The Moorings: USA Avis 3

We did a bareboat charter in BVI last week. We rented a 53' catamaran and paid extra for a newer boat and the generator and AC stopped working on night 1. We had to go back to port and waste an entire day of our trip. Communication was terrible and they had us switch boats (along with all of our stuff and supplies) but didn't have another 53' so we ended up with a much smaller 46' boat. Once we were moved over it was after 5pm so we had to stay on their docks overnight. Lindsey was incredibly unprofessional and left for the day before everything was sorted.

We got on the second boat (not fully cleaned after the last charter), the AC on the port side didn't get cooler than 77 degrees the entire time and the water pump stopped working on the next to last day, so no waters or showers.

It seems that the Moorings turns over the boats too quickly without doing proper maintenance. They could've handled the situation much better than they did. No refund yet for missing an entire day of our trip or the price difference between the two boats. The only thing we got was a $40 credit for their restaurant since we had to spend the night on their dock. Would not recommend.

Boat had faults not reported to us – no read out on fuel gauge ( which we found out before we left), no read out on log, and the wind readout failed. Dicky float switch on auto bilge pump was reported – told to “turn it off” – and we were told how to remove an airlock from the fresh water system (we needed to, which implies they knew there was a fault).

The boat is a poor design: in practice the Bimini can’t be lowered, so helmsman can’t see the mainsail when it’s being raised; anchor locker had to be kept open when anchoring; and while airy and spacious inside there’s insufficient stowage for personal gear even for a one week holiday.

Little thought for the customer : the fridge was turned off between charters as a matter of policy, so you start with a warm fridge; no cleaning materials left from the previous charter as “a child could poison itself”. We were provided with Heikells Ionian Pilot and a chart – but no additional local information and questions were rebuffed with ‘it depends how good a sailor you are’. The echo sounder datum was set 1 metre below the keel – and it seems that was true for other boats too. So we missed out on places we could have safely gone.

The base staff were pleasant but no one could answer any questions off their script – that was always someone else’s job. Emails to the base went unanswered – apparently because the manager had been sacked ( can no one else read emails?). Head office was texting me for my sailing qualifications 6 days into the charter – they’d been shown them and taken copies at the start.

We had a good holiday, but that’s because of Corfu not because of The Moorings

We booked a bareboat charter in BVI a little more than three years ago. There were various, serious issues regarding the boat which I reported to Moorings as they occurred. Nobody took it serious. Upon our return and after several reminders, Moorings finally reverted and offered us a discount on our next charter. As I had already spent too much time on the matter, I did not challenge the compensation offered.

When we this year wished to make use of the discount, it turned out that it had expired. I wrote Moorings and asked whether the discount still could be applied. They replied that they normally don’t extend the duration but that they would speak with customer service (whom I was corresponding with in the first place). This is now three months ago and I have still not received a reply.