Charter Yacht Society- Who we are
History of the Charter Yacht Society
The CYS was formed in the very early '80s. The charter boats, as they we then called, were in a single League to which nearly every Charter yacht in the both the US and British Virgin Islands belonged. This was called the VICBL, Virgin Islands Charter Boat League, and was started by Bob Smith in St Thomas who also invented and ran the first clearing house "Homeport", and started the first VHF shore station, VI Radio.
In about 1980, the VICBL decided to run a subsidiary show in Village Cay. During the next year the boats based in the BVI felt that the League did not appreciate the the issues faced by the BVI based boats and tended to be rather heavy handed in their dealings with the BVI Government. A number of BVI based yacht owner/operators got together and decided to set up the CYS to deal in a more sensitive manor with the Government and to run an independent show in the BVI. Later the CYS became more proactive in the marketing of BVI yacht charters by closely working with the Tourist Board and by producing a brochure and other material for brokers to use. Once the CYS was formed Francis David with encouragement from Geoff Browning and other Founder Members of the CYS started the first clearing house in the BVI, Caribbean Connections, now called Charterport.
A couple of years after the The Charter Yacht Society was formed, the VICBL realized that Yacht rather that Boat was a more up market name and changed their name to match!
The members of the Charter Yacht Society of the British Virgin Islands provide cruising vacations to guests from around the world. Many of our charter crews are owner operators who come from a wide variety of backgrounds, both professionally and culturally.
Chartering is a way of life they have chosen and each crew member has an unusual story to tell.
The Charter Yacht Society (CYS) is a non-profit organisation which was founded in 1982 by the independent owners of crewed yachts in the BVI. The society fills the need for an organised voice to represent the individual crewed yacht operators.
The CYS is run by a board of 6 full members, who are elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting. The day to day running of the society is handles by Janet Oliver, the Administrator, at the Wickham's Cay office in Road Town, under the direction of the board members.
Charter Yacht Society membership consists of approximately 65 yachts. Whilst, much has changed in the crewed yacht industry since the inception of the CYS the objectives of the Society have remained constant. Those objectives are:
To ensure good relationships between the resident independent crewed charter boats and the government and the people of the BVI.
To propogate the observation of the laws of the Territory and respect for its social standards and culture.
To foster a business climate beneficial to its members consistent with the smooth development of the charter boat industry and to promote the interests of locally owned vessels.
The CYS has gained recognition from the community and in government circles as a group of concerned individuals who contribute significantly to the local economy. We are active members of the BVI Marine Association, VISAR (Virgin Islands Search and Rescue), the BVICCHA (Chamber of Commerce and Hotel Association, and we participate in all National Parks Trust programmes involving the marine environment.
