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Tortola Marine Management (Tortola)
Rating
10
Submission date:
3/19/07 | Charter
date: May 2006
Submitted by: Alexandra | From: United States
Type of sailor: Ancient Mariner (5+ years) | Age: 41 - 50
Submitted by: Alexandra | From: United States
Type of sailor: Ancient Mariner (5+ years) | Age: 41 - 50
The best!
These guys are the best in the BVI. Personal service, outstanding repeat rates (I have used them twice and have many friends who have used them on 5+ occasions). Basically all the service of the behemoths without the dispassionate, non-sailing staff.
First learned about them reading the forums and was not disappointed. The way to go.
First learned about them reading the forums and was not disappointed. The way to go.
The Moorings (Tortola)
Rating
3
Submission date:
11/17/09 | Charter
date: November 2009
Submitted by: Don | From: United States
Type of sailor: Ancient Mariner (5+ years) | Age: 51 - 60
Submitted by: Don | From: United States
Type of sailor: Ancient Mariner (5+ years) | Age: 51 - 60
Moorings Boat Owner
I post this comment near the end of my 5-year contract with the Moorings as the owner of a Moorings 403. My wife and I have sailed in some incredibly beautiful places around the world and we have good memories. Our boat is at the base in Tortola but we have used the time share program to visit Tahiti, Belize, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, and The Saints. We will soon be going to the Spanish Virgin Islands and our last trip will be the Greek Islands, leaving from Athens. I am not very happy with the condition of my boat, and there have been some problems with every boat we have sailed. I am a mechanical contractor - my impression is that the Moorings spends a lot of time cleaning boats but almost no time doing real maintenance. It seems obvious to me that they are so overwhelmed with failures because they do not take time to do proper maintenance. I have asked to see the maintenance records for my boat every time I go to Tortola but they just "blow me off". I have faithfully filled out my debriefing reports about the problems we encountered but no one ever responds. I have been told countless times that the problems have been reported to Customer Service but no one ever contacts me. I am almost sure they have never changed the oil in my boat's diesel engine. I have never seen any of their mechanics changing oil on any of the boats. I believe that the majority of the interior wood gouges and damage to my hull was caused by careless Moorings employees. Financially speaking, the 5-year experience will have cost me $60,000.00 in what I will label as boat depreciation. The number may be far greater depending on its perceived value when it sells. The expense for the trips is additional, normally $3000 for 2-weeks not including air fare. In summary, I believe the Moorings employees try to do a good job but overall their program suffers from a serious lack of well trained mechanics and no scheduled mechanical maintenance. Every Moorings base we have seen is staffed by local island people (mostly), who are trained on the benefits of good customer service. The base managers are usually not local islanders. The talent pool is shallow when it comes to hiring qualified mechanics from the islands. I will add that the staff at the Tortola base seem the least friendly and least accomodating of any base we visited. I attribute this to being burned out by the vast number of charters that pass through their lives. I can not say that anyone has been outwardly rude to me but I will say that I never get a warm fuzzy feeling from any of the dock staff. The best customer service and warm fuzzy feeling came from the entire staff at Belize. Now, the million dollar question - would I sign up for another 5-years? No, not unless I win a lottery or otherwise become so wealthy that spending over $110K for two 2-week vacations per year for 5-years is no big deal. I was recently contacted by a Moorings salesperson who tried to sell me another boat ($225,000) and sign on for another 5-years. I became a non-person when the salesperson discovered that I was not going to purchase the boat he/she offered, and did not even respond to my last email. I think the Customer Service Department is a myth because I still have never heard from one of them in the past 5-years.
The Moorings (Tortola)
Rating
1
Submission date:
4/6/09 | Charter
date: January 2009
Submitted by: Summer | From: United States
Type of sailor: Ancient Mariner (5+ years) | Age: 41 - 50
Submitted by: Summer | From: United States
Type of sailor: Ancient Mariner (5+ years) | Age: 41 - 50
We could have died
Our charter was out of Tortola, BVIs. The boat was Kilkenny Kats, a Moorings 4700. We chartered for one week, in January, 2009.
We will never sail on a Moorings boat again. The exhaust line of the genset had melted and was outgassing into the living quarters of the boat. The Moorings sent a maintenance guy out with no supplies. He asked us for electrical tape to patch the melted hose. Ten minutes after running the genset, the tape had melted away.
Fortunately, we noticed the fumes in the cabin before we had gone to sleep, or else we might not have been alive to post this.
This was far from the only thing broken on the boat. All four heads were out of commission -- twice -- due to worn out valves. Moorings' solution? Send someone out (again, without any equipment, parts or supplies), who asks us for some motor oil. They poured some in each head and flushed it out into the sea. !!! The heads would then flush without issue for another day or so before the problems returned.
Other issues:
Was not given the boat until 3 PM the first day (late briefing, maintenance issues, etc)
Broken windlass - couldn’t use anchor
Reefing missing on mainsail- when reported, was told we could still sail
Microwave didn’t work
Port engine died when we returned to base
We're still in negotiations with The Moorings and Amex over a refund for part of the trip. So far, they bought us dinner at the Moorings base restaurant the evening following our charter. That's it The company is now claiming that nothing at all was wrong with the genset, despite the warning lights displayed on the console and the fact that they sent someone out to "repair" it.
Do Not Use The Moorings. Since they merged with Sunsail they are no longer the same company. It seems you get nothing for the premium they charge.
Our skipper used to run the sailing school at the St Thomas Yacht Club. He has been sailing since before he learned to walk. He was appalled by the problems our boat had and the response from The Moorings.
Video of the busted exhaust line here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_Zcrq6CoM
We will never sail on a Moorings boat again. The exhaust line of the genset had melted and was outgassing into the living quarters of the boat. The Moorings sent a maintenance guy out with no supplies. He asked us for electrical tape to patch the melted hose. Ten minutes after running the genset, the tape had melted away.
Fortunately, we noticed the fumes in the cabin before we had gone to sleep, or else we might not have been alive to post this.
This was far from the only thing broken on the boat. All four heads were out of commission -- twice -- due to worn out valves. Moorings' solution? Send someone out (again, without any equipment, parts or supplies), who asks us for some motor oil. They poured some in each head and flushed it out into the sea. !!! The heads would then flush without issue for another day or so before the problems returned.
Other issues:
Was not given the boat until 3 PM the first day (late briefing, maintenance issues, etc)
Broken windlass - couldn’t use anchor
Reefing missing on mainsail- when reported, was told we could still sail
Microwave didn’t work
Port engine died when we returned to base
We're still in negotiations with The Moorings and Amex over a refund for part of the trip. So far, they bought us dinner at the Moorings base restaurant the evening following our charter. That's it The company is now claiming that nothing at all was wrong with the genset, despite the warning lights displayed on the console and the fact that they sent someone out to "repair" it.
Do Not Use The Moorings. Since they merged with Sunsail they are no longer the same company. It seems you get nothing for the premium they charge.
Our skipper used to run the sailing school at the St Thomas Yacht Club. He has been sailing since before he learned to walk. He was appalled by the problems our boat had and the response from The Moorings.
Video of the busted exhaust line here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_Zcrq6CoM
The Moorings (Tortola)
Rating
4
Submission date:
2/5/07 | Charter
date: December 2005
Submitted by: Steve | From: United Kingdom
Type of sailor: Experienced skipper (1-5 years) | Age: 51 - 60
Submitted by: Steve | From: United Kingdom
Type of sailor: Experienced skipper (1-5 years) | Age: 51 - 60
Not worth top dollar
I was disappointed with my trip a couple of years ago and have decided to go elsewhere since. I paid up for Moorings because of what I heard from others, i.e., new boats, good service, etc. The engine broke down twice, despite that the boat was fairly new. They came and fixed it within a couple of hours both times, but I figure with a fairly new boat if it had been maintained / fixed properly this should not have happened. They also did not offer me a credit at the end. Not good.