A US flagged vessel of a USVI charter based charter company wishing to operate in the BVI must have either the SCVC (Small Commercial Vessel Certificate or Letter of Compliance) from CVLA or the Certificate of Inspection (COI) from the USCG to meet the requirement for a valid Vessel Safety Inspection Certification.
The CRVL (Commercial Recreational Vessel License) issued by the BVI Finance Department is what we applied for earlier this month. THAT is what we are waiting for at this point.
Again, hang tight . . . we're getting there! LITERALLY!
Kristi
Hard to believe, but it has been two and a half years since the British Virgin Islands first closed their “doors” to the world and effectively shut down a flourishing charter industry. Companies, like ours, are still having to jump through seemingly endless hoops to in the hope of sending charter vessels into the BVI Territory. Even after re-opening to charter companies based within the BVI and ferry service to and from St Thomas, foreign-flagged vessels, like ours, have not been allowed to travel between the two cruising grounds.
The impact on the charter business in the USVI and the local businesses in the BVI, especially on islands like Jost Van Dyke, has been tremendous. But the US Virgin Islands answered the call as many new restaurants, beach bars, and other local industries stepped up to offset the resistance put in place by the BVI Government. And, in doing so, tourism is alive and well in the USVI and doing better than ever before.
With that being said, the BVI still calls, and we miss her. Long days at Soggy Dollar with a Painkiller in hand or quiet nights at Cooper Island or Saba Rock are beginning to look like possibilities again. With a new, cooperative effort between the two tourism boards and other government entities, there is hope. Maybe not for the day charter business, but certainly for bareboat and crewed yachts wanting to spend a few days in the old familiar waters of the BVI.
Beginning November 1st, charter companies like ours will be able to officially apply for BVI Trade Licensing and other special permits that, in the past, have not been required. This is a significant expense to our boat owners and to our company alike, but we feel it would be doing our valued and loyal charter guests a huge disservice by not working through the process to make traveling to the BVI an option.
As mentioned in previous posts, we are working directly with an agency based in Tortola that is assisting us in pulling together all the required documents for our company and each vessel within our fleet to ensure we are ready to submit our application on November 1st. Each of our yachts is going through extensive inspections to meet the rigorous requirements, (one might say obstacles), put in place with the recent changes.
Unfortunately, we do not know how long it will take to receive the final approval but are optimistic it will not be an extensive process once the paperwork is in place. We also do not know what the fees will be to charter there and are hoping for clarification and clear guidelines for entry through BVI Customs and Immigration.
All we can say is that we feel you . . . and our team here at Virgin Islands Yacht Charters is working hard to make available BOTH options when chartering with us.
We'll continue to keep you posted!
