Help finding a liveaboard through RCI

[Father]

Does anyone know of any recreational level live-aboards that are part of the RCI time-share network?

My wife found Tradewinds. It's a sailboat and doesn't look to specifically cater to diving. They say they usually do 3 dives for the trip. I'm looking to dive at least 1-2x a day.

The locations look awesome but it's probably geared more toward the vacationers that dive than divers on a dive trip.

 

[diversteve]

You know that Tradewinds is not just a sailboat right? They're a booking agency for a fleet of crewed sailboats. I bolded the better (IMO) dive locations - don't know anything about the Europe destinations though.

TradeWinds currently operates cruising bases in the British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten, Antigua, Guadeloupe, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago, Panama, Belize, The Canary Islands in Spain, Greece and Turkey. TradeWinds fleet today encompasses yachts ranging from 45 to 70 feet in length, all owned and operated by the Group.

In 2010 TradeWinds launched a major investment program consisting of adding to, as well as replacing the older fleet, with new purpose built catamarans in collaboration with the renowned French yacht builder Fountaine-Pajot. The two models TradeWinds Galathea 70 and the TradeWinds 59 were introduced to the fleet in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

If I had to pick a likely destination to be able to do a lot of good diving it would be the BVI's. At many of the day dive moorings there was usually a big catamaran or two tied up nearby - possibly some were Tradewinds boats.

Depending on what they offer - you might also make other arrangements with one of the BVI dive operators also - obviously at extra cost. Most of them do Rendezvous Diving, they meet your boat at the mooring with gear and either dive there or take you on their boat to a better dive site nearby. Nothing in the BVI's is very far apart - the two main islands Tortola and Virgin Gorda - maybe an hour on a faster boat. bviscuba.org lists them

 

[Father]

You know that Tradewinds is not just a sailboat right? They're a booking agency for a fleet of crewed sailboats.

Yeah, I think I did notice that... but wasn't thinking it when I was writing.

If I had to pick a likely destination to be able to do a lot of good diving it would be the BVI's. At many of the day dive moorings there was usually a big catamaran or two tied up nearby - possibly some were Tradewinds boats.

Depending on what they offer - you might also make other arrangements with one of the BVI dive operators also - obviously at extra cost. Most of them do Rendezvous Diving, they meet your boat at the mooring with gear and either dive there or take you on their boat to a better dive site nearby. Nothing in the BVI's is very far apart - the two main islands Tortola and Virgin Gorda - maybe an hour on a faster boat. bviscuba.org lists them

Wow... good to know. Great information about the rendezvous diving. Thank you!!!

 

[Jordan23]

hi

what is BVI's?

 

[diversteve]

British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It's very windy there most of the time so there's a lot of yachts.

Welcome to the Official Website of the BVI Tourist Board

Even the dive liveaboard in the area - Cuan Law - is one: www.bvidiving.com

 

[Jordan23]

is there something like this in the philipines?

"Rendezvous Diving, they meet your boat at the mooring with gear and either dive there or take you on their boat to a better dive site nearby."

 

[Damselfish]

I've also thought about using RCI points with Tradewinds. But what I would probably do is try to get a whole boat and find friends to fill it, so we could set the (dive intensive) itinerary. I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough people on Scubaboard looking for places to use RCI points someplace they can dive, that something could be put together if you were so inclined.

It might be worth contacting Tradewinds and try get more info about diving possibilities, I've never actually gone as far as that.

 

[Father]

I've also thought about using RCI points with Tradewinds. But what I would probably do is try to get a whole boat and find friends to fill it, so we could set the (dive intensive) itinerary. I wouldn't be surprised if there were enough people on Scubaboard looking for places to use RCI points someplace they can dive, that something could be put together if you were so inclined.

It might be worth contacting Tradewinds and try get more info about diving possibilities, I've never actually gone as far as that.

Good idea. I'm not sure how many people can fit on their boats.
I'm probably more interested in diving on a cruise more than my wife is... but she would certainly do 1 a day.

 

[Damselfish]

I think on the order of 6-12 passengers.

I'd actually guess most of these boats are not set up for a lot of diving with their own compressors and such, or necessarily have a DM on crew. If they don't have a compressor they'd either have to carry a decent number of filled tanks and get them refilled someplace. or just arrange to do the rendezvous thing. I don't really know how they do it. hmm...http://tradewindsyachtcharters.com/activities/diving/ answers some questions but not all.

 

[Father]

It looks like they definitely have a limited number of sites they frequent and by the sound of it, part of the problem is the local restrictions that seem to be designed to stimulate the local economy. $75/tank dive isn't horrible. I'm kind of spoiled where I am since I pay only slightly more than that for unlimited tanks for the year (air / Nitrox).

Sounds like the rendezvous/pick-up dives would be a reasonable option for getting more than what they offer with Tradewinds.

I'm guessing you're right about limited tanks. I seriously doubt they're equipped with a compressor and probably have limited space for tanks.

I'm not totally dismissing the option of Tradewinds, but I've also heard of other live aboards that offer a lot more for divers and are more all-inclusive. But those aren't through RCI, which one thing I'm trying to take advantage of.