BVI with Marine Max

Captain or no Captain

  • Total voters
    11
Jus the two of us

Jus the two of us

Active Member
Dec 7, 2015
296
United States Lake Cumberland
Boat Info
1998 Sundancer 450
2009 Sundancer 55
Engines
3116 Cats
MAN 900
2 couples and us are thinking about doing the British virgin Islands on a 7 day rental with Marine Max on one of the Cats they rent. We all have many years boating but it has always been on the inland lakes. We have a 55 Sundancer, The other couples have close to the same. We have charter plotters and know how to use them. We would like not to spend the extra bucks on a captain if we don't need to. Looking for input or other boaters experience in doing this. Planning on next New Years so we have some time.
 
The BVI is line of sight navigation. You should not need a captain. Submit your resume and see what the charter company says. Worst case scenario is they send someone with you to your first destination.
 
I'm biased. I run boats for a living plus our personal weekend excursions and weekday fishing trips. I'd love to have a captain or have someone else(competent) run the boat so I can sit back and relax with an alcoholic beverage in my hands having fun with family and friends. Let someone else worry about it for once. I'll throw a line if need be, otherwise...
 
We’ve done it both ways. Captain, and bare boat. As far as navigating the waters, as previously mentioned it’s pretty much line of site and very easy. But they are 2 different types of vacations IMO. Having a captain and chef was an amazing trip because you don’t need to do a thing except enjoy yourself and totally relax. The food coming out of the galley was 5 star for every meal (moorings charter). All food selections are given to them prior to the trip. Doing a bareboat is pretty much the same experience you do with your own boat but in a different location. Still a great experience and not a bad way to go but if the budget allows, go with the captain and chef. If it’s just a captain, I don’t think it’s worth it because it’s not full service.
 
If it's captain only then that's a game changer. I guess you did say you were renting and not chartering. My bad. If you have charts & decent electronics, run it like you stole it!
 
http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/marine-max-vacations-to-bvi-and-the-bahamas.105942/
Above is the link to our trip. My opinion, if you are chartering the 44’, you don’t need a captain. If you charter the new 54’ boat you might want a captain if you decide to visit the marina at Scrub Island. It might be a little tricky to get the big boat into a slip. The one and only time I may have needed some assistance on the 44 was docking at Nanny Cay at the fuel dock at the end of the trip.
As far as a chef, we ate dinner and sometimes lunch out every day. We are not big breakfast people, so we provisioned the boat with a small snack in the morning. A chef would be nice on the 54’ with a big group, but in my opinion isn’t needed on the 44’.
It is a fabulous vacation! My advice is captain the boat yourself. PM me if want more details. Jim
 
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It all depends on the experience you want. We've been considering this excursion as well and the idea of hiring a captain isn't even an option for us. The whole point of a trip like this (for us) is to boat the BVI, not to be passenger. If you want to cruise the BVI as passengers, with a captain and a gourmet chef, do it right. Ditch MarineMax and check out Seadream Yacht Club (https://seadream.com/).
 
I would love to have a chef for these trips. We looked at doing 5 couples and a kid (all extended family) with a chef for a week just before COVID on a sailing cat, the biggest problem with chef is they get their own cabin (at least with moorings/sunsail) not the tiny crew "cabin" a captain would take, they get a full on guest cabin. That put us into a way bigger boat than we wanted/felt comfortable with bareboating and the costs started creeping up into full on crewed charter territory.
 
After thinking a bit I take back keep the chef… we go to KW every year with 2 or usually 3 other couples. We rent a house with a full kitchen and in those 10 days we eat dinner once at home. Always go out for lunch and dinner. I think when your on vacation you want to be out and about where the action is …not sitting in a house or on the back of a boat
 
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My wife and I recently chartered at BVI (fall 2021), for now I'm not saying who with but let's say it was a smaller power cat perfect for the two of us. Had a great trip, a couple issues with the boat (salon AC dead for trip, etc) but a great trip overall. We were on a mooring ball every night, did the usual loop to the main stops.

A couple weeks after we got back I got an email stating there was damage to the hull maybe 10 feet from the sturn. They said it looked like I hit something, left a gouge and would be $2k to fix. They did send a picture, but not zoomed back enough to see much detail. Of course I didn't inspect the hull when I picked up the boat, and since I knew I hadn't hit anything I didn't look at it when I returned. I had tracks on the GPS of the whole trip, and hitting anything where they said would of damaged the running gear.

The reason I'm writing this is to say I'm not sure what I would do again, maybe hire a captain to take this debate off the table. But I/we are the kind of folks that like to pilot our own course, I'd probably do it my self again, but I would do my own inspection of the hull both before and after.

As to the claim of damage:
1 - damage was there when I picked it up
2. damage done while I was in charge, didn't hear it nor didn't damage running gear and I was never in less than 10ft or so of depth
3. damage happened after I left, or it was a scam to get some extra money during hard times

All in all a great trip, just left a sour taste once it all shook out.
 
Ericinmich said:
My wife and I recently chartered at BVI (fall 2021), for now I'm not saying who with but let's say it was a smaller power cat perfect for the two of us. Had a great trip, a couple issues with the boat (salon AC dead for trip, etc) but a great trip overall. We were on a mooring ball every night, did the usual loop to the main stops.

A couple weeks after we got back I got an email stating there was damage to the hull maybe 10 feet from the sturn. They said it looked like I hit something, left a gouge and would be $2k to fix. They did send a picture, but not zoomed back enough to see much detail. Of course I didn't inspect the hull when I picked up the boat, and since I knew I hadn't hit anything I didn't look at it when I returned. I had tracks on the GPS of the whole trip, and hitting anything where they said would of damaged the running gear.

The reason I'm writing this is to say I'm not sure what I would do again, maybe hire a captain to take this debate off the table. But I/we are the kind of folks that like to pilot our own course, I'd probably do it my self again, but I would do my own inspection of the hull both before and after.

As to the claim of damage:
1 - damage was there when I picked it up
2. damage done while I was in charge, didn't hear it nor didn't damage running gear and I was never in less than 10ft or so of depth
3. damage happened after I left, or it was a scam to get some extra money during hard times

All in all a great trip, just left a sour taste once it all shook out.
Click to expand...
Great point, Never thought of that. Will be a lot of pics before and after.
 
We did this about 20 years ago with five other couples, we rented two sailing cats. We hired a captain for one and we captained the other. It was nice to have the cabin with us as he knew the area and had a lot of great stories to tell us.

I can't recall the time of year we went, but it was the end of their season and the boats were not in the best shape. We spun a prop off on one of them and had to wait an entire day to get it replaced. Also the other couples were not boat savy, and they kept using all the water so we had to go back to shore quite a bit.

My favorite part was reading a book on the bow at night, and getting that 15 minute light rain. We never had much wind so we couldn't do much sailing, mostly ran under engine power.
 
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