bvi captains log blog

Ok, an entry by me that will probably get me in trouble one more time with those in the industry who think that "dirty laundry should never be aired"

Knowledge is power! We had a talk with the charismatic gentlemen who ran this particular charter group in the fall about his program. It had been touted as the be all and end all for the charter yacht industry. By putting in another middleman into the charter yacht equation and charging much less then everyone else did, he was supposed to revolutionalize the market. Bazza and I listened to the spiel and thought there was not a chance in hell that it would work. They were going to represent boats, "physically take possession of them", have the owners put a certain amount into the kitty every year for maintenance and insurance, and the middleman would take care of everything else. Staffing the boats, provisioning the boats, handling the office work, and on and on.
We of course asked how he would be able to do all this, as we were curious after owning a boat here for so long and make any money. He went on about the having an inventory of SCUBA gear etc that would be kept at the office, and at the beginning of each charter just what would be needed for that week would be put on, same with the liquor and drinks, but then it would all be inventoried and taken off at the end of the week as well. That seemed to us a lot more work then worth it, to drag all that heavy stuff back and forth to a central location! That he had a pool of staff to draw on, and that the provisioning would all be done in Cost U less on St Thomas where it was cheaper and they could buy in bulk. We asked how they could do that as ten minutes before that he was telling me they were taking the fleet up to East End Tortola to "save costs" on operating. I have lived here a long time and NEVER heard of anyone moving to the BVI to "save costs" after just being told that one of the ways he was saving costs was by buying everything at Cost U less in St Thomas!
He went on about having a mechanic to keep all the boats working (Bear in mind, we had seen the boats, some of them were crap! But yes, cheap crap!!) The one thing I will say about the guy, was he was Irish, and boy did he talk a good story. He must have, he convinced about 14 different boats to sign up with him! Some of them, were and are very good yachts too interspersed among the garbage.

I will not say more about that, as these boats and managers and owners and his poor staff really had to scramble when he left town one Monday in May "one step in front of the sheriff" as some one put it. I liked that phrase. Many of the boats had committed charters on them at that time and at least 4 of the boats were not suitable to go out on charter!
I heard the story about one of the boats that had their diesel tanks broke, so they put jerry cans on the back decks for diesel and a hose running to the engine or something and just switched the hoses back and forth for months between the jerry cans!!! Oh, dear god!

So, I will let you follow these links here are read more on your own.....It is an interesting horror story and probably needs to go into a book along with other stories I have one day!
A quote from his former website

"Our company is known for offering excellent vacation value.
Our “All Inclusive Packages” are just that -- All Inclusive. You don’t pay for port fees, park fees, scuba diving, water sports equipment rentals, etc. All inclusive also means you receive a professionally staffed yacht. Your menus are designed with your preferences foremost in our mind and expertly prepared by your private chef.
Watch out for hidden "add-on’s" charged by others groups."

Go here for Oceanwide Lawsuit
and go here...
And for those who think we should never talk about anything negative in this industry, you will have one more reason to throw stones at me (although I think they would have a lot better things to do then read my blog!)
It is kind of like the David Vann and the Tin Can/ Bird of Paradise Story, too hard to look away. Don't forget to look at the pictures in the links! Wow!

They are having some REALLY shitty weather in the BVI this week! Wind surge coming through tomorrow around 35 knots and East swells and thunderstorms. It might be a good day to STAY put and I certainly think the crew will NOT be out sailing the spinnaker for fun and games!

***Edited by Kerry the next morning. I was just told this boat is still in charter. I assumed after reading all of this stuff there was not a chance in hell that they were still in charter. So, iT IS possible that this boat has been cleaned up and put in much better shape then it was in at Xmas!!! I have not seen it. I decided to leave this post up, as whenever anyone is looking at that particular boat and google it the info I linked to here is going to come up in the search engines anyways. If it was me and my boat, I would want to be aware of all this and be putting up new pictures and saying what I have done to it in between, so I will leave this post for now as I know that I do not want to be associated in the same industry as what that charter guest went through. It is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE that the owners knew nothing about the shape the boat was in, as remember I said they physically turn the boat over to Oceanwide to "maintain" and "manage" and "put the crew on". That could have been Promenade if we did something like that and went away!!!! We threw a rod personally on the engine of the tender on charter yesterday, which means they are scrambling to find/buy/rent something today. Things do happen! Funny as we had talked just last week with the crew about replacing it this fall. It gets used so heavy for pull toys, and lets face it, our second little dinghy with the 15 hp is not going to pull the banana boat! Of course they have to try and manoeuver all this in some of the worst weather of the year down there! *******

Yep, that is my big old turtle that Lisa was playing with. I hope she does not steal his affections!!! I believe he is supposed to be a one girl turtle! I cleaned up your pictures a bit Lisa, as they were so nice.
We are still in Victoria, with no need of using the air conditioning yet! We have joined my parents with their Friday outing of going to Costco for a hotdog! Pretty exciting hey, 4 of us have lunch for $11.18!!!
Then it was back to the house for a family business meeting. Thats my mom and dad, meetings with ice coffees and ice creams! Gotta love it!!

Then Bazza had to run outside and see if his "toy" had survived all day without him!! Anyone guessed what it is yet??

He has slowly gotten around in between tinkering to doing some work on the RV, just like the boat, it needs love and tenderness. Here he is painting the top! I guess the bonus is that it is not in the water and the space is flat and not that large!

I forgot that i had this picture on my computer, this is the dinghy dock at Baughers Bay, CSY Dock. Believe me you are taking your life in your hands there to get close enough to buy your (as Lisa calls it) Gold DUST!

I am not sure that I have any tidbits of gossip or knowledge, except I understand a beneteau 50 under full sail and hatches open was caught in the big squall that Lisa talked about that happened when they picked up on Friday, and the boat quickly rolled, took on water and sunk to the bottom in between Norman and Peter! I hear winds of 40-50 knots, just for a brief period, but it was all it took.
We see those squalls all the time, and we have learnt over the years to know how quickly we have to get sails down , but sometimes you have very little time!
OK, looks like the groups are having lots of fun on board the boat, just the way it should be! Good night all.