USVI-On-Line

We are going to be down for 2 weeks in June with a couple of families each staying only one week. I'd like to take a charter from STJ to Jost, Sandy Spit, etc. one time during the two weeks. The charters I'm most familiar with, like Palm Tree, have a limit of 6 people. Depending on the week, we'll either have 9 or 10. Does anyone know of a good charter that can handle two families with that many people?

You may want to take a look at CalypsoVI, I have not used them yet but have a trip booked next month, all the reviews I have found are pretty favorable, we are doing the catamaran trip to JVD, I believe it can hold up to 30 people

We always have the same problem, usually 7 people in our group down there. Two weeks ago we used born to rhumb, had a great time as expected, and Kevin is licensed for up to 12 to BVI:

http://www.borntorhumb.com/index.html

One point to keep in mind, Kevin is "retiring" back to York, ME sometime in June, and his first mate Andi and her husband have purchased the business. We met her, very nice, I'm sure they'll do a good job with it also.

There aren't alot of charters in the 7 to 12 person range, I think the other we checked out was stormy petrel..

http://www.piratespenny.com/private.html

We used this boat during our last trip and were veyr pleased -

http://www.motoryachtcinnamonbay.com/pr ... rters.html

We also enjoyed our Born To Rhumb day back in 2008.

As previously mentioned, there are few options for more than 6 passengers.

My family and I had a fantastic trip on Stormy Petrel a few year back. There were eight of us. Comfortable ride and awesome crew.

Thanks, everyone, for the info!!

One week ago today, we (6 adults and one two year old) chartered a boat from Ocean Runner with a captain. Our Captain Jason was awesome and we had a great day. Snorkel stops, shopping and drinks at Foxy's, lunch at Foxy's Taboo, bubbly pool, drinks and beach time at Ivans, Soggy Dollar, and Seddy's. It was the perfect day. We planned our day and were able to make changes on a whim. And I cannot say enough things about Jason. Our little one has been on a boat since he was 3 months old, but I am sure it was still a new request. Jason was AWESOME. We were to large of a group for Palm Tree or lion in de sun.

There is no legal way Jason or any other Licensed USCG Captain can assume the role of "Captain" on an Uninspected vessel from Ocean Runner or any other rental company and carry More than 6 passengers -[ a 2 year old is exactly the same as any other passenger ] - he would have to deny using his license - act as a guide - not accept payment of any kind - and if he is signing and acting as a Captain it is a Direct Violation of USCG law and can easily result in the loss of his license and livelihood.
Someone without a USCG license can act as Captain because they have nothing to lose.

CHM wrote:One week ago today, we (6 adults and one two year old) chartered a boat from Ocean Runner with a captain. Our Captain Jason was awesome and we had a great day. Snorkel stops, shopping and drinks at Foxy's, lunch at Foxy's Taboo, bubbly pool, drinks and beach time at Ivans, Soggy Dollar, and Seddy's. It was the perfect day. We planned our day and were able to make changes on a whim. And I cannot say enough things about Jason. Our little one has been on a boat since he was 3 months old, but I am sure it was still a new request. Jason was AWESOME. We were to large of a group for Palm Tree or lion in de sun.

As ExitZero said the same laws apply to Ocean Runners, they just chose to ignore them.
Jay

I could be wrong about this but i think there is at least one captain at Ocean runners that is liscensed to take out more than the usual 6. I think she has an advanced liscense that allows this. I do know that Ocean Runners will sometimes look the other way too.

itstheair wrote:I could be wrong about this but i think there is at least one captain at Ocean runners that is liscensed to take out more than the usual 6. I think she has an advanced liscense that allows this. I do know that Ocean Runners will sometimes look the other way too.

It has nothing to do with the level of license. It is all about the boat. It is either an inspected vessel or not, period. If it is not it falls in the category of an un-Inspected Vessel for hire, otherwise known as the six pack law. Not more than six paying passengers period on any un-inspected vessel regardless of the license held by the captain. The loop hole they are using is called a demise charter.

I guess i was misinformed; I have had that law explained to me about 30 different ways depending on who is captaining...we just do our own captaining now most of the time as we have a boat on Cape Cod and we have had most of the ropes shown to us by the various captains we have gone out with. Every once in a while we take a refresher trip with one of the 6 pack captains to learn a little more about the islands and also to be able to have as many painkillers as we want with no worries. Honestly, as much as I like boating, those days are my favorites...every captain we have had is such a pleasure to spend the day with.

We rented Wet Woody from Woodys. That was a fun boat.. fast.... can getcha quickly to the BVI... just another thought!!!

parrot eyes wrote:We rented Wet Woody from Woodys. That was a fun boat.. fast.... can getcha quickly to the BVI... just another thought!!!

Wet Woody's can only do 6 max according to their web site.

Like I mentioned up above somewhere, there aren't a lot of charters specializing in 7 to 12 people from Cruz Bay to BVI. Regarding Ocean Runner, we've gone twice with them when we first started going to the BVI. We never had a problem, but as contributors on the forum have explained this legal issue in more detail, we became uncomfortable with the situation. One thing we don't like is that one of the passengers is listed as the "captain", and the liability of this isn't clearly defined to me.

So we switched to Born to Rhumb this past month. Yes it's a little more expensive. You can get a 6 person charter for roughly $525/boat plus gas, customs fees, tips. Born to Rhumb is $150/person ($1050 min), plus gas and tip. Beer, painkillers, customs fees are included on Born to Rhumb, so for 7 people that's a $200 savings. You could say for 7 people the cost is about $300 more when compared to a 6 person charter. Considering you get a bigger boat, have more people, and feel safer from a legal standpoint, I don't think it's bad.

We priced out Stormey Petrel also, they were very close in cost to Born to Rhumb.