St. Maarten's Yachting Season. The Good the Bad and the downright Ugly

Dutch St. Maarten is still charging exorbitant fees for yachts to enter the Simpson Bay Lagoon. This is reflected in the amount of cruising boats anchored on the Dutch Side. Driving along the edge of the lagoon, the border is clearly marked by the number of yachts anchored north of the line, in French St. Martin. In an effort to win back the smaller boats, Dutch St. Maarten did reduce the bridge/anchoring fees, however, it seems to have done little and the majority of cruising boats still favor the French side where, for now, there is no charge to anchor.
Most of the Caribbean regattas claim to have had successful events although most say their numbers were down. Our own St. Maarten Heineken Regatta dazzled as always and although we had fewer yachts, mainly amongst the bareboat fleet, the quality of boats and crews taking part shone through. More and more big names in ocean racing are making the Heineken a ‘must do’ and the one day Budget Marine Match Race, prior to the main event, is bringing much attention to the island as top match racers chase a purse of $10,000.
One thing for certain, the yachting season is winding down and I can’t recall ever seeing our marinas, which offer temporary home to ever-growing numbers of megayachts, so empty this early in the year. Talk amongst the crews is that fewer of the ‘blessed’ chartered this season and so the big yachts just sat at the dock. And here’s the kicker: more owners are coming to realize that it can be cheaper to sit at a dock in the Mediterranean or North America, so lets get the f**k out of Dodge.
St. Maarten is a success story. It rebuilt after the devastating hurricane of 1995 and went on to become the Yachting Capital of the Caribbean. With success came ever increasing prices. The cost of having boat work done went through the roof. Hourly rates mirror that of a lawyer. With more Caribbean marinas coming on line every year, as everyone fights for a piece of the lucrative yachting pie, I like to think prices will come down.
Then again, I though I would never see myself buying a GPS and look where that got me.

Fire at Sea. A sailor's Nightmare

Recently I heard news of two catastrophic fires, the first on a chartered catamaran in Anguilla, and the second on the famous Rachel Pugh 75 Titan during Antigua Race Week. Investigations into the fires are underway but everything points to faults in the electrical systems.
We almost lost our classic yacht Driac II to an electrical fire while cruising the Caribbean. We were heading for the Virgin Islands on a rare windless day. The engine was rumbling and rattling away when suddenly the cabin filled with smoke. I dashed below and was almost overcome by fumes. Groping around, I managed to turn off the main switch, stop the engine, and rip out a handful of smoldering cable from behind the engine control panel. This was enough and the fire went out. Once the fumes had cleared, I checked the fire extinguishers and, sure enough, like everything else on our old boat, they were way out of date.
Looking back, I remember being shocked by the amount of fumes generated by such a small fire. It made me think just how difficult it would be to put out a fire that really took hold. If you couldn’t extinguish it quickly, then chances are you wouldn’t extinguish it at all.
It’s frightening just how many crews don’t know where the fire extinguishers are located. Even worse, and here I speak from experience during a fire ashore, is grabbing a fire extinguisher only to find that when you hit the trigger it fails to go off.
Perhaps now is a good time to check your emergency equipment and brush up on firefighting techniques.

That Was the Week that Was.

This is my first Blog since December and of that I am not proud. So let's try and catch up. Lots of things have happened on St. Maarten over the last few months, some good, some downright awful. The worst was the abduction and murder of the chef from the megayacht Cheetah Moon. This barbaric act, followed by three unrelated murders within a week, shook the island to the core. As of writing, no progress has been made in apprehending the killers. However, the gravity of the situation at least dragged the reports to the front page of the most widely read of the two local newspapers. In the past, murder has been relegated to the inside pages in order not to upset the tourists or threaten the islands one-pillar economy. A move by the St. Maarten Marine Association to introduce a shuttle bus between the hours of 9pm and 6am to carry yacht crews to and from popular night clubs is welcome. Who will provide a shuttle bus for cruisers at anchor as not been addressed.

On a brighter note, this years St. Maarten Heineken Regatta was a huge success, even though light winds played havoc and resulted in numerous DNFs in some bareboat classes. Naysayers like me, who said the organizers had made a big mistake in their choice of headline act for the final party, had to eat their words or, in my case, swallow much Heineken. Wyclef Jean not only rocked the sailors and half the population of the island island until nigh on 2.30 in the morning, he put on one of the best shows seen at the regatta for years. His warm-up act, Orange Grove, were on fine form, too. This is one regatta I won't forget. I came away with a cracked rib and a great hangover .. it doesn't get better than that!

Murder on the High Seas

I'm the first to admit that I am an emotional guy. You wouldn't want to sit next to me in the cinema when the film is sad or joyous, my blubbering would drive you nuts. I'm OK with bombs, bullets and exploding helicopters, I mean you know that's not real.
Stay with me, I'm coming to the crunch! As the host of a radio show covering world sailing news, I try to keep it positive. Sailing is a sport I love and it's rarely hard news. Occasionally, hard news comes my way and I feel obliged to report it. I am not under any pressure to do so, only that exerted by my own conscience. My last show had me fighting back tears of anger and deep sadness over the ongoing problem of people smuggling between the islands of the Caribbean. Here's my radio report:
I hate opening the show with bad news but this story made me so angry, I just had to talk about it. Eight people, two of them children, are known to have died when a boat, and I use the term boat loosely, capsized of the coast of Tortola in the BVI earlier this week. The dead were said to be Haitian nationals being smuggled into the Virgin Island by a boat that allegedly came from St. Maarten. This doesn’t surprise me as it’s been going on for years, and I have seen it with my own eyes. The scum running these boats know nothing about the sea and should, in my book, be charged with murder. The passengers who line up to board these boats are dreaming of a better life, that life has now been take from them. I can’t imagine what it was like for the children when they inhaled their first mouthful of sea water. Authorities in St. Maarten have arrested three people who they suspect are involved in human smuggling, and police and coast guard in Dutch and French St. Martin, along with their counterparts in the Virgin Islands are conducting an investigation. I hope they go after these people with the same vigor as that used three weeks ago following a number of break-ins on mega yachts in the Simpson Bay Lagoon. END.

I can't follow that really. Good news next time.

Season begins with Clouds and Clout. New Show, New Podcast.

Sitting at the computer – where else- looking out on another beautiful Caribbean autumn day. Yesterday we kicked of a new season of YachtBlast on Island 92, 91.9fm St. Maarten. Island 92 is the Caribbean’s top Rock and Blues station broadcasting to the northeast Caribbean and to the rest of the world via Internet.

This is the fourth season of YachtBlast which ranks as one of the world’s favorite sailing shows. YachtBlast is supported by a weekly podcast that to date has been downloaded over 25,000 times. The podcast is available from iTunes or by following the link.

The first show covers the sailing news from the Caribbean and around the world. Our main interview, and one I really enjoyed recording, was with Jimmy Cornell the man who created the ARC - Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. Jimmy comments about the early days and how he thought the ARC would be a one-off event. This year more than 250 boats celebrate the ARC’s 25th anniversary so Jimmy sure got that wrong.

The first boat in the Velux5Oceans race has made it to Cape Town. American Brad Van Liew arrived tired but elated to a hero’s welcome. This is one of the world’s toughest races and one that held the spotlight for many years. This year’s entry list is very disappointing, the sailors are of the best but there are only five of them and, unless the organizers can pull something out of the hat, this Velux might be the last. The rise of Class 40 is affecting the world of ocean racing in many ways and the Velux could be the first casualty.

The yachting season in St. Maarten has got off to a spectacular start with quite a number of mega yachts arriving early this year. We should be happy, however; there is a dark cloud over the Simpson Bay Lagoon. Several of the mega yachts have been boarded at night. This is a new phenomenon in St. Maarten. The authorities and the local marine industry have quickly joined forces and increased security at all marinas, ashore and on the water. Coastguard patrols have been doubled and private security firms are, for the first time, patrolling in high speed boats. CCTV cameras are playing their part and one perpetrator has been caught on film. To keep the record straight, no one has been injured, there has been no violence, and certainly no weapons of any kind were used during these unfortunate incidents. Lorraine Talmi of the St. Marine Trades Association, and IGY assistant manager Martin Plas discuss the problem and the steps that are being taken to prevent it from happening again on the YachtBlast podcast.

ST. MAARTEN WINDS OF CHANGE

The Winds of Change
St. Maarten Bridge and Mooring fees after 10-10-10


The winds of change are blowing in Dutch Sint Maarten. On October 10 St. Maarten became a country within the Dutch Kingdom. As we woke on October 11, it seemed little had changed. The new government gave themselves a day off while the rest of the population went about their normal business.

Before the change to country status it was announced that there would be a reduction in bridge and mooring fees for yachts visiting the island beginning January 1. This has been long in coming, it doesn’t go far enough, but at least it’s a start. According to the St. Maarten Marine Trades Association, high fees, introduced without prior notice two years ago, caused a devastating decline in arrivals and a major drop in business activities.
St. Maarten’s marine economy was built on the backs of the smaller cruising boats, reports say that this is where the largest decline occurred, with a sixty-five to seventy-five per cent drop over the last 24 months.

Much can be blamed on ‘mega yacht’ madness. From government and right down the food chain, the mega yacht was seen as the Golden Goose. Legislators appear to be doing something to put that right but, to be fair; many businesses are not without blame, they cranked up prices to shake as much cash out of the mega yachts as they could. “They can pay, they can pay, money’s no object,” was the cry. I heard it first hand, time and again.

Small boats were caught up in the madness and came up with their own answer. Instead of taking out a mortgage to pay for an hour of a service professionals’ time, they took their boats elsewhere and broadcast it to the world through social media.

Let’s hope that what started before country status will continue. That St. Maarten will lower all bridge and mooring fees, businesses will understand the threat posed by burgeoning competition elsewhere, and the island will regain its rightful place as the Yachting Capital of the Caribbean.

Effective January 1, 2011, fees for vessels in the categories eight to eighteen meters will change as follows: A thirty per cent reduction in bridge fee rates; and a rebate of two free weeks out of every eight consecutive weeks spent in St. Maarten.

Hurricanes drive me nuts!

Like everyone who lives in the islands, I spend part of the year with one eye to the east looking for, let’s keep it polite and call them ‘pesky’, hurricanes. This is the first year that our boat Strange Light has been stored ashore for the windy season and I’m not sure I like it. There’s something, well, perversely thrilling about bouncing around on your boat while all hell breaks loose. Of course having a steel boat, a massive mooring, and several big anchors, does help. There’s still plenty to worry about, like commercial boats run by jokers who think might is right except when it comes to anchors and seamanship. And yachtsmen who leaving their roller furling sails on their forestay where inevitably they un-furl and cause great entertainment before dragging the yacht away or tearing the mast out of the deck. Watching the apartment windows bow while waiting for the roof to blow off just doesn’t do it for me. My wife, on the other hand, thinks I’m nuts!