It was a stunning, sensational, even quintessential December morning off Jost Van Dyke in the always alluring British Virgin Islands. Back home in New England, I’d just learned, the season’s first nasty nor’easter had kicked in—a preview of winter’s coming attractions. But there I was in shorts, and barefoot, warm and happy. I had a hot cup of coffee in my hand, and someone was thoughtfully streaming one of my favorite recording artists, Tom Petty, whose “A Higher Place” was the perfect soundtrack on the inviting forward trampoline of the Moorings catamaran. 

A good 15 to 25 knots of staunch, easterly trade winds—the so-called Christmas trades—were in full voice. With my hair whipping in the breeze, it occurred to me that it was an absolutely stellar day to reef down, strap up, and go for a cracking-good sail.  

But there would be no sailing for me on this day, or on any of the ensuing ones during our quick charter trip through the BVI. No, the twin-hulled vessel on which I was perched was­—gasp!— a Moorings 464PC power cat. 

Suddenly, I came to the sobering realization that, at least ­temporarily, I was likely in the midst of abandoning my very roots and selling my sailing soul. And I was having a decidedly difficult time coming to terms with it.

I’ve always fancied myself an all-around waterman. I got my scuba diving card decades ago, and I really enjoy open-ocean swimming. My current personal armada includes three kayaks, two surfboards, a good rowboat, and two sailboats: a daysailing Pearson Ensign and a full-fledged Pearson 365 cruising boat. Note what isn’t there, and never has been: a powerboat. Alas, I’ve spent my entire career advocating for and endorsing the sanctity of sail. 

Well, all that said, a guy has to make a buck. I’d been hired to host a pair of Moorings videos for the company’s two new power cats, the 464 and the 403PC. So, this was a press junket of sorts, giving me an opportunity to become familiar with the boats. It doesn’t mean I wasn’t a little unsettled by the experience. Then again, I was in the BVI. It was time to buck up, old boy, and get on with it. 

Virgin Gorda is a pretty good place to do just that. After we dropped the mooring in Jost and made our way up the windswept, whitecapped Sir Francis Drake Channel, I had my first revelation regarding my current situation: No, we weren’t sailing. But neither were any of the sailboats darting hither and yon, all of which were proceeding under power, just like us. It was too darn breezy. 

We tied up at the Bitter End Yacht Club, and it was truly great to see the iconic island destination slowly coming back to life after getting flattened a few years back by Hurricane Irma. The highlight of our overnight stay was the next morning’s sweaty hike up the hill behind the resort, followed by a refreshing dip and a couple of eye-opening bloody marys at the convenient bar right alongside the beach. My trepidation about my situation was slowly beginning to wane. As it did on the next leg of our journey. 

Thanks to a tip from a local, we exited Virgin Gorda through an extremely narrow, very shallow cut between Anguilla Point and Mosquito Island, something we never would’ve gotten away with on a keelboat. Advantage, power cat. From there, we were bound for one of my favorite islands in all of the Caribbean: low-lying Anegada, the outlying isle encircled by coral reefs some 10 miles north of Virgin Gorda. I’d not visited the place in my previous pair of trips to the BVI simply because of a time crunch. You really need to invest three days for an Anegada visit—a day over, a day there and a day back—which is often a bridge too far when trying to cram all sorts of activities into a weeklong sailboat charter.

You know where I’m going with this. The power catamaran solved this dilemma posthaste. With the throttles down at 3,100 rpm, we flew to Anegada at a tidy 16-plus knots. Once there, our photographer proclaimed that he was enjoying our steed for a reason that never would’ve occurred to me: It’s much easier to catch a drone without a mast.

Our quick trip over meant we had plenty of time to do all the things one wishes to do in Anegada. Rent a car. Hit Loblolly Beach for a snorkel and lunch. Search for the pink flamingos. Patronize a couple of beach bars. Your basic perfect day. 

Back on the boat, hanging off the mooring lines after yet another wonderful swim, I could glance back with a view through the twin hulls to catch the sunset framed between them. Pretty cool. And once darkness settled in, the underwater lights off our transom proved to be a tarpon magnet. We sipped our drinks with the super-cool water-world show just a few tantalizing feet away. We’d basically brought our own aquarium with us. 

With our abbreviated trip coming to its conclusion, we had one more stop, at the Bight on Norman Island. Ironically, by this time, the breeze had temporarily frittered away, and guess what? In these calm conditions, the sailboats still weren’t sailing. 

The harbor was chock-full of vacationing mariners, but thanks to our big twin diesels, we were there in time to pick up one of the last moorings. I’m not always the sharpest tool in the shed, but I was beginning to see the advantages of this power-cat situation. If anyone ever asked my advice about a BVI charter for a first-timer, here’s what I’d say: If you’re a sailor, unequivocally, you must book a good sailboat for your adventure. There’s too much nautical history and lore not to sample the archipelago’s joys and challenges as the first explorers did, under glorious sail. But if you’re on your second or third or fourth visit? Hmm. Those power cats are pretty convenient.

Still, I was seriously conflicted about writing a magazine story espousing the benefits of power cruising. Our photographer was sympathetic and said, “You could title it ‘Low Sodium: The Retractions of a Salty Man.’” Even for me, that sounded pretty pretentious. Then he broke it down into something simpler to understand: “Look, man, you were afloat.”

And that struck a chord. His simple statement has really been the common denominator of my entire existence. I’ve always been an equal-opportunity lover of the water, whatever the conveyance, from my own eclectic fleet to a bloody pool toy. Whatever gets you out there, gets you out there. There’s no wrong way to do it. 

And that was that. I had reached the happy and consolable conclusion that I hadn’t really been power-cat cruising, not at all. No, mon, as they say in the islands. I’d been floating.

Herb McCormick is a CW editor-at-large.

Power-Cat Ownership The Moorings’ Way

As of this writing, The Moorings has a pair of power catamarans available in its yacht-management program at Tortola. Both were built in South Africa by Robertson & Caine, which also produces the Leopard line of sail and power cats. The Moorings 403PC is powered by a pair of 320 hp Yanmar diesels and has a cruising speed of 15 knots. The Moorings 464 is also powered with a pair of twin Yanmars and is laid out in a four-head, four-stateroom configuration.

Franck Bauguil, Moorings’ vice president of yacht ownership and product development, says that it’s a great program for mariners who charter multiple times each year. “If you’re going to go only once a year, or every other year, just charter a boat, don’t buy it,” he says. However, if you go three or four times a year, on trips that can cost up to $25,000 apiece, the Moorings package is well worth considering.

“The program has been around for a long time,” he says. “So it’s well-known among sailors, but not as much with powerboaters. Our fleet of boats is all privately owned, but we take care of operations and management. You buy the boat, you own it and name it; it’s very much a regular purchase. But with that purchase comes a management agreement where we maintain the boat on behalf of the owner and charter it to a third party when they’re not using it.”

As with any boat purchase, owners can lay down the cash or go the finance route. For the latter, what’s the cost? The numbers as of this past fall showed that most owners put down 20 to 25 percent of the cost of the yacht, which, in the case of The Moorings’ 403PC, was about $1 million, with a down payment just shy of $200,000. At 8.25 percent interest on a 20-year loan, the monthly payment of about $6,700 was offset by the guaranteed income of just under $7,500 per month. Management contracts generally run five or six years, after which the owner can keep the boat, trade it in, or have The Moorings’ brokerage operation place it for sale.

For personal usage, owners receive 84 points per year, with the cost of trips equating to two points per day. Of those 84 points, 42 can be used to reserve trips in advance, and 42 can be employed on short notice. Generally, this breaks down to four to six weeks per year of in-season trips, or up to 12 weeks per year of cruising in the off-season. —HM

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Bruce Kessler, a lifelong adventurer and TV director, died April 4. He was 88.

Kessler, one of the first Americans to circumnavigate the globe as captain of a motoryacht and who logged over 100,000 nautical miles as a captain of his cruising boats, became a race car driver at age 16. He soon retired from racing after surviving several car crashes, wrote friend Milt Baker. 

He traded vehicle racing for filmmaking. He made “The Sound of Speed,” his first short film, which represented the United States at the 1962 Cannes International Film Festival. The film featured a car chase, leading to his expertise in the craft of directing chase sequences. 

Kessler directed a handful of movies and many popular television series, including episodes of “Mission Impossible,” “The Rockford Files” and “MacGyver.”

The Seattle-born man was a passionate boater and angler. He obtained his first boat in 1960 — a 26-foot sport fishermen — but quickly moved onto larger boats as he began fishing further from home, ultimately topping out at a 48-foot vessel. 

Kessler’s friend and naval architect Steve Seaton designed one of his boats, and Delta

Marine developed a trawler yacht for him. Initially, Delta Marine was not interested in developing the boat, but Kessler continued inquiring until they obliged, Baker wrote. 

The result? Delta’s first recreational motoryacht, a 70-foot vessel with a 20-foot beam.

Zopilote, named after the black buzzards that scavenged the shores of Mexico, was launched in May of 1985. The boat was a “game-changer,” Baker said, adding that Kessler sailed it with the love of his life, actress Joan Freeman.

Together, Kessler and Freeman embarked on a 35,000-mile adventure in 1990, departing California for the South Pacific. The trip led Zopilote to become the sixth powerboat to complete a circumnavigation, capturing headlines and propelling Kessler into yachting celebrity.

Zopilote sank in 1994 in Alaska after smashing into an underwater ledge. Kessler and his four-person crew escaped the sinking boat on a liferaft. Seaton later designed Kessler’s next boat, the Spirit of Zopilote, which Kessler and Freeman lived on for nearly three decades. 

Kessler received the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America’s Spirit of Competition Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Passagemaker Magazine, according to Baker. He was the first non-sailing powerboater granted membership to the Cruising Club of America.

Kessler was also a member of the Ocean Cruising Club, a longtime member of the Del Rey Yacht Club, the Southwestern Yacht Club (San Digeo), the Marlin Club (San Diego), and the Tuna Club (Avalon, Catalina Island), and an Honorary Commodore of the Seven Seas Cruising Association.

In 2007 Bruce founded the FUBAR (Fleet Underway to Baja Rally), a 980-mile powerboat flotilla cruise from San Diego around the tip of the Baja peninsula to La Paz, Mexico, as a continuing fundraiser for junior sailing at Del Rey Yacht Club. The mission of the rally was to give powerboaters an opportunity to experience long-distance cruising to Mexico with the safety of a flotilla of 50+ boats, complete with mechanical, communications, and medical personnel in the fleet.

FUBAR later changed its name to CUBAR (Cruise Underway to Baja Rally) and is now run every two years by under San Diego Yacht Club. It remains a fundraiser for junior sailing programs.

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The Moorings, which has more than 20 destinations worldwide, is adding power catamaran charters out of Dubrovnik, Croatia, beginning this summer.

Customers in this destination will be able to book a Moorings 403PC, which accommodates as many as six people in a three-stateroom layout. The boat also has a generator, air conditioning, and a fully equipped flybridge. 

Dubrovnik is a walled city that has become increasingly popular with visiting yachts in recent years, in no small part thanks to many scenes from the HBO series Game of Thrones being filmed there. The city itself is enchanting to explore by foot, and a weeklong cruising itinerary can include lots of interesting nearby sites.

For instance, there’s the settlement of Šipanska Luka on Šipan island. In the past, nobles from Dubrovnik would come here for the landscape, fertile lands and shelter from wind. The harbor has an anchorage, and local restaurants have mooring buoys.

Also nearby is Badija Island, the largest of the islands in the Korčula archipelago. The most dominant feature of the island is a Franciscan Monastery built in the 14th century, but the most active sight that cruisers typically see is the island’s deer. They will approach visitors who offer food, and will take it directly from a human’s hand.

Another nearby stop is the town at Hvar Island, a popular vacation spot that can be busy in the summertime, but that is nevertheless worth a visit. There is a quay and mooring buoys, or cruisers can moor at the Pakleni islands archipelago and take the tender over for a look. Archaeological attractions here include the Fortica Fortress, cathedral and Franciscan monastery.

Yet another place to explore is Lastovo Island’s Skrivena Luka. This island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the Adriatic Sea, amid an archipelago of 45 uninhabited islands. It is the opposite of Hvar: unspoiled by tourism. It is instead a nature park with beautiful scenery. Its Struga Lighthouse was built in 1839 at the mouth of Skrivena Luka Bay. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in Croatia, on the edge of a steep cliff.

And don’t miss: Polače at Mljet Island. This is one of the oldest settlements on Mljet, and is surrounded by islands: Tajnik, Moračnik, Ovrata and Kobrava. Many cruisers stop here to check out the ruins of structures from ancient times, as well as the current village, which largely dates from the late 17th and early 18th century. Cruisers can rent bicycles and kayaks here, and there are restaurants for sampling the local cuisine.

Where to learn more: visit moorings.com

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Anybody and everybody looking at a boat that’s for sale after a life on the charter market has the same question: What kind of shape is it in? 

The answer to that question can depend on a lot of things, including the original build quality, the training and skills of the crew, the type of charter fleet it was in, how often the boat was booked, and what kinds of charter clients spent their vacation time on board. Of course, there’s also the boat’s location, and whether it was kept at a base with a well-trained staff that focused on maintenance.

In the case of the Leopard 43 PC Shorebilly, the answer to all those questions boil down to being part of one of the best-honed charter operations on Earth. The answer also involves the Covid-19 pandemic. This 2019 build—listed for sale at an asking price of $475,000 through The Moorings Yacht Brokerage—is described as being in great shape partly because of the low hours and reduced usage during the slower overall charter periods of the pandemic. 

“Shorebilly is looking in great shape,” according to The Moorings team, which is phasing the boat out of use at its St. Lucia location in the Caribbean. “And a young model.”

The powercat is the three-stateroom owners’ version of the Leopard 43 PC. The stepped hull design reportedly offers 27 percent more interior volume than the preceding model did above the waterline, allowing for roomy guest areas in the hulls without sacrificing on the powercat’s performance.

Up on the flybridge, there’s a navigation station with 360-degree views. On the main deck, the galley is forward with a table and a settee aft, for even more views all around.

Inside the starboard hull, all of the space is dedicated to the owners’ stateroom, which has a sleeping area as well as a private head with a separate shower compartment.

Throughout the powercat, the interior is “light blonde,” adding to the feeling of spaciousness with the natural light. 

According to the team at The Moorings, the narrower hulls and reduced wetted surface area below the waterline allow the boat to reach a maximum speed of 23-plus knots. Shorebilly is powered with upgraded Yanmar 8LV320 engines.

What kind of electronics are at the helm of Shorebilly? Multiple products from Raymarine, along with a Fusion stereo system. Where to learn more: click over to www.mooringsbrokerage.com.

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