Ep 162 Exploring the Hotspots of the BVIs - Then Getting Thrown Out

I feel a bit bad about calling this episode “Exploring”. It’s really more about showing viewers what the anchorages are like and letting them know that these are areas to stop at. But I couldn’t come up with a better word, or one I liked better that didn’t introduce complexity. Anyway, we have more BVI footage coming in the next video.

As for being thrown out, the situation was more nuanced than it would appear. We were thrown out, but in a way that was announced up front. In short, the BVI government officials came up with the bright idea of counting privately owned recreational yachts the same as they do commercial charter yachts. And as it turns out, charter yachts can come from the USVI if they clear out and clear into the BVI, but if they stay for more than 30 days a whole bunch of rules start to kick in, including registering the boat in the BVI (or at least temporarily doing so, for $200).

The whole plan was half-baked from the start. It was supposed to be a revenue grab, but instead created a bureaucratic nightmare as I believe the officials involved had no idea how complex these rules have become over the years. It’s a patchwork of requirements designed to fix one loophole after another regarding paid charters, and often very carefully worded. In short, the rules for recreational yachts and commercial ones have always been intended to be kept in two separate categories. To suddenly decree that recreational boats have to conform to the commercial standard was never going to work. At a minimum, the insurance requirements for commercial yacht chartering are a whole different category.

So even getting answers about how this program was supposed to work failed because the official in charge decided to go “off island” as they say, for a month or more, leaving the clerks in the dark as to how to implement it or collect money. Mind you, this is midway through December, and almost reaching the Christmas rush. The immigration and customs officials on the ground just told us “Leave and come back. We have no rule we can see that says you can’t”. So that’s what we did. And it cost the BVI’s dollars into the thousands.












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