Nekton boats may come back!!

[donhealy]

Boy, what a thread. I'm in Paris and just got on to see what is happening in the world of Nekton folks. I can't believe there are 8100 views! Who would have thought when Kris first asked if anyone would be interested.

Kris, I guess you got your answer by now.

Don Healy

 

[ncchuck]

I gotta believe these boats are fuel hogs and expensive to maintain. I worked on the Pilot for a short time long before it failed and it was a disaster. So many things were broke the so called engineers couldn't keep up. I say so called because the "trainee" we had was a guy found on the beach living in his car. He had NO training at all and actually caused a few problem while "learning".

I actually like the boats themselves as a passenger. The cabins are big and the dive platform is excellent. However the air conditioning was a mess. Condensation was a serious issue and many passengers suffered with wet beds. Toilets were always a problem especially in the front crew cabin.

In my opinion:
Professional crew members already trained in their specialty - especially engineers.
Spotless rooms maintained in good condition at all times.
Partial refunds for problem cruises or conditions other than weather.
Nitrox system that works all the time.
Elimination of at least a couple of cabins so crew has more space for "stuff".
Several ideas for diving locations have been given but I'd consider a late afternoon charter flight each week if it's anyplace other than Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
I totally agree that the ABC islands would be a great location for us older divers that don't like the hassle of shore diving. You could possible get to town a couple of nights a week since Bonaire has such interesting places to eat.
Price competitive with other major players.
Internet access if at all possible.
More shading on top deck. Not everyone likes to cook in the sun.
Crew members with clean uniforms.

Best of luck. My wife and I would visit if everything works out.

 

[paulv]

just my opinion i live on st croix i hope to never see a nekton boat again, its been nice with out there presence, no more riping out the local dive morings, or tearing the rails off our wrecks, no more anchors droped on our reefs , no tieing to our old us navy moring chains and draging across our corals. for all the talk about how you can do what you want to on those boats the facts were they did show up and they did dump 24 people into the water at one time, our fragile frog fish and sea horse populations are rebounding and doing quite well with out the nekton. i never understood how a boat could use our waters and not spend a single cent on our island, so please if you do get this boat and you do start an operation leave us out of your plans nothing personel but when you have gotten rid of a plague of locust you really dont want to hear they are back

 

[daniel1948]

just my opinion i live on st croix i hope to never see a nekton boat again, its been nice with out there presence, no more riping out the local dive morings, or tearing the rails off our wrecks, no more anchors droped on our reefs , no tieing to our old us navy moring chains and draging across our corals. for all the talk about how you can do what you want to on those boats the facts were they did show up and they did dump 24 people into the water at one time, our fragile frog fish and sea horse populations are rebounding and doing quite well with out the nekton. i never understood how a boat could use our waters and not spend a single cent on our island, so please if you do get this boat and you do start an operation leave us out of your plans nothing personel but when you have gotten rid of a plague of locust you really dont want to hear they are back

Would this apply equally to any live-aboard, or were the Nekton boats worse? And if they were worse than other live-aboards, was it something about the boats themselves, or was it the way they were operated?

I was on the Nekton Pilot in St. Croix. Obviously, dropping 20-plus people into the water all at once is going to have an environmental impact. But we only moored to Nekton's own moorings, never to wrecks, and we never dropped an anchor. And we spent an afternoon on shore, which they told us was a requirement of using the waters there.

OTOH, the areas around our moorings were not all that great, perhaps because of the degradation of all those divers at the same spots week after week. I'd sail on a Nekton boat again, but not in St. Croix, since the diving was just not all that great. (Again, probably because we were only diving on Nekton's own over-used moorings. -- Maybe other captains operated differently.)

 

[mike_s]

I would think that Liveaboards would have less "impact" on dive sites than most shore run operations.

reason is, most liveboards visit a site once per trip and it's usually further out and not visited by land based charter operators who want to run a 4 hour trip.

Where most shore based operators pretty much hit the same sites over and over and over again, running to the handful of sites that are closest to their departure point. Then the next competing land based operator(s) do the same exact thing. Hitting the same sites over and over and over again.

 

[mitsuguy]

I would think that Liveaboards would have less "impact" on dive sites than most shore run operations.

reason is, most liveboards visit a site once per trip and it's usually further out and not visited by land based charter operators who want to run a 4 hour trip.

Where most shore based operators pretty much hit the same sites over and over and over again, running to the handful of sites that are closest to their departure point. Then the next competing land based operator(s) do the same exact thing. Hitting the same sites over and over and over again.

Except here on St. Croix where every single dive is less than a mile from shore (many are less than 1000' from shore) and our longest boat trip is about 10 minutes... Any farther North on St. Croix and you are in 3,000-13,000 feet of water, any farther west and you are in minimum 200' and it just gets deeper... There is no diving to speak of East or South...

The Nekton boats definitely did moor to wrecks, and sure, they installed moorings, but the moorings they installed were often less than two feet from the existing mooring pins...

The diving really is good here, but you have to know where to go and when to go there - we actually have a couple that used to work for the Nekton on staff here and there are things that I have shown them about the sites that they never knew... Of course, my knowledge is based on whats been handed down for over 20 years worth of diving here, not just a little time comparatively...

 

[ncchuck]

Poor mooring for liveaboards are a problem in many places. Several of the wrecks in Truk Lagoon have been torn apart over the years when various liveaboards used to hook onto them. I could be wrong but I think the Nektons are much heavier than other liveaboards too making them even worse.

 

[mitsuguy]

I could be wrong but I think the Nektons are much heavier than other liveaboards too making them even worse.

Like many vessels in that size range, they are engineered and documented to be less than 100 tons gross... The Rorqual is actually 64 net tons, 94 gross rated tonnage... This makes it relatively easy to find captains as it is much more difficult to get a captains license above and beyond 100 tons... It also means they don't have to call a Pilot vessel when coming in to port, as vessels over 100 tons have to.

The big thing with the Nekton pair is the shape of the vessels... they are like a big sail - they are not aerodynamic whatsoever and because of that, they do put a lot of stress on the moorings...

 

[Shasta_man]

Very interesting info from the St Croix divers. Diving on the North side was MUCH better than the other side by the pier (thanks for the good dives in Cane Bay), but they said they don't stay because it's too rough for most people to stay there. However, regardless of where you dive and with who, there are lots of insensitive people. That was shocking to me initially because I thought people became divers because they loved seeing the critters, and would want to protect them, but that isn't always the case. And many don't even realize what they are doing... cheap cameras will be the death of the reefs.

 

[DebbyDiver]

I've heard that kayak diving from shore is really excellent there.