{"id":54786,"date":"2018-04-12T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/?p=54786"},"modified":"2023-05-08T09:37:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T13:37:51","slug":"why-bareboaters-are-returning-to-the-british-virgin-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/why-bareboaters-are-returning-to-british-virgin-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bareboaters are Returning to the British Virgin Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"MarineMax <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The MarineMax 362 runs with twin 250 hp Mercury Verado outboards. It sleeps four guests in two staterooms.<\/span>\n Marinemax Vacations<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Despite all the destruction that Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Maria wrought in the British Virgin Islands, the archipelago remains the most-requested destination among bareboaters who book through The Moorings. In fact, if those autumn 2017 storms hadn\u2019t wrecked so many boats, even more bareboaters would\u2019ve been in the islands this past winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe literally can\u2019t build the boats fast enough for people who want to go,\u201d says Ian Pedersen, marketing manager of the Americas for The Moorings, which lost about a third of its Tortola fleet in the storms. \u201cAs soon as we can get more of the boats in, everything will be back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

MarineMax Vacations also was reporting surprisingly high demand soon after the cleanup began. New Year\u2019s was sold out, with a near-normal level of inquiries by the end of January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

MarineMax lost just four of its 44 boats to the storms, and the company expected not only to be fully operational by March, but also to have 10 percent growth in the fleet\u2019s size by June 1 \u2014 including the addition of a new 36-footer (shown on the previous page).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"MarineMax <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n \u201cOwners could\u2019ve taken the insurance money and run, but they\u2019re ordering new boats and coming back.\u201d \u2014\u2009Ian Pedersen, The Moorings<\/span>\n The Moorings<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s totally different: no flybridge, and outboard motors, with two cabins,\u201d says Raul Bermudez, vice president of the MarineMax charter division. \u201cThere aren\u2019t too many two-cabin boats out there. If you\u2019re just a couple, it\u2019s tough to find a boat that makes sense. That one, in high season, it will be about $5,000 a week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Bermudez has been visiting the BVI once a month since the storms, and he\u2019s finding what bareboat clients are reporting: damage still being repaired on land, but harbors with water as clear as ever, and beach bars with open doors and rum specials ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the outer islands, now that everything\u2019s green again, yeah, you see damage to the houses and roofs, but the beaches are all cleaned up, and it\u2019s great,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been down to Soggy Dollar and had fun. Foxy\u2019s looks like nothing happened to it. Some of the people who were repeat clients or owners, they\u2019re loving it. There\u2019s no worry about picking up a mooring ball. There\u2019s plenty available right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

He also says more bareboaters than usual are leaving mainstays like Tortola and making the crossing to Anegada, which lies beyond the most popular islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing 13 miles away really made a difference,\u201d he says of storm damage, or lack thereof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The best news for The Moorings, Pedersen says, is that because so many of the boats in its fleet are being repaired or replaced, clients will have a ton of new rides this summer and for winter 2018-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at it like a wildfire effect,\u201d he says. \u201cYes, we lost all these boats, but some of them were on the older side anyway. Now the majority of the fleet is going to be less than a year old. So in 2019, that\u2019s the time to come charter with us. They\u2019re all going to be brand-spanking new.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a series of hurricanes damaged the BVI, the tropical paradise is now open for bareboater business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Kim Kavin","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20180412","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"156","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"The British Virgin Islands remains the most-requested destination among bareboaters.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Why Bareboaters are Returning to the British Virgin Islands %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"5S22LHRB5RF77HWMQL3UMPJZ4Q","arc_website_url":"why-bareboaters-are-returning-to-british-virgin-islands\/","custom_permalink":"why-bareboaters-are-returning-to-british-virgin-islands\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[218,528,297],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}