or that rip. . We left the double reef in for the whole trip. Winds came up to the 20's. Fantastic sailing passages for the whole two weeks. Good stuff ! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
That is not the only problem.
We motored out of Whickhams Cay, and the Moorings Base, out into Road Harbor to haul up the main. The sail looked great. We had already activated the AUTO PILOT, the weather was low clouds, rain, and low visibility. You could not see any of the other islands. The heading on the auto pilot was set for Norman Island, and the Bight. With auto pilot we had hauled up and stowed fenders, and removed dock lines , coiled and stowed them as well as raised the main. We were on our way to the Willy T. Party time lay about 1.5 hours off our bow. Rain or no rain.
OR DID THE WILLY T LIE AHEAD !
I noticed , from the land marks and buoys in Road Harbor that our heading was off. Looking at the auto pilot and comparing it to the ship's compass, the headings were off by 45 plus degrees. I went below and grabbed my personal hand bearing compass to compare the auto pilot and the binnacle compass. The ships compass was correct. Off came the out pilot, and we used coastal navigation, and dead reckoning, and paper chart, to sail to Norman, which we could not see. Eventually, a couple of hundred yards to starbord, Pelican Island loomed out of the low vis, and we were on course. We would pick up oUr mooring, once we could see it thru the rain and very low vis. All went well.
For those who trust and are totally dependent on electronics, and trusting the auto pilot, things could have turned out quite differently, and that would may have been a very bad outcome out in the Caribbean sea,
Several other systems problems occuRred, but we handled them, and our two weeks of sailing and BVI fun were outstanding. We never shook out the reef, until returning to the moorings base at end of the charter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But , the story is not over, and the following is what caused this to be our very last booking of any type of vessel with the mooringS.
THE FINAL CURTAIN FOR THE MOORINGS.
Back in the Moorings slip, we waiting for the staff to de brief us , and write up any descrepancies. I had a list of 16 squawks.
The staff arrived with a log in sheet, and clip board. I had those 16 squawks printed out for them. We sat in the cockpit of the Beneteau, and I explained the torn main, the non functioning auto pilot, and 14 additional problems. Each time I told the briefer , on each squawk, their pen went to the paper, and hesitated, and did not write down, one single of those problems that needed to be addressed before the next charter. Zip, Zero. I left my printed out sheet on the top of the chart table. Who knows if it was ever looked at, or just tossed by the after charter cleaning staff.
For our next trip, we sailed with Sunsail and no problem, the following year, we were going to book with sunsail again. Their prices were very high,, in all categories.
So, That was it , for TUI, the moorings, and sunsail. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I called CONCH CHARTERS.....Told them about experienced of 30 plus years with the moorings and sunsail, world wide, and 14 previous BVI trips with Moorings / Sunsail. The Conch rep Immediately QUOTED a $ 1200.00 discount , plus an additional $ 500.00 discount, ( early booking and maybe experience,? ) Whoa ! And that was a Jeanneau 36i, for the usual two weeks.
Point being, our very first, ever, bare boat international sailing vacation was 35 plus years ago in the BVI with the moorings when it was owned by the Carry familty, who originated the bare boat moorings co, in the BVI. So, our association with the moorings, world wide, has been many, many decades. We were totally loyal.
Well, in came TUI and we still hung in there. But, we noticed a change is staff and attitude. And after our last experiences, we sadly bid good bye ,
We have found Conch, and this next may, we will be sailing a 36i, and this will be our 3 rd BVI trip with them. Family run , good well maintained boats, super friendly, efficient, and professional.
The OP, wanted to know about how people felt about the Moorings.... well, after sailing with them, for over 35 plus years, the above is the reason that we are no longer there. I also know that TUI is no longer involved, but I do not know if the new big corporate owner has changed procedures and attitudes that TUI practiced.
Therefore, we are going with Conch, a family operated bareboat BVI charter co, with lower prices, well maintained boats, and friendly, knowledgeable, happy, and professional staff
We also now, book a hotel on Tortola and get in our welcome pool swims and arrival pain killers.
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: Eagleboy]
#186683
03/08/2019 05:48 PM
03/08/2019 05:48 PM
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Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 16
Eagleboy
OP
Traveler
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OP
Traveler
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 16
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Thanks for all the responses.
We are renting a Moorings 4000 3 cabin Cat. We booked an Exclusive Plus class because we love the new Leopard 40.
Our trip last week was out of Scrub Island. I liked the proximity to the airport and the smaller marina there. I contacted Dream Yacht Charters to compare to the Moorings, but you actually have to pay a premium for less than 7 days of travel (Sun-Sat fits in better with our schedule). 2 of the boats that we were looking at had watermakers, which seems like a fantastic convenience, but they were significantly more money.
Will look at the other companies. Staying away from the busy Road Harbour marinas would be a plus as a semi-first time charterer.
Last edited by Eagleboy; 03/08/2019 05:49 PM.
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: Calvin]
#186687
03/08/2019 06:53 PM
03/08/2019 06:53 PM
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,040 Charlotte, NC
NCSailor
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,040
Charlotte, NC
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My wife and I started sailing in the BVI with CSY in the mid 70's. In 1986 we wanted to sail the lower Caribbean. The Moorings had a base in St Lucia and we chartered a 51 foot sloop for 3 weeks. The Moorings treated us well and we enjoyed the cruise. We have chartered with the Moorings from that time. Like what has been mentioned, chart briefings are sort of redundant when you have been there many times. With the recent hurricanes, I would attend the briefing! I've been told the other charter company's are good and maybe I should give them a try. Well,,, in all of these many years, I just don't have a reason to not use the Moorings. They have always been good to us!
PS: Just a little brag, we met Charlie & Ginny Cary when they still ran The Moorings. I also started with CSY in 1990 on a 55' Morgan Ketch. Epic trip with 7 law school buddies just graduated. We hired a captain for safety reasons. We knew by 3pm none of us wanted to be in charge. Moorings after that.
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: Eagleboy]
#186729
03/09/2019 08:52 AM
03/09/2019 08:52 AM
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Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 105 Hillsborough, NC
OceanSong
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 105
Hillsborough, NC
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Thanks for all the responses.
We are renting a Moorings 4000 3 cabin Cat. We booked an Exclusive Plus class because we love the new Leopard 40.
Our trip last week was out of Scrub Island. I liked the proximity to the airport and the smaller marina there. I contacted Dream Yacht Charters to compare to the Moorings, but you actually have to pay a premium for less than 7 days of travel (Sun-Sat fits in better with our schedule). 2 of the boats that we were looking at had watermakers, which seems like a fantastic convenience, but they were significantly more money.
Will look at the other companies. Staying away from the busy Road Harbour marinas would be a plus as a semi-first time charterer.
Eagleboy: I'm curious about "staying away from busy Road Harbour marinas would be a plus"?
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: OceanSong]
#186733
03/09/2019 09:18 AM
03/09/2019 09:18 AM
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Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 16
Eagleboy
OP
Traveler
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OP
Traveler
Joined: Mar 2019
Posts: 16
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I'm curious about "staying away from busy Road Harbour marinas would be a plus"?
On our way back from our first cruise with The Moorings, we needed to wait for about 30 minutes inside the breakwater for a slip. Had to avoid multiple boats coming in and out, sunken ships, etc., a bit nerve wracking for the first cruise!
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: Eagleboy]
#186752
03/09/2019 01:12 PM
03/09/2019 01:12 PM
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Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 1,375 Washington DC
bailau
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 1,375
Washington DC
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I'm curious about "staying away from busy Road Harbour marinas would be a plus"?
On our way back from our first cruise with The Moorings, we needed to wait for about 30 minutes inside the breakwater for a slip. Had to avoid multiple boats coming in and out, sunken ships, etc., a bit nerve wracking for the first cruise! It was like that for us back in May '18 but the base is better staffed now and we came in the last of 5 boats in Feb and had a pilot on board within 5 minutes as the last of the 5... there are less "sunken boats" then in May & Oct 18
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: TC42]
#186856
03/10/2019 03:46 PM
03/10/2019 03:46 PM
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,040 Charlotte, NC
NCSailor
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,040
Charlotte, NC
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I first rented from Moorings 12 years ago. It was a fantastic experience from the quality of the boat to the customer service. We didn't have one issue. The last time I rented with them was July 2018. It was a disaster. The customer service booking the reservation was great. No issues and very helpful. We rented a 4800 Exclusive and stayed on it at the base the night before. We did the captain's briefing that night. The next morning it was hectic on the docks as usual. We were ready to go and but it took a long time to get items on the boat (cooler, paddle boards)...I had to go to the front desk numerous times. Finally the lady from the front desk just left her post and helped me because she was frustrated that they were not bringing me the items. Eventually we we off. Unfortunately, we had numerous boat issues.
- Winch had some mechanical issue (took apart and saw some metal pieces that were loose). I seemed to get it working again. - Generator wouldn't stay on. It would crank but not stay on.
I called customer service and they walked me through taking apart the generator houses and washing them out as well as taking out the filter and cleaning it. Once I did that it solved the genset problem. The next morning we were off to Anegada Unfortunately, when we came off the mooring I realized that we didn't have propulsion starboard side. We must have lost it coming into Leverick Bay. The engine would rev but prop wouldn't turn. I called customer service again. We tried some things but they said they needed to send diver. Diver came with a new prop. He said he didn't think that was the issues but he changed the prop and we tried it again. No luck. I called customer service again. They said they would need to bring us a new boat and it would be the next day. We were not happy. To their credit, they hurried the boat delivery. When we got back from dinner at 8:30 another boat was tied up to ours. We preceded to move all of our gear from one boat to the new one. Not exactly what we wanted to do at 9:00 at night. The next morning we said goodbye to the Moorings guy and the bad boat. He actually took it offshore to fish even though he had one engine. We were again off to Anegada! We dropped off the mooring ball and I looked at the chart plotter...no data and the boat looked like it was on land. I scurried to get back on the mooring ball. I called customer service again. It seems they delivered a boat with no chip in the plotter. They then called the guy who went fishing in our old boat and had him come back to give us the chip. We waited a few hours. Eventually we got the chip and were off to Anegada.
The new boat seemed pretty good. One day the bilge light at the bridge seemed to be staying on longer than I anticipated so I called customer service and left a message for someone to call me...they never did. On the 2nd to last day, the autopilot went out and quit working. By this time I had had it with customer service and I just dealt with it and went without auto pilot.
Returning to base was a bit frustrating. We radioed ahead and told them we were approaching. I called 3-4 times and talked to them to tell them that I'm holding at the end of Pier A waiting for docking assignment. I waited and waited while other boats were passing in both directions. If you've been there you know this is an awkward spot to keep a 48 ft boat stationary. We waited about 30 minutes. I called numerous times. Eventually it got resolved. Only other issues is that the dry bag had holes in it so we couldn't use it.
During my debrief I explained the numerous boat issues to the guy who checked us in. He was great (Captain Morgan). He suggested that I speak to the manager about my experience. I went to the desk 5 times...apparently the manager was nowhere to be found. I left a note with the issues we had and asked him to contact me. I left phone and email. I never heard from him.
Later in the pool and on the ferry back to STT I heard numerous other boat issues from several other groups. It seemed everyone had problems. Some where significant like the generator not working for the entire week, others were more minor like they were supposed to have a TV onboard and they didn't
This experience was disappointing to say the least. We still had a good time but it was a bit frustrating as well. We heard that Moorings pulled boats in from all over the world to bet them to the BVIs and they likely pulled the boats in and put them in service without doing proper inspections or verifying that they were ready. Maybe things are better now, i don't know.
Sounds like a bad experience and I hope you got some compensation for the lost time. We were down recently on. 4500 and did not have one problem. July 2018 was still full recovery mode from Irma. You should have expected possible issues.
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Re: Any reason NOT to use the Moorings?
[Re: TC42]
#186972
03/11/2019 05:35 PM
03/11/2019 05:35 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 833 Houston, Texas
louismcc
Traveler
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Traveler
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 833
Houston, Texas
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This experience was disappointing to say the least. We still had a good time but it was a bit frustrating as well. We heard that Moorings pulled boats in from all over the world to bet them to the BVIs and they likely pulled the boats in and put them in service without doing proper inspections or verifying that they were ready. Maybe things are better now, i don't know.
We had issues in our charter last July, most of which could probably attributed to their still recovering from Irma. Overall we were pleased but I wanted to voice my complaints to someone and things at the base were too hectic at our charter end. I contacted their main number and was told to contact Customer.Care (at) thlmarine.com . It took 30 days or so to fully get resolved but I felt our complaints made it to the appropriate parties at The Moorings and was overall pleased with their response. We've chartered 13 times with them and will do so again.
Louis from Houston
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