Members of the Marine Association of the BVI participated in a discussion on the amendments to the Maritime Legislation on April 9, 2025. Photo: Facebook

Member of the Board of Directors of the Marine Association of the BVI Mr Jerermy Twist said the punishment for non-compliance will put local-based operators at a disadvantage. Photo: Facebook

The Virgin Islands (VI) government and House of Assembly have received serious backlash over the proposed amendments, which include the increase of charter yacht fees for United States Virgin Islands-based vessels, as part of amendments to the Commercial Recreational Vessels Licensing Act. 

During the discussion, Secretary of the Marine Association of the BVI, Mr Dick Schoonover said the members were “unanimous” in their decisions at their meetings of the rate increases proposed and its subsequent publishing of the Gazette on New Year’s Eve in December 2024. 

“Nobody thought this was out of order, nobody thought that this was a wild increase.”

Bureaucracy

The basis of the association’s comments and critique, he told the Premier, had to do with the burden of bureaucracy that the two bills in question bring to them. 

“The time that I spend dealing with the Shipping Registry, the time that I spend dealing with the Finance Ministry is months compared to days ten years ago…That I think was our big deal, the amount of bureaucracy involved.”

Mr Schoonover said he believes the $24,000 unlimited price tag for St Thomas-based charter yachts, as a CRVL fee, is brilliant. 

“It gets you out of the red tape, all you do is apply for the licence when it comes to taxes, social security, health insurance, you guys are on your own, not my problem. It’s brilliant and that’s the big difference for me as a shore-based operator on Tortola, is dealing with the red tape.”

Punishment for non-compliance will hurt locals- Mr Jeremy Twist

Meanwhile, one of the Directors of the marine association, Mr Jerermy Twist, said the punishment for non-compliance is not fair as it is punitive for local operators while giving an easy out to the multi-national operators, who are their competitors. 

“The main backbone of the punishment is that the Virgin Islands Shipping Registry is gonna basically ban any boat for two years. If you’re a local operator, that will cause a huge impact for the fleet because you’ve lost a member of your fleet for two years,” he said. 

Further expounding on this point, Mr Twist said: “If you’re a multi-national operator you take that boat, you move it to Saint Lucia, you get a boat up from Saint Lucia into here and you make the problem disappear overnight. Or you do the same with Bahamas, Antigua, St Martin and I’d like to ask why the multinationals have a get-out and us local operators do not.”

He said the penalty should be equally punitive for local operators and multinational companies.