Getting your boat home
So you’ve bought a boat from the Caribbean charter fleet through The Moorings Yacht Brokerage, congratulations! Now what?
The boat will be handed over to you with a full complement of charter inventory on board; enough to get you started on your journey. Many new owners opt to fly down to the boat and take handover in person. But for some, taking the time away from work or family obligations isn’t an option and they opt to hire a delivery skipper and crew. When hiring a crew you can expect to pay a daily rate for the skipper and a mate, and cover their expenses including flights, spare parts, fuel, and provisions. The benefits of hiring the crew mean you won’t have to take time out of your schedule to move the boat and you can rest assured that your new prized possession is in good and experienced hands. A crew can usually get a boat from Tortola, BVI to Florida in 7-10 days, depending on the type of boat and weather of course. Your Moorings Yacht Broker can provide a list of dependable and experienced delivery Captains for you to choose from.
For those new owners who have recently retired, can work remotely, or otherwise have flexibility in their schedules; picking the boat up yourself can be a great and rewarding experience. Let’s face it, the boat is starting its new life with you in a beautiful tropical destination; the places we all dream about cruising in. It would be a shame to not spend some time on the boat there, especially when it is already so far upwind in relation to the US! Ideally you could pick the boat up and spend a few weeks in the immediate vicinity of the charter base really learning your new boat before beginning a journey back to the US. When else might you get back to these waters?
For those with offshore sailing experience already, you might not think twice about heading out to sea when a good weather window presents itself. But for those new owners who have maybe not done a passage before, a hybrid approach can work out well. That is, pick the boat up and spend some time on it in the islands and then have a delivery Captain fly in to meet you before doing the long sea legs back home. The skippers are often very flexible and you can even have some friends or family along as crew. This is a great way to get some real blue water experience on your boat under the watchful eye of a seasoned skipper. And, depending on your level of experience, your insurer may require you to spend some time with a Captain.
After closing on your new yacht it is a very exciting time as you plan all of your future voyages, but first you need to get it home. Many of our buyers are US East Coast based and plan to bring the boat from the charter bases in The BVI, St. Martin, St. Lucia, or Belize back to their home port. Doing so can be as simple as writing a check to a delivery crew or taking some time off of life and making an adventure of it!