# What's up at the Moorings?



## markchioda

been sailing in the BVI's since way back in the days of CSY (early 80's). last 20 years with the Moorings. Generally speaking I've had good results there. Some problems but generally reliable with good equipment. I haven't been down in a couple years and am headed down in January. I stumbled across a negative review and did some searching. I'm seeing a lot of negative reviews, mostly in the last two to three years, and mostly about equipment failure and little to no preventative maintenance any more. Does anyone know what is going on? I don't want to fight with a poorly maintained boat while on vacation; been there done that. Realizing that unsatisified customers complain when satisfied customers stay quiet, before shelling out $15k, I'm curious to know if this degredation of equipment there is something recent and what others who have bareboated there have experienced in the past two years or so.


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## jackdale

I have not been on a Moorings boat in five years. They are now owned by the same company that owns Sunsail.


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## Minnewaska

I understood that Moorings bought Sunsail, but not sure it matters. I chartered a 43ft Benneteau out of the Moorings in Tortola in Feb '10. It was so new, it didn't even have a name on it yet. I think we were about the third or fourth charter.

You would have thought it was in the fleet for a long time. 

Cockpit table was broken off, like someone sat on the edge and glued back together.
Fixed salon stool was broken off the floor.
Stove would not light.
One water tank vent was plugged and we couldn't draw water from it.

I have a couple of theories. 

First, both Benneteau and Jeanneau have substantially downgraded the quality of their ships since about '08 or '09. When they switched to the manufactured teak, they also switched to less expensive fittings all around and lowered their prices accordingly: more plastic fittings, undersized winches, etc. They are good value and sail nicely, but I don't think the new quality holds up as well to charter use.

Second, we were on a discount package and I always wonder if the the full fare customers get the better ships.

In the end, we didn't have any troubles that actually slowed down our trip, we just thought the ship was a piece of junk. For that matter, anyone going to the islands with the expectation that all will be as perfect as a Four Seasons, will be very disappointed. It is extraordinarily laid back and by the end of the week, even Type As usually grasp some of its advantage. Therefore, despite the boat's shortcomings we had an absolutely great time and would go again without reservation. 

What are you chartering that is running your bill to $15k? I assume that is a lot of air fare too.


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## dinghycapn

We were down there in May and chartered out of Sunsail. We were upgraded from our first boat because of a few minor inadequacies that would have taken more time to troubleshoot and would have resulted in at least one day lost. Our second boat had no issues. The staff were very accomodating and quick to action and I have no complaints.

I'm under the impression that Moorings, Sunsail and Footloose in the BVI are all under the same management. Moorings gets the new boats, sunsail gets them after a few years and footloose gets the ones near the end of their charter lives. The charter prices reflect this.

While we were out we came upon a boat who had been switched at sea twice (They were on their third boat in 1 week). I don't know the exact reasons why and obviously it could be that they weren't running their engine to recharge batteries...but twice???

Regardless it seems that even if they don't stay on top of repairs they are quick to reesolve any issues...and have plenty of boats sitting around in just such an instance.


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## cranki

I chartered a Beneteau 50 From the Moorings about 5 years ago. The boat was in very good shape and clean. I actually chartered owner's time directly from the owner and he told me there was a faulty mic switch on the vhf and some problems with the switch for the anchor windlass, both of which Moorings was supposed to have fixed. He was warning me they might not have. Guess what, they didn't.


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## markchioda

Minnewaska said:


> What are you chartering that is running your bill to $15k? I assume that is a lot of air fare too.


8 people 8 days 4600 last week of January. with provisioning and before captains reward discount it's about $14.5k without airlines.


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## Minnewaska

markchioda said:


> 8 people 8 days 4600 last week of January. with provisioning and before captains reward discount it's about $14.5k without airlines.


Got it. A big boy cat for a ton of people. Makes sense now.

Have a great time and enjoy a painkiller for me. Some chance we will do a last min trip in Feb this winter. Options open right now.


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## markchioda

cranki said:


> I chartered a Beneteau 50 From the Moorings about 5 years ago. The boat was in very good shape and clean. I actually chartered owner's time directly from the owner and he told me there was a faulty mic switch on the vhf and some problems with the switch for the anchor windlass, both of which Moorings was supposed to have fixed. He was warning me they might not have. Guess what, they didn't.


I'm actually used to that kind of stuff; that comes with bareboating in the BVI's And I chartered with Moorings (4600) back in 2007 with little to no material problems, which has been by experience for 20 years there. My concern is that the reports I was reading the other night were mostly signifciant equipment problems, and in particular there was one (with video) about a Genset exhaust tube leak which was venting directly into the aft cabin (AFTER Moorings had been made aware of it and "fixed it" with electrical tape on the exhaust hose!!!) caught my attention. The economy certainly has affected all the bareboat operators and I'm sure ultimately that finds it's way to the boats themselves. But rather than fight with a boat in poor shape, I would likely try another supplier.


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## Minnewaska

I would hope what looked like electrical tape on the exhaust was actually rescue tape, which can easily withstand the temps. Nevertheless, one would expect a proper repair.

Again, I think these are reflections of cheapened build quality of the boats from years past.


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## markchioda

here's a link to the review The Moorings - Tortola - Sailing Charter Reviews & Contact Details - SailDirector (Scroll half way down to submission date 4/6/09 rating 1.)

Here is a link to the video of the situation. Moorings 4700 Kilkenny Kats-Carbon Monixide Blues - YouTube

The Moorings - Tortola - Sailing Charter Reviews & Contact Details - SailDirector

carbon monoxide (like propane) is nothing to screw with on a boat...


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## denverd0n

dinghycapn said:


> I'm under the impression that Moorings, Sunsail and Footloose in the BVI are all under the same management.


They are all owned by TUI Marine. Not sure how high up in the individual organizations you have to go before they are all just one company, but at some point they are.


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## bacampbe

We've had two mostly good charters from The Moorings in Tortola (2007 and 2008). We did notice that, in spite of all the high dollar capital improvements they were making at the Tortola base, they still seemed to have a case of absent or inattentive management. For example, those brand-new beautiful spa shower rooms were almost always dirty and unsupplied.

But in 2009 we chartered a 2 year old Bene 40 from their Marsh Harbor (Bahamas) base, and found the maintenance very poor. (Autopilot broken, depth gauge read about a foot deeper than reality [in the Bahamas, for goodness sake], electrical panel [including the Bene style integrated gauges] broken, lots of stinky waste water plumbing issues, Reef lines messed up in some gordian knot fashion [I don't think the mainsail actually fit], leaky fuel line for the dinghy outboard.)

I suspect their "guaranteed owner income" model gives them a real incentive to cut costs with "deferred maintenance", and that's been compounded by the poor economy.

OTOH, we chartered a Leopard 38 from TMM in the Grenadines last summer, and found that boat to be very well maintained. TMM, like most of the smaller companies, acts more as an owner's agent, and the owner pays for maintenance. That puts you more at the mercy of how much the owner cares--but I figure if _anyone_ is going to care about the boat, it's the owner.


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## jakmang

*Just Returned from St. Martin*

We had a 14 day charter on Sunsail out of a joint Moorings base. Our boat had a number of serious problems including fleas and an anchor windlass that gave up part way through. The Moorings boats all looked new. Our 39 footer was from 2007 and the interior was falling apart. The maintenance was done by a large group of Tui employees. There were also some new Sunsail cats around.

Can't quite figure out the multi-company branding, but I would not recommend Sunsail again. Not sure what that says about Moorings or Tui.

The French airline, Corsair seems to share the Tui logo.


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## kootenay

We did a 10 day charter with moorings in 2008 and are going down again in 2 weeks for a 2 week go. I see the boat we had in 2008 has since moved to the Sunsail fleet and it is for sale. It was in great shape in 08 but now with 4000 hrs plus on the engine has been used quite a bit. My understanding is this is the standard rotation. New into the moorings fleet 3-5 years first as an exclusive line then a club boat later into sunsail and then 3-5 years later up for sale. One would expect quality to degrade over time as does the cost. You often get what you pay for.


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## BoxedUp

We've just booked our 3rd charter with Sunsail for the end of May. We've chartered a 39 with no problems, a 42 that had a mainsheet block snap off the base of the mast which was replaced in a timely fashion, and next charter we'll be on a 32, just me and the 1st mate this trip. It's prudent for any skipper to properly check out all systems before leaving the dock and noting any deficiencies. If you do the same on your own boat then doing so on a charter would also minimize any surprises.

I do agree with the OP that bad experiences get shared more than the good ones.


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## neilsty

We use to charter out of Sunsail in tortolla, but gave up with them after we started to have too many problems primarily due to low maintenance. Batteries that were towards the end of their life, and an engine that would blow out the ignition system every day due to a short in the panel and fuse held in with electric tape, plus boats that looked well worn.

We now use Voyage charters out of the west end - their cats are faster than what sunsail/moorings have, plus they are well maintained and they do a thorough checkout. Chartered from them about 8 times over the last few years with boats dated - NO problems. For a monohull I would go with island yachts out of redhook USVI - we have used them a couple of times - Island packets are OK in the trades apart from the 380 with a furling main. Island yachts is an outfit that looks after their boats and seems to care about who charters them, not just the color of their credit card.


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## bobnpaula

We've chartered twice in the BVI, 2008 and 2009, with Sunsail, and had very good service both times. Boats were in good shape, and well-maintained, Beneteau 373 and Jeanneau 37i. Footloose is definitely older boats. We got the impression that Moorings was more high-end, huge catamarans and mostly American groups. Sunsail, at least when we were there, was more monohull and Americans/Brits/other Europeans. (there were Irish, British and Swedes setting out when we were).. I guess we liked the "international" flavor. 
Since then, we have done the Grenadines with Barefoot (another story) and had a great charter last year with Horizon in Antigua... awesome in every way. 
This year will be Horizon again, in Sint Maarten. 
You may want to check out Horizon or TMM, who also seem to get good reviews. 
Hope you have a great trip!


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## kootenay

Bobnpaula what is the story about the grenadines we will be shore based there for a month and are looking at a charter there next year.


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## jimrafford

We chartered out of St Vincient for a couple of weeks a few years ago. The diving on all the Grenadines is amazing. Tabago Cay is about as remote as you can get. There is nothing between you and Africa and you can swim w/ the sea turtles every evening. The poverty on some of the smaller islands is depressing but most of the islands are beautiful and haven't been spoiled by tourism.
We used Barefoot and we would not use them again. The sailing between the islands is open ocean and can be rough. We charted a mono hull and would get a cat in the future.
We found a woman on Bequi that runs a yacht provisioning service. She had freezers full of anything you could want. 
Sunsail had opperations on St Vincient and Canawan(sp)
Jim


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## dinghygoddess

Just completed an 8 day sail from the Moorings. I agree with the comment about absent or uncaring management. Had to repeatedly ask for a manager. First he was in a meeting. Then he was "on the docks". Then hours later it was "oh, he came looking for you but you weren't here", etc, etc. The issue was that on the last day of the trip storm Bertha hit. We had made it safely back to the marina but now our flight was cancelled, no ferry, etc. We were allowed to remain on the boat an additional night. We were delayed for 3 additional days. The front desk staff was unconcerned as to where we were going to spend the additional two nights and made zero efforts to help us. 80 other people were in the same situation. Front desk was singularly uncaring. The next morning we were told to get off the boat by 10 AM because the next charterers had arrived. Stupid me, how could they possibly arrive with the airports closed and no ferries running? So we got off and on our own arranged to stay at the Mariner Inn. A word of advice for anyone considering a charter out of that marina. Pay the extra money and stay on the boat for the night before. Stay away from this Mariner Inn. For $250 per night it was a dump! Pool had papers and plastic bottles floating among other debris. Our room had two 40 watt bulbs for lights and it was dark all the time including daytime. Anyway, we watched for the next 3 days our boat just sitting in the dock. There was nobody on it. We had offered to charter it for the additional days that we were stuck simply to get away from that horror show of a hotel but were refused as the boat was due to leave. The boat never left. Finally after me losing my temper and demanding to speak with the manager he showed up, unhurriedly, without a care in the world. He was a polite gentleman who had nothing to add to the situation other than "I will look into it". We never heard from him again. Boat had no problems, we found it clean and in good shape. Dinghy was another story. Missing most of the handles, fuel line had to be held in by hand (only discovered this after we had put out to sea), outboard refused to fold forward and marooned us on Deadman's Cay beach when it simply broke off and floated away (we recovered it). I have to say that The Moorings came within 30 minutes by boat, towed us back to our boat, replaced the engine without any questions. We also got several calls throughout the day from the base to make sure we were okay and to see if the dinghy was working well. Bottom line: Front desk staff clueless and not helpful. Every other employee was beyond great, going out of their way to help and guide you and make sure you have a good charter. Management: I have no words.


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## bacampbe

We chartered again from the Moorings in Tortola in May. We had a better experience than the previous time; there are signs that they are investing more in boat and base maintenance. A number of our pet peeves are still true (fancy "spa" bathrooms never clean, on-base provisioning doesn't provide the "unpack and stow" service that they advertise.) 

The briefings are surprisingly casual (and inaccurate in places), given the boats they trust people with. Neither our chart or boat briefer had much in the way of local knowledge. Fortunately we had done our research on both.

But the boat (Moorings 4800/Leopard 48) was pretty nice. It sailed well for a big cat, and was nicely laid out. I think late model large cats get a bit more TLC than some of the smaller boats. The only big problem was that the pump direction for the fuel transfer pump was reversed. Fortunately we noticed this before creating a big mess, but it could have been pretty bad.


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## BoxedUp

dinghygoddess said:


> So we got off and on our own arranged to stay at the Mariner Inn. A word of advice for anyone considering a charter out of that marina. Pay the extra money and stay on the boat for the night before. Stay away from this Mariner Inn. For $250 per night it was a dump! Pool had papers and plastic bottles floating among other debris. Our room had two 40 watt bulbs for lights and it was dark all the time including daytime.


Not going to defend Moorings but perspective does play a role. You mentioned that Bertha had just hit and I know what my pool looks like after an ordinary thunderstorm, so debris in the pool isn't unusual unless it remained there for several days. We also stayed in the Mariner Inn at the end of our charter and although not up to 5 star standards (don't know what the actual rating is), it was a welcome respite from a non-A/C, getting kind of funky smell, couple of rough weather days on a 36 footer after one week. It isn't because of the Mariner Inn that we won't plan to stay there again, it's dealing with the ferry and the ridiculous scene at the Cyril E. King Airport on departure day that we'll spend the last night on St.Thomas instead of Tortola.


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## capecodda

We chartered one way from St Lucia to Grenada last winter. The crew on both ends were excellent. Had one problem with the barbecue bracket which we fixed in Bequia with some bailing wire. My only complaint was they didn't fix it, in the past if I had a problem, they'd contract with someone in Bequia to do the work, this time they didn't follow through, or their contractor didn't follow through, I don't know for sure.

They closed the Canouan facility. Prices were up, one way delivery costs up. Seemed like fewer boats available, but I'm not sure of this. 

I'd still use them.

Every boat charter company has some problems, usually the Moorings had been perfect or at least "quickest to repair" whatever went wrong.


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## joemckinstry

We just returned from chartering in Lefkas and the main luff on our Beneteau 50.5 was attached with bungee cords except at the batten connections. Pointed it out to the Moorings base and they said "that's the way we do it here". Hmmm.
Sooo, no surprise, when the wind got up to Force 4 and 5, the main blew out like a failed zipper and we were barely able to get it back down and stowed. I think this comes under the heading of being sent to sea with an "ill found boat". Wouldn't recommend them to anyone again which is unfortunate because our last two charters with them in Tahiti and the BVI's were great.


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## 16kpsi

Wanted to contribute as I've used the Moorings and Sunsail since the early 90's all around. Wanted to add as there is not too much out there in review. 

Currently building a custom Perry 60 monohull, so have a pretty strong understanding of boat systems.

Did Moorings St Lucia to Grenada in 1992 on a Moorings 50 Monohull. 7 days. Generally good experience and good equipment. Very responsive bases to troubles on the way (captain managed to wrap the prop, tear the p-strut from the hull, and initiate a near sinking. Nothing was Moorings fault and they were helpful in getting us back to base.) No comments on the captains skills....

Moorings BVI in 1997. Beneteau 440 Monohull ("Club" level boat category). 7 days. My wife and I ended up owning and living aboard this same model about 13 years later. The one for Moorings was equipped with lighter gear (the traveler parted on us) but overall the 1997 trip was a good experience and the boat was in decent working condition. Base seemed chagrined and understood that the traveler was undersized. I got the feeling it had happened before.

Tonga in 2000 with Sunsail Beneteau 37. 7 days. That was first and last time with Sunsail. Boat had 'been on a reef' with the previous charter and was missing 1/3 of it's rudder. Kinda got the 'tough luck' from the manager. No price reduction and a boat that sailed like crap. Outboard that wouldn't run. A generally run down boat. 

Didn't do a charter for awhile as we owned and lived aboard during the early 2000's, so got our fix that way. So generally missed the 2008 downturn and how it may have affected the company through those years.

St Lucia again in 2011 in a Moorings 3900 Cat ("Exclusive" level boat category). 10 days. Brand new boat just delivered from South African. So in near perfect shape. New design freezer/refridge system that actually made ice. Some recurring trouble with the starboard AC unit - very much a 'working-out-the-kinks' kind of thing. Moorings base very helpful. This charter left me feeling like I would probably always use Moorings when chartering as things went so well. Completely blown away by the new base at Marigot Bay.

Tahiti in 2013 in a Moorings 3900 Cat ("Club" level boat category). 10 days. An older boat but mostly well maintained and prepared. Boat bottom was a bit fouled and motor would overheat at the same RPM's that produced hull speed on the previous 3900 we had chartered. So motor cruising was slower. Masthead wind speed transducer failed in the middle of the night during a 40+knot blow at anchor. Staff came on a launched the next morning and replaced. So overall a great experience even in an older boat and a great base manager (Violetta - who should be a model, not a charter base manager, but I digress). Again, affirmation of my good experiences with Moorings.

In fact, at this point, my wife and I where considering purchasing into the Mooring fleet.

Greece in 2015 in a Moorings 4600 cat ("Club" level boat category). Just completed a 14 day in Greece from the new base at Zea, Phireus sailing the Cyclades. I may need to come down a little, but currently I'm not sure I'll use Moorings again. Now, I will acknowledge that the Cyclades are a challenging place to sail. I have raced on the SF Bay for decades. It blows a Beaufort 6-7 many days under the gate. A challenging place to race. I just experienced a Beaufort 10 on this charter. 55+ knots and an angry Aegean. This is not uncommon for this area apparently. That being said, the standard charter boats of the Mooring fleet have no business being chartered to people without equipment upgrades (which Moorings categorically does not do).... and this boat was tired.

We booked the charter a year in advance. At the time, the base was at Lavrion - which is closer to the Cyclades cruising grounds by a half day sail. 8 Months latter, they sent a rather generic 'by the way' letter stating they had changed the base to the Athens area Zea Marina. Apparently we were lucky to receive this e-mail as the Zea base manager commented that some charters hadn't even been told and showed up 30 miles away at the closed base. The manager (and staff) had several other beefs with Mooring corporate. Mostly about the lack of boat turn around time, maintenance time and lack of maintenance budget.

the Moorings only does the Greek charters from Saturday to Saturday to maximize usage. And the boats are in full usage. Charters are off-boat at 0900 and on boat at 1530. This gives the staff 6 1/2 hours to repair and turn around and repair 23 boats (and do briefings) in an environment that is wearing at best on this vessels. They are said to want to add 12-22 boats next season. In short, the work doesn't get done. Word of advice - make note of issues - particularly hull and structural damage. The walk arounds are fast. 

Issues included a slightly torn genoa (that became a 24" tear and unusable). Normally, I would have lowered the Genoa the evening after I saw the tear and sew on some sail tape. But when the Meltemi starts to blow - and it did for us for 10 days, its 23+ knots at night even at anchor or med moored. So lowering a big genoa in that is hard to impossible (Particularly without a crew of really experienced sailors). The main issue was a mis-matched chain gypsy to the chain. It slipped chronically from day one. Eventually, the slip-grab killed the motor - with a fouled anchor in a tight marina with 30 knots blowing. The Base WAS good at getting us a new winch shipped (by ferry) and installed(by second party technician) over the next two days (which severely altered our cruising plan). The technician was completely frustrated as the new winch gypsy didn't match the chain(after I had watched him carefully measure when he ordered it from base). The old gypsy didn't match the chain and another gypsy we went and bought wouldn't match. (3/8" didn't, 10mm didn't). Now I understand matching gypsies and chains can be voodoo, but what kind of chain was in this boat? What pissed me off was when the base manager berated us at the end of the trip while saying 1) we should have told him there was an issue with the winch and gypsy right away (we assumed it was just worn like the rest of the boat) 2) He had just had his best captain on the boat the week before and HE didn't mention a problem, so we must be the problem (his best also didn't mention the torn genoa, the torn 1st reef line, the failed and dangerous gas spring on the winch locker cover, the worn genoas sheets so necked they wouldn't lock in the camloks (I swapped sheets end-for-end to get by), or the major de-lam of the port transom from an impact). 3) He had records for 4 years stating there was never any issues reported with the winch. - but BTW, he just ordered a new chain for the boat. WTF??? why order a new chain if everything was in perfect working order and why berate us like there wasn't an issue? There were several other issues and arguments. I've never had an argument with a Moorings base before. 

So the bottom line from this rant is that the boat(s) were very worn - we talked to other charterers and a number of technicians too. The technicians all offered there frustration with the situation while looking over their shoulder. The base is over-booked. The boats are under equipped (the windlass is the same size as the 3900 windlass). Sails are not re-enforced for the weather they see. Docking and mooring gear was dangerously worn. Boat bilge smell of head (all older boats get that 'head' smell) but this was extreme. Main hatches leaked - onto beds. Hard Targa top pulled out of it's forward frame sockets and almost blow off - during hard wind when this would have been most inconvenient. Tool kit was abysmal (no blade in the hack saw. No allen wrenches - needed to re-secure the targa. crap tools).

My bad experience may just be this specific base related. I do plan on trying to contact corporate with my issues just to gauge their reaction if nothing else. From what I've read here, not to hopefully. But we've spent a fair amount of money with the Moorings over the years and would hope they haven't become too corporate.

The category of boat does make a difference for sure (exclusive vs club) so if you can afford it, you get what you pay for in that area.


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## Aedan03

An advantage might be that the Maltese authorities, if they notice at all, will decide that nobody will want to copy this method. So they might not bother stopping me, even if it's illegal which is not clear. No anchor-dragging etc hazards in the location I'm aiming for. 
For anyone who knows the Sliema, Malta, situation, do you have other ideas to avoid the 10 year wait for a mooring or a spot on land? The setup here is to give available moorings first to traditional fishermen, who might or might not genuinely use their windfall. And then the moorings remaining are rented out at a low price, hence the non-availability for ten years.


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## jsaronson

Just did a Moorings 3900 out of Miami. It was fantastic! Boat is probably 3-4 years old. Well maintained. Everything worked. Base manager took great care of us.


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## dfny36

I'll add a thumbs up for a recent Moorings charter (out of Belize). Very professional staff on top of their game.


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## LisH

dinghycapn said:


> We were down there in May and chartered out of Sunsail. We were upgraded from our first boat because of a few minor inadequacies that would have taken more time to troubleshoot and would have resulted in at least one day lost. Our second boat had no issues. The staff were very accomodating and quick to action and I have no complaints.
> 
> I'm under the impression that Moorings, Sunsail and Footloose in the BVI are all under the same management. Moorings gets the new boats, sunsail gets them after a few years and footloose gets the ones near the end of their charter lives. The charter prices reflect this.
> 
> While we were out we came upon a boat who had been switched at sea twice (They were on their third boat in 1 week). I don't know the exact reasons why and obviously it could be that they weren't running their engine to recharge batteries...but twice???
> 
> Regardless it seems that even if they don't stay on top of repairs they are quick to reesolve any issues...and have plenty of boats sitting around in just such an instance.


Sunsail also get new boats. From our experience of both companies worldwide, there's no real difference between the specs of Sunsail and Moorings boats - just the level of service expected. condition of boats comes down to base management. Avoid St Lucia base - tiredest boats I ever saw. Had few problems out of BVI


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## carles

just returned 3/20/16. chartered a 54 monohull its day steering broke called on channel 12,16 on the cell phone they provided and private cell phone-recorded message.had to jerry rig steering cos st guard couldn't raise them limped back to harbor 4 hours later called every 15 minutes. finally they claimed someone was with us a ghost?? more excuses . lost 1 1/2 days. no response on a later problem fixed it ourselves after 3 hours & manual help. general manager mr thomas absolutely no help[ read your contract no refunds for lost time. help reports it happens a lot management doesn't care.


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## TakeFive

Uh, might help if you tell us which of the 42 Moorings locations you were at. Or was it Sunsail? It's been stated clearly that local management is a huge factor, so you really need to be specific.


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## denverd0n

TakeFive said:


> Uh, might help if you tell us which of the 42 Moorings locations you were at. Or was it Sunsail? It's been stated clearly that local management is a huge factor, so you really need to be specific.


Agree it would be nice to know, but local management should not make that much of a difference. Headquarters should be monitoring this sort of thing, and if the local management can't maintain an appropriate level of customer service, then they should be fired and replaced by people who can. As a customer, it is perfectly reasonable for me to expect the same level of customer service at all of their facilities. That is the whole point of establishing a brand like this across multiple locations.

But, as I said, because we clearly know that Moorings/Sunsail is doing a poor job of maintaining a consistent product across locations, it would be nice to know the specific locations for any complaints.


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## SHNOOL

Just came back from BVIs, Moorings fleet chartered a Club level 3900 Leopard Cat, returned 2/27/2016. We checked motor manufacture dates as 2012, so figured the boat was roughly a 2012 model.

Boat had a brand new stack pack on it... with a new mainsail. All instrumentation worked flawlessly, as did the windlass, davits, chartplotter, etc.

Generator, and twin yammies ran great and provided ample power for the boat. Granted we never saw anything over Force 5 so can't say how the boat would have done in a storm.

Some things to note? The mast looked to be sleeved, slightly above the spreaders. The rigging was WAY LOOSE on the boat, like scary loose. I noted that it didn't appear there was even enough space to take up how loose it was on the turnbuckles (perhaps related to sleeving the mast, did they shorten an inch or 2?)... 

The refridge door slides (drawer style) were completely buggered, and every time we opened it, it came off track. We noted this before departure, but managed to "make do" so we left anyway (that was US not Moorings, we gave them less than 1 hour to respond/fix before we left).

We went with another crew who sailed a Club level Bene Moorings 41.3. They seemed to have multiple issues with their boat, but were minor (example engine controls bang on wheel, if you aren't careful, bilge pump stayed on when it should not have, they had to pull a wire off it so as to not burn out the pump).

Again, the treatment by the Moorings was in my opinion quite good... and the boats seemed serviced well (but skippers have to report problems so they can be addressed).

I'll second that the ferry, and the craziness at the airport leaves much to be desired.


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## TakeFive

denverd0n said:


> Agree it would be nice to know, but local management should not make that much of a difference. Headquarters should be monitoring this sort of thing, and if the local management can't maintain an appropriate level of customer service, then they should be fired and replaced by people who can.


I see your point, but suggesting a guy should be fired for one bad internet comment is a little harsh. What if the guy had a bad day? Some key service guys took ill? Their <sarcasm>wonderfully reliable island phone service</sarcasm> went down? I'm not making excuses - I was not there. But any negative comment should be taken in the context of other people's comments also. And never forget that there may be a different side of the story that the poster conveniently left out. I've seen it happen before.

I hate to sound snobbish, but we all develop reputations here over time as we post messages and our real personality comes through. You gain credibility after multiple posts, thoughtfully stated and clearly articulated with good grammar and punctuation.

With that in mind, I'll repeat the poster's message:


carles said:


> carles
> Junior Member
> Join Date: Mar 2016
> Posts: 1
> Thanks: 0
> Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
> Rep Power: 0
> 
> just returned 3/20/16. chartered a 54 monohull its day steering broke called on channel 12,16 on the cell phone they provided and private cell phone-recorded message.had to jerry rig steering cos st guard couldn't raise them limped back to harbor 4 hours later called every 15 minutes. finally they claimed someone was with us a ghost?? more excuses . lost 1 1/2 days. no response on a later problem fixed it ourselves after 3 hours & manual help. general manager mr thomas absolutely no help[ read your contract no refunds for lost time. help reports it happens a lot management doesn't care.


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## capta

markchioda said:


> 8 people 8 days 4600 last week of January. with provisioning and before captains reward discount it's about $14.5k without airlines.


Hey, about 10g's for grub n grog for 8 for 8 days? We'll swing by and help you eat and drink all that up so there's nothing left over. We wouldn't want to be wasteful, would we?.


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## TakeFive

capta said:


> Hey, about 10g's for grub n grog for 8 for 8 days? We'll swing by and help you eat and drink all that up so there's nothing left over. We wouldn't want to be wasteful, would we?.


You want to eat four year old food? uke


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## SHNOOL

I'm thinking the 4 yo booze he'd be OK with (me too).


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## denverd0n

TakeFive said:


> I see your point, but suggesting a guy should be fired for one bad internet comment is a little harsh.


A little harsh!?! I would call it extremely harsh! Which, of course, is why I did not say anything remotely like that.

What I said was that headquarters should be monitoring things, and making sure that each location maintains an appropriate level of service. A consistent, quality product across locations. They certainly should not base that sort of judgement on "one bad internet comment," though they should be listening to what internet groups like this one have to say about them, as just one element of the overall monitoring.

If they have one location that consistently has problems, and consistently gets bad reviews from customers, that reflects on ALL of their locations and on the entire company. They need to be aware of that, and take steps to remediate. They need to understand that, when they establish a worldwide brand (like they have) then they have to treat it as one, worldwide brand.

That's all I'm saying.


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## capta

TakeFive said:


> You want to eat four year old food? uke


Ghost threads may well be the death of me.........


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## jeremiahblatz

Since we're talking about the Moorings, a couple years ago I was on a charter from St Lucia to the Grenadines. Boat was a Moorings (Bene) 50.5. Everything was great on the boat, except:

(minor) the windlass was terrible (would drop chain at like 6" per second, had to use the winch handle and let the gypsy spin free to drop anchor)
(major) the genset engine wasn't put together properly, so leaked black smoke into the berths (and also wouldn't really start). The boat is definitely not set up to operate without the genset, so no power except one cigarette lighter port, fridge was barely cool, no a/c, batteries were always low, despite running the engine for hours a day.

They sent someone out to look at the genset, but they couldn't fix it. They offered a boat swap, but that would've been several days. Charter was still fine, we were lucky that it only rained once (the interior was insufferable with the hatches closed). They gave us a voucher for some decent money off our next charter.

The folks at the bases at start and end of the trip were all fine, I didn't interact much, being a n00b. Definitely try out *all* the systems before sailing off!


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## SHNOOL

jeremiahblatz said:


> Definitely try out *all* the systems before sailing off!


You know I am a noob too... but honestly THIS^ is key. You'd do the same with your own boat!


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## Onelapdoc

Moorings at Tortola has major maintenance issues. In May we took a 48' monohull "Amphitrite". Day 4 the ac compressor died. It took them 28 hours to get someone to Diamond Key. After puttering for 2 hours he said the only choice was to return to base for replacement. We were not offered a different boat. Day 5 the fridge died, we could not get it to turn on. The anchor light was wired to the deck flood switch. The nav lights didn't work at all, dead switch. We reported all this when returned to dock on day 6. The briefing person kept nodding her head and clicking her tongue as we went through the systems. No one from management ever appeared. We asked for Mr. Thomas the base manager that evening and on day 7, while we sat on the dock. He was never available. Moorings customer service has never contacted us,and we did check the box on the survey requesting to be contacted. 
2 weeks later, our 26 year old son took a party of 8 out of the same base on a 53' monohull. Their gen set died on day3 and was unfixable without major dock time. They too were not offered a replacement boat.


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## TakeFive

To me, broken refrigerator is a big problem, due to lost food. To me A/C and genset not so big. We never even turned them on when we chartered.

Things are always going to break. So speed of their response time is important.

The only suggestion I can make is to arrange your charter through an experienced, high-volume broker. The good ones know each and every boat, and can steer you away from the known lemons in many cases. They also know when brand new boats are coming in before their availability is made public, so they can steer you accordingly. And then in the unfortunate case where something breaks and you aren't happy, call them to let them know. They can put a lot of pressure on the companies because they steer so much business to (or away from) them.


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## Onelapdoc

So who would you recommend as a high volume broker? We have always called SS/Moorings directly as we did the upcoming trip with BVI Yacht Charters in 2 months.


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## TakeFive

I've used these guys a couple of times. You pay no extra, and they send you a free crusing guide:

Caribbean Charters, charter boats caribbean, caribbean vacations sailing by Ed Hamilton Yacht Charters

Tell them about the problem you had, and they'll probably know the manager who was unresponsive, and could tell you whom you SHOULD HAVE asked for. I'm just guessing, though...


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## Onelapdoc

Neat thanks


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