Guide · 5 min read
The British Virgin Islands for a First Charter
Why the BVI suits a first charter — fifteen miles of sheltered channel, line-of-sight hops, and no licence required.
7 chapters · 5 min read · Updated 3 September 2026
Photo · William FinnWhat you will be sailing, and from where
Catamarans dominate the BVI charter fleet — in a typical January the boats with a free week here run about thirty to one in favour of cats. They sit flat, draw little, and give a first crew room to be clumsy in. Most run 4 to 6 cabins and 10 to 14 berths, which is more boat than a couple needs and about right for two families.
Monohulls are there if you want one, and they are the smaller, cheaper end of the BVI fleet: Sun Odyssey 349s and 380s, Oceanis 30.1s and 35.1s, a Bavaria 37, a Jeanneau 54 at the top. Four to six berths, and a boat that will teach you more about sail trim in a week than a catamaran will. If you are undecided, the hull comparison guide sets out the trade-offs properly.
Bases are clustered on and around Tortola — Nanny Cay Marina, Ritter House Marina, Hodge's Creek. All of them put you in the channel within the first hour, which matters on a Saturday when the briefing has run long.
A week that does not overreach
- Day 1Day one, go short. Cross to The Bight at Norman Island, roughly an hour, pick up a mooring in daylight, and spend the rest of the afternoon finding out where things live on the boat. First days go wrong when they are ambitious.
- Day 2Day two, work east to Cooper Island. You are going to windward, but in protected water over a short leg it reads as practice rather than a beat. Day three, carry on to Virgin Gorda: The Baths early, before the day boats, then round into North Sound for the night.
- Day four is the flex daya lay day in the Sound, or Anegada if the weather and your charter contract both allow it. Then the week turns downwind. Day five, an easy run to Jost Van Dyke. Day six, Cane Garden Bay or Soper's Hole on Tortola's west end. Day seven, a short hop back. Nothing here exceeds half a day under sail.
Mooring balls, and the bays where you may not anchor
The BVI runs a National Parks Trust mooring system, and inside park waters anchoring on coral is prohibited outright. The Baths at Virgin Gorda is moorings-only. The Indians are day-use buoys with no overnight stay. Park moorings carry a permit fee. This is not a formality you can quietly ignore — the reef is the reason the water looks the way it does.
Outside the park boundaries there are commercial fields too. At The Bight, BoatyBall moorings can be reserved in advance, which is worth doing for a December-to-March week rather than gambling on a first-come ball at four in the afternoon.
For a first charter the ball is the right default anyway. You sleep instead of checking your bearing at 02:00. Where anchoring is permitted and there is room outside the field, it is free — but arrive with enough light to set the hook, back down on it, and watch your swing before anyone opens a beer.
Anegada: the leg that needs a decision, not a plan
Anegada is the outlier. Every other island in the group is high and shows itself from miles out. Anegada is a low coral island that stays below the horizon until you are close, and the approach is through a buoyed channel in the reef — that channel, and nothing else.
Two things follow. First, check your charter contract before you build a route around it: many BVI companies prohibit bareboats from making the Anegada crossing at all, and finding that out at the base briefing is a poor way to lose a day. Second, if you are cleared to go, treat it as the one real passage of the week. Sail a compass course to a waypoint, and time your arrival for high sun behind you. Never enter late in the day.
Is it worth it? In settled weather and with permission, yes. But it is optional. Skipping Anegada does not spoil the week; going in the wrong conditions can.
Season, and what the charter company actually asks
The Atlantic hurricane season runs June to November, and the steadiest charter weather runs roughly December to April. Summer has a case — thinner crowds, softer rates, long settled spells — but a named storm can shorten or cancel a booking even when you are never in danger, some places ashore close, and no amount of brochure language changes that. Book summer on flexible terms or not at all.
On paperwork, the BVI does not require a formal licence for a bareboat charter. What the company assesses is a sailing resume: have you skippered something of similar size, picked up a mooring, anchored overnight, handled the boat in 20 knots. Fill it in honestly. The base briefing assumes competence, not perfection.
If the resume is thin, take a skipper for the first two days. You give up a cabin and gain someone who knows which field fills first. And if you are still weighing bareboat against skippered or fully crewed, the charter types guide is the place to start. Short legs, protected water, a visible destination: in the BVI your mistakes stay small. That is the whole argument, and it is a good one.
Ready when you are
Tell us your dates and your group and we will come back the same day with two or three boats that fit — and a straight answer on whether the operator will let you sail to Anegada.
