New public moorings are now available in U.S. Virgin Islands waters due to a VIPCA-USVI Government Partnership. The first phase in the installation of 200 Helix-type new public moorings in the bays around the U.S. Virgin Islands has now been completed. These new moorings are made possible by a private-public partnership between the non-profit Virgin Islands Professional Charter Association (VIPCA) and the Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The moorings can fit any yacht, boat, tender, or dinghy between 1 to 65 feet. Local, private, recreational, or commercial vessels can use the moorings for up to 14 days. Blue-banded moorings are for overnight use with a $35 per night payment made online at BoatyBall while yellow-banded moorings are for day use with a donation of $10 per use on the same site. An annual fee can also be paid by multiplying expected daily use by 12 months. Locations of these moorings can be found at boater.boatyball.com/map or vipca.org/boatyball. “VIPCA works beyond the charter yacht community for the marine economy, workforce development, and marine environment,” said Oriel Blake, VIPCA’s executive director. “One of the most significant benefits of vessels using moorings rather than anchoring is that anchoring can break corals that may take a century to grow back, plus the action of the anchor chain sweeping back and forth as the yacht moves in the wind creates a V-shaped area of destruction of soft corals like sea fans as well as seagrass, a mainstay of endangered sea turtles.” Triton’s new charter issue is now out! Click here to read it!