TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Moorings 46.3 review

This was our 14th trip to the BVI, all of which have been on Moorings monohulls. While monos are very much a dying bread in the BVI charter world, the 46.3 was a great boat and far and away the best one we’ve sailed down there.

The boat had features that we haven’t encountered on earlier boats. It had twin rudders that were smaller than typical rudders found in a single rudder configuration and were mounted further aft. This seemed to make for some different handling such propwalk not being as much an issue when backing into a slip. Also even when heeled, there was always a rudder deep enough to give good control.

It also had a self-tacking jib which I noticed when were first booked our 2020 charter (back in the fall of 2019) but had totally forgotten about that until we got to the boat and found only a single jib sheet. I’m definitely not a performance sailor so if there was a performance hit because of this type of rigging, it wasn’t apparent to me. The worst part was crew boredom because they weren’t needed to tack.

The boat performed well in the 15 – 20+ knot winds we encountered. We sailed with a reef and full jib when the winds were 20+ and did 7 knots pretty consistently upwind. Heading up to North Sound the winds dropped to the 15 knot range where my son convinced me to shake out the reef and go full main. Of course the winds quickly freshened to over 20 and we were flying. Rail close to the water and speed upwards of 9 knots which is about where I start viewing sailing as more work than fun. Still the boat handled it well with almost no weather helm.

The 46.3 has a generator, A/C, and came with a microwave, coffee maker, blender, toaster and a smart TV. It came with a router but we rented one from Renport which gave us great Internet coverage throughout the trip. We were able to stream the home run derby and all star game with use of a VPN on my laptop.

The only experience I have backing monohulls of this size into a slip is on trips to the BVI so it is always a white knuckle experience for me. This boat had minimal propwalk to contend with and would back pretty straight as long as I maintained a knot or two of speed. The bow thrusters would keep me lined up. At Oil Nut Bay, the wind was about 20 degrees off the bow which really created issues trying to get the bow to come around. We had dock line help to try and get it to pivot off the stern but the thrusters and engine just struggled to bring it around. Finally one of the ONB marina helpers jumped into out dinghy and used it as a tugboat to push the bow to the finger pier.

I'm not sure what the future holds for monohulls to charter, but this model was an excellent addition to the Moorings fleet.

Thanks for the report Louis!

We've always chartered monos, and yes they do seem to be getting scarce. It's nice to hear about a great option.

Dan

The forward cabin is really nice on that boat!
G

It certainly is. The aft cabins are roomy but don't have any hatches that open to catch the breeze at anchor so a functional AC is a must.

We also had to refuel about 2/3 of the way through. Ran generator whenever not underway or on shore power. Put 43 gallons in what I believe was 53 gallon tank.

I looked at the 46.3 for a possible purchase and the 53 gallon fuel tank plus the small water tank was a issue I did not like. If you run the generator 12 hours a day you will burn 6 to 7 gallons each night. That leaves a 53 gallon tank barely adequate for a 7 night charter. Anything more or if you motor a lot you will need a fuel stop. My old Beneteau 50 had a 106 gallon fuel tank and 300 gallons of water in comparison.

According to Moorings web site specs for the boat, there are 2 water tanks: 87 gallon under forward berth, 53 under a stern berth. There were 5 of us on a 14 day charter. We filled the forward tank 4 days out before heading to Anegada but mainly because we were going to be there a few days with no ability to refill. Coming back we filled again when we refueled after 9 days. I suspect we could have done 7 days with the 2 water tanks and no refills.

The fuel and water gauges seemed to be pretty accurate but it wasn't clear how much was remaining when it got low and said we were on reserves. I believe that was a 10% figure. What confused me is the Mooring spec sheet on the last page said it had a 106gal fuel capacity but tucked up earlier was a line saying 53 gallons which I had missed. That was obviously the right number. I suspect the space for the fuel was taken by the second water tank. We called Moorings service and were told that we had enough fuel for the remaining 3.5 days of our charter. Obviously that wasn't the case since we needed the generator to keep the aft cabins comfortable at night.

A couple of minor complaints. With all the lines moved back to the helm station, there was a large amount of trunk space on either side of the companionway. In the documentation they talked about 2 Sunbed mattresses that were not on the boat, I was told they kept getting lost at sea so had been removed. So much for sunning up there. There was limited cushion coverage in the cockpit with no back cushions and none on the helm stations and nothing for back support at the helm. The large gap between the helms was open with just a couple of lifelines and a foot block when the swim platform was up. We didn't lose anything (or anyone) back there but it felt unsecure.

I'm not sure how profitable a 3 cabin 47' monohull is in charter but it certainly would be a great boat to have coming out of charter.