Underwater Boat Maintenance

In The Beginning

My first job as a working scuba instructor in the British Virgin Islands was at Blue Water Divers (BWD) in 1992. During my first years there I met many people in the marine industry. My working environment was comprised of visiting charterers, local boat owners and charter company managers. It wasn’t long before I was routinely in the water cleaning the bottom of their boats. It soon became evident that this side work could be a viable and potential means of income. With further investigation I found there was no organized business maintaining the hundreds of boats in the British Virgin Islands from the water line down. The owners of BWD, not being interested, encouraged me to pursue this venture. In 1993 I applied for a trade license under the name “Underwater Boat Maintenance and Services” (UBS), a year later it was still not approved. It was evident that in order to obtain a license I required a “Belonger” to be on it. A Belonger my age, Richard Reigels, had been coming out on the dive boats as a Divemaster on the weekends. Although he had no interest in this line of work he agreed to put his name on the trade license application alongside mine. Six months passed with no success. Within two weeks after removing my name the license was granted. Some of the reasoning is that his Father, Michael, is one of the founding members and a partner of Harney Westwood & Reigels (HWR), the largest law firm in the BVI. The only way I can have ownership of the business was to have it incorporated and issue shares. I received one share, Richard another and a third one was locked up in the offices of HWR. I still had to ask the labor department to work for the company each year.. Without the Reigels assistance I would not have been able to acquire my first bank loan and subsequent ones. I continued working at BWD and UBS until 1996 when I quit working for BWD.

The Evolution of U/W Boat Maintenance

My clients came from various areas of marine businesses. I was able to obtain the private vessels from management companies. These were, Penn’s landing, Island Shipping, Woods Marine, Johnny’s Maritime and Marine Management Services. I also gathered boats from yacht brokers; BVI Yacht Sales, Charter Port BVI, The Charter Yacht Society and Nicholson’s Yachts. I began to be known at the boat yards such as, Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, Nanny Cay, Tortola Yacht Services and Sopers Hole Slipway. I assisted the yacht surveyors; Hurst Marine, BVI Marine Surveyors, Cope Surveyors and Shanty Maritime Services. My newly formed underwater inspection report was accepted by Nagico Insurance and Caribbean Marine Insurers.

The majority of the underwater boat maintenance was with the numerous boat charter companies. These were; The Moorings, Sunsail, North South Yachts, Offshore Marine, Sun Yacht Charters, Tortola Marine Management, Conch Charters, Footloose Sailing, Sea Breeze Charters, Virgin Traders and Trade Wind Yachts. Within a few years I was maintaining over 100 boats a month and employed a few divers. At this time the company became known as UBS Dive Center with the addition of a boat, dive compressor and equipment.

In 1999 Kathryn Bell and I opened a store front facility at Harbor View Marina in the East End of Tortola. Although I continued to employ hull cleaning divers my underwater maintenance duties concentrated on propeller changes, thru hulls, trim tabs, thrusters, electrolysis analysis, osmosis blistering, mooring installations, maintenance and repair and numerous commercial diving projects that required specialized attention and long term commitments. In 2002 I began to focus my attention to educational endeavors in recreational scuba training with an emphasis on marine ecological issues. I also became involved with major ocean projects.

By this time the charter industry greatly expanded and it seemed that anybody who had a scuba tank was in the water and conducting hull cleanings. By 2005 I would mainly do specialized underwater boat maintenance jobs. I still enjoyed working on delicate pitch changes on Maxi props, taking off large propellers, removing rudders and propeller shafts and even changing cutlass bearings under the water. I would also go out and rescue boats with entanglements while immobilized at sea.

Another area I enjoyed and excelled in was the recovery of lost items. Propellers seemed to be the most common item that needed recovering. These were mainly in marinas but other times out at anchorages and overnight mooring locations. It was common for me to be called out to search and recover wallets, watches, keys and cameras. My favorite was at a large amazingly beautiful anchorage at Norman Island. The William Thornton floats in 35 feet of crystal clear waters out at The Bite at Norman Island. The “Willy –T” is a famous and very popular bar and restaurant. Morning dives underneath it resulted in numerous valuable recoveries. All of which were accidentally or unknowingly lost during the previous night’s inebriated activities. (pictured below)

Environmental Considerations

With my 20 foot inflatable I was called out on numerous chase calls for boater errors, called in by the charter company managers. Most of these involve groundings, entanglements or lost propellers. I made an arrangement with the National Parks Trust (NPT), who install and maintain the 150 mooring balls throughout the BVIs. I would untangle the mooring painter line from the boat’s propeller and shaft and then repair the damaged NPT mooring. This enabled me to bill the person responsible for my work and the cost of the NPT mooring repair. This saved the NPT time, work and money. Without my service the boater would be long gone and all damages unreported. It also assisted the charter companies since I would make a report about the boats condition from the entanglement. This allowed the charter company to file an insurance claim to the responsible parties, retain the deductable, and if necessary, have me complete a permanent repair on the boat

These chase call boat runs also uncovered many horrific anchoring acts. Since I was not with paying guests I could get in the water and inspect the placement of boats anchors on the bottom. I informed many boaters of the damage they were doing by their actions. In many situations I was obligated to document and report such atrocities. By 2008 the BVI Marine Police had established laws to impart penalties.

With very little environmental regulations in the BVI the antifouling paint on all types of boats carried a high concentration of Copper and/or Tin content. Nearly all of the brands of paints used were soft or ablative antifouling paints; therefore hull cleaning created a toxic plume in the water. Being at only 18 degrees Latitude from the equator the tidal range is about 22 inches. There was not a lot of thought in marina development pertaining to the water flow or the direct water runoff from the hills and surrounding communities. Most of these Marinas are highly contaminated. For many years I had to pour Glycerin of Borax into my ears and I would wear a special hood to prevent infections. Even with the high concentrations of biocides in the antifouling, the 78 – 84 degree water caused fouling on the bottom of the boats to occur very quickly. It was common to use metal scrapers on the entire hull before any brushing, and therefore pluming of toxins into the water, was done.

Environmental protection is best achieved if incorporated as a proactive standard consideration thru legislative action. Educating societies, and their governments, in ecological sound methods and laws before construction and mass tourisim, on all coastal areas of development, is vital to prevent future environmental damages. Currently, as a result of a catastrophic event, the BVI has in essence an opportunity to do just that.