Thinking about Moorings or Such

[peterschey]

I live on west coast and love the times I've sailed around the BVI and that area. thinking about buying a boat thru Moorings or Sunsail or such with idea of using a boat in caribbean few weeks/yr and then elsewhere few weeks like Greece. any thoughts on cost for say 42 foot 3 cabin sail boat, who best to work with, best boat to consider? I have a 36 foot Catalina and would consider chartering the boat I owned for 5 yrs and then possibly taking it over if its not too beat up, but flexible about how that goes down the road. Appreciate any ideas, experiences, etc. Thanks.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Peter.

See the informative Charter Boat Ownership series of articles:
➥ The Usual Suspects - The Boat

[cheers234]

Yes Rob from the usual suspect web site is great and has good info on that course of action!

[peterschey]

Thanks. I'll check this out.

[Steve W]

Post your question in the BVI forum at www.traveltalkonline.com. Lots of Moorings and other charterboat owners there with details financial pluses and minuses, etc.

[LH44 Anne]

Originally Posted by peterschey

I live on west coast and love the times I've sailed around the BVI and that area. thinking about buying a boat thru Moorings or Sunsail or such with idea of using a boat in caribbean few weeks/yr and then elsewhere few weeks like Greece. any thoughts on cost for say 42 foot 3 cabin sail boat, who best to work with, best boat to consider? I have a 36 foot Catalina and would consider chartering the boat I owned for 5 yrs and then possibly taking it over if its not too beat up, but flexible about how that goes down the road. Appreciate any ideas, experiences, etc. Thanks.

I bought a boat in Nanny Cay last summer through BVI Yacht Sales; they have an office right by the hotel in Nanny Cay. Chris Simpson, Clive Allen and Karen Simpson are very honest, very hospitable, very knowledgeable and very competent. They have access to substantially every boat for sale in the BVI and are a great source for assistance with whatever a boat needs. Of a couple of dozen boats I've bought through the years, they provided the very best service I have experienced.

Tortola and, to a lesser extent, Virgin Gorda are one of the "marinas of broken dreams," places where you find boats - some of them very, very good boats - that people have gotten that far, had a bad trip, said "never again," hauled out, listed the boat and flew home. It happens, sadly.

If you shop very carefully, there a good values to be had, better in some cases than you can get from the charter fleet sales.

I found one, but it took a year of looking and two trips to the BVI before I found it. And it took me three weeks work and a few projects with local contractors to get the boat ready for offshore sailing before I could leave. (And then I had another ten days of waiting for a wx window.)

Now I get to work on it here, in the never ending saga! But now I've got a lovely lady of finest kind and she'll soon be Bristol fashion.

[Hud3]

If you get serious about buying in the Virgin Islands, a good contact for you would be Miles Poor of MRP Refits. Miles is a very honest, intelligent and meticulous person and can make sure that any boat you purchase is brought up to snuff as hassle-free as is possible in the islands. Miles and his wife, Ann, are cruisers and beautifully fitted out their own Tayana 55 from essentially a bare hull. Miles was a cranial-facial surgeon before he retired.

[peterschey]

thanks again. very useful info. couple of other question just in case anyone has ideas: one advantage of sunsail or moorings seems to be use of owners boats at locations other than where your boat is based; are there opportunities like this with other chatering companies? And within the moorings/sunsail-type chartering companies, are there opportunities to buy a boat from an owner who wants to bail on his/her contract? web sites already suggested may have answers but thought I would throw these questions out in case anyone has ideas. Thanks!!!