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Borrowed Bounty apparently broke loose from a mooring ball near Long Bay, Virgin Gorda and ended up on rocks at one of the Seal Dogs. Are there mooring balls at Long Bay? I didn't think so. Link to story here.

Just remembered, maybe the day-use mooring balls at Mountain Point? Incident happened at 11pm...

Facebook (for what that's worth) is saying that they tied up to a day ball in big swells (sound familiar?).

Also sounds like they drifted for a long time without the crew realizing it.

Day use very likely, Mountain Point or Kodiak Queen. Unless there were balls installed in the Long Bay anchorage over the off-season. I didn't look at weather, but a north swell would have pushed them the other direction. Typical trades would have had them drifting towards the Seal Dogs.

Photo shows mooring ball still tied to the boat! Ball came loose from the mooring fixture

It will be interesting to learn the details on the mooring: who owns it, how big a boat was it designed for, is it maintained.

To me this looks like the typical over night ball. White with a blue stripe. Big ground swells last week. As a matter of fact, had one hell of a time leaving White Bay in the dinghy. Of course it had nothing to do with the painkillers and Caribs!

"Of course it had nothing to do with the painkillers and Caribs!"

Speaking of which, am I the only one thinking that Crewed Yacht on the Rocks could be the name of an adult beverage?

Pretty sad to look at that photo. And a good reminder to all of us who play out on the water just how vulnerable we are, even in the benign conditions of the BVI. I'm glad everyone aboard was ok.

Dan

It appears to be one of the dive balls off the Kodiak Queen. Day use ball with a 90 minute limit. People overnight on them and the balls on the old WillyT.

George, you and I have been around a long time. Remember the woman on here who castigated the folks who put the moorings at the Dogs perilously close together? During the night her boat nearly hit one on an adjacent mooring. She was, of course, told that the fault was entirely hers for spending the night on a dive mooring.

We all recall the mooring squatter who lost his own boat, but I wonder what happens in a case like the current one.

Surely the end of a young skipper's professional career. No excuse in this day and age to drift across from VG to The Dogs without knowing something was wrong. A mooring breaking on an anchor dragging has happened to all of us (3 times and counting for me) but surely, in this day and age, you'd have two or more anchor alarms set.

Anybody knows if Borrowed Bounty was in a group managed fleet, and if so, which one? Or privately managed crewed ownership. If you were the owner, what recourse would you have vs the management company and/or the professional skipper?
After reading about the Wandering Hillbillly's moorings failure and insurance and salvage disasters, one must worry about the loss of million dollar boats.

And yes, did the skipper utilize an anchor alarm in this case?

Its with Charter Yacht Solutions. Had a pretty full calendar for the upcoming season. I don't know if there were charter guests aboard. Could have been owner use.

I read on FB that the owners were aboard, that they have a crew but the crew weren't on board because they were stuck outside the territory waiting on their work papers. Again, not first hand knowledge.

Ouch, ouch!

Pleased it was the owners. Would have hated the young professional crew to have been responsible.

I hope the Capt and his mate can find another yacht to crew after going through BVI Immigration hell...

There is a shortage of crews so I suspect they will be ok unless the BVI requires you start the process over for a new boat.

Ouch

They might have to start again George. Used to be the case your work permit was for a named employer. New employer, new permit.

Brilliant!

But employer may be the management company, not a single charter yacht owner. Better flexibility

Anyone on here know this young couple (crew)? I dont recognise them

This incident was ruled an accident by investigators.