Looks like boatyball has added more balls at Cooper Island. The question is did they convert existing balls (bad) or add new balls. (Good)
G

They converted 4 existing FCFS (First Come First Served) mooring balls to "reservable" BoatyBalls. My experience with their service has been very positive. Thanks! - Mark (www.sail-orion.com)

I was afraid we would start seeing this happen.
G

Me too. Boo!

I had a bit more mixed feelings for Boatyball. It works as advertised but you now must have data and be online before 7 am to pick a ball. For Cooper Island this past visit, I was up and online before 7am, boatyball page was loaded and reloaded several times until the page showed the available balls at 7 am. As I selected an available ball, by the time the page loaded, the ball had been reserved by another boat. I then went back a page and reloaded, by then several balls were reserved. Repeat another cycle before I am able to select and reserve the last available ball. Completed the whole transaction by 7:03, so the reservations go very quickly once they are available. I found that there seemed to be a high percentage of boatyballs occupied by skippered vessels, likely because they have better data connections than I did or they have someone shore-side with a fast connection making reservation on their behalf. All fair as they using the system as I am and paying for the balls. But be prepared if you are planning to use the boatyball service, there is a surcharge for doing so and you need to be ready to book by 7 am if the anchorages are at all busy. On the plus side, if you do manage to book one, nice knowing that it will be available when you get there.
A side note, the boatyball mooring balls are a little taller than the standard MooreSecure balls, it makes a significant noise when the metal mooring ring bangs on the underside of the bridgedeck in the middle of the night

Problem - undersupply of mooring balls.

Solution - rather than let the available balls be taken by those who get there first...give them to those with the best web connection / quickest fingers at 7am.


...Its a no from me.

I emailed them about the height of the Moorings. They can and will do significant damage to the bridge deck of a cat. The solution is to take the pennant on the ball directly to one cleat on the cat and run a dock line to the ball and back to the boats other cleat. Pull this somewhat tight so the ball is trapped near the front crossbar and can’t damage the bridge deck. It also helps in places like Cooper where ball spacing is tight and the wind and current may oppose each other. They need to order more reasonable height balls as a proper solution.
G

Christo is right on. No problem solved, new ones created.

The mooring fiasco has changed and turned the BVI from a beautiful paradise into a neurotic mental ward

A photo just posted on Instagram shows three boats anchored at Cooper tonight. A Moorings monohull 45ft, a Jeanneau 64 and a large black-hulled cat.

All well clear of the mooring balls. Looks to be a beautiful calm evening.

Three boats who didn't stress at either end of the day about mooring balls!