Cruising Made Easy with The Moorings

For bareboat-charter fans ready to level up, cost-effective yacht ownership is available. Jon Whittle

David Burgess says he grew up with a fishing rod in his hand on forays with his dad to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Over the years, he’s owned a variety of vessels from builders including Carolina, SeaCraft and Fountain. As an equity-fund manager, he can work from anywhere. These days, he keeps his 30-foot center-console on a river near his home off Chesapeake Bay, and his 26-foot twin V-drive cat at his Florida condo. But the jewel of his current fleet, for rambling through the British Virgin Islands with family and friends several times each year, is his Moorings 464PC My Wish Too. It’s at the charter company’s base on Tortola.

The 464PC is the second power catamaran from South African builder Robertson & Caine that Burgess has purchased through The Moorings’ yacht-management program. He’s happy to rattle off several of the program’s benefits: Dockage, maintenance and insurance are all covered; he receives a monthly check from The Moorings, which charters the vessel when he’s not aboard, giving him guaranteed revenue that exceeds his regular finance payment and puts cash in his pocket; and he can enjoy a number of cruises each year while having access to charter vacations on power cats (and sailboats, for that matter) at any Moorings destination. For Burgess, this way of owning a power cat is a win-win-win.

The program can cover the yacht owner’s finance costs as well as create additional revenue. Jon Whittle

There is, however, one caveat that he wishes to make clear: “If you’re just going to go once a year, or every other year, just charter a boat, don’t buy it. But if you’re going to go three or four times every year, on trips that can cost up to $25,000 apiece, this is a great program.”

The program has been around for a long time, initially with sailboats, says Franck Bauguil, senior vice president of yacht ownership and product development at The Moorings. “We first started getting involved with powerboats around 2003,” he says. “Some private owners buy a boat and put it in charter for a few weeks to offset expenses. That’s not what we do. We’re an established company with multiple bases globally, and we operate out of fully staffed bases with mechanics, technicians and boatbuilders. As with our sailboats, we offer bareboat charters where you drive your own boat, but we also have fully crewed options with a skipper and chef.

“Our fleet of boats, including the three power catamarans in the program, are all privately owned, but we take care of operations and management,” he adds. “You buy the boat, you own it and name it; it’s very much a regular purchase. But with that purchase comes a management agreement where we maintain the boat on behalf of the owner and charter it to a third party when they’re not using it. We take all the issues out of the owner’s hands and incur most of the expenses. We make sure the maintenance is done, the warranties are checked, the vessels are clean, the batteries are topped off—there’s nothing for owners to do except enjoy it when they’re aboard.”

In addition to their yacht, owners have access to vessels at other bases to expand their cruising adventures. Jon Whittle

As with any boat purchase, owners can lay down the cash or go the finance route. According to the boat-show special at last fall’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, when it comes to the Moorings 403PC, most owners put down 20 to 25 percent of the cost of the yacht (about $1 million). The down payment is just shy of $200,000. At an 8.25 percent interest rate on a 20-year loan, the monthly payment of about $6,700 is offset by a guaranteed income of just under $7,500.

Bauguil says The Moorings continued those guaranteed payments after Hurricane Irma decimated the fleet in 2017, and during the height of the pandemic, when chartering essentially ceased. Management contracts generally run five to six years, after which the owner can keep the boat, trade it in, or have The Moorings’ brokerage operation place it for sale.

As far as usage is concerned, owners receive 84 points per year, with the cost of trips equating to two points per day. Of those 84 points, 42 can be used to reserve trips in advance, and 42 can be employed on short notice. (Owners can’t sublease their vessels, but they can offer them to friends or donate the time.) Generally, this breaks down to four to six weeks per year of in-season cruising, or up to 12 weeks per year in the offseason. Yachts are standardized across the company’s destinations, with identical engines, watermakers, electronics and so on, so if an owner chooses to charter a boat in a distant location, no surprises await.

When an owner wants to move up or move on, The Moorings will also sell the power cat. Jon Whittle

Burgess generally divvies up his journeys among his pals, his family or other couples. With his retirement on the not-too-distant horizon, as well as that of one of his boating friends, he’s gone in half on a partnership for the new boat. And while he’s always used his boat in the BVI, for the first time he’s planned his next adventure on a sistership in the Bahamas.

It’s always good to have options, and with The Moorings’ yacht-management program, he’s found plenty.  

The Destinations

The Moorings has 18 worldwide destinations, including six islands in the Caribbean, a trio of bases in the Mediterranean, and locations in the Seychelles, Tahiti and Thailand. The 403PC and the 464PC are available at the Bahamian bases in the Exumas and the Abacos, as well as the BVI, Greece and Croatia. In addition, the 403PC is available in the Seychelles. 

The Alluring British Virgins

Perhaps the most popular of all of The Moorings’ cruising bases is the original location on Tortola, where the bareboat charter industry was basically launched in 1969. With Tortola’s easy navigation and protected anchorages, this spot remains the company’s crown jewel. Currently, there are seven 403PCs and two dozen 464PCs in the BVI charter fleet.

The Boats

As of this writing, The Moorings has a pair of flybridge power catamarans available in its yacht-management program, both built in South Africa by Robertson & Caine, which also produces the Leopard line of sail and power cats. The Moorings 403PC is powered by a pair of 320 hp Yanmar diesels with a cruising speed of 15 knots and a top hop of 17-plus knots. The Moorings 464PC is also powered with a pair of twin Yanmars and has a four-stateroom, four-head configuration. 

Take the next step: moorings.com

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