New Liveaboard

[DCDivenut]

Hi folks...
I was wondering if I could use you guys as a sort of free test audience for a minute?

If you could pick one destination in the Caribbean that is not currently serviced, or underserviced, by a liveaboard where would it be and why?

 

[sapphire]

I would vote for Little Cayman Island... they used to have a dedicated liveaboard, but it is now defunct. The Cayman Aggressor only goes there partially, and when the weather is good enough to make the crossing. Bloody Bay wall is a great place to dive, and most of the land-based operators limit their trips so that usually 3 dives per day is all you can do (with the occasional night dive).

Jennifer

 

[caymaniac]

Hi folks...
I was wondering if I could use you guys as a sort of free test audience for a minute?

If you could pick one destination in the Caribbean that is not currently serviced, or underserviced, by a liveaboard where would it be and why?

How about St. Vincent and the Grenadines? The diving around St. Vincent is known to have a magnificent macro managerie. Or how about the ABC islands? There's no liveaboard around Bonaire - Klien Bonaire or Curacao and Aruba.i

Caymaniac

 

[Doc]

If you could pick one destination in the Caribbean that is not currently serviced, or underserviced, by a liveaboard where would it be and why?

N.E. Grenada: The Southern (airport) end is served by dive ops and a liveaboard (or did it give it up?) and is mediocre diving. The NE end is a delight but a bit distant and has some rough passages/not great harborages to hide.

Bonaire: Is saturated and after paying the airfare, hard to imagine people ponying up for a dive week that would be double in cost. Besides, half the fun of Bonaire is the shore diving and the restaurants. Aruba and Curacao? Not worth the bother.

Los Roques: Difficulty of air transit to Caracas as well as to Gran Roques, Lack of commercial infrastructure and food stocks to support a vessel (without having to make ongoing crossings back and forth). Many shoals. The diving is shallow and subject to occlusion of viz with moderate currents. This makes diving the many many ancient wrecks a challenge, but well worth it for the advanced diver.

San Andres (North to) Corn and the Half Moon Banks: Mechanical maintainance infrastructure issues, food supplies, as well as transportation to and from the area is limited.

The Bay Islands of Utila, Roatan and Guanaja: Because the infrastructure is weak to support a commercial passenger vessel mechanicaly and the inexpensive diving offered by the Roatan land based is roughly the same as what the current liveaboard offers.

The Bay Islands diving is largely untouched by recreational divers. What is known, even by frequent travellers there is the mere tip of the iceberg. Two weeks on a well supported vessel cruising Helena, Morat and Barbaretta (the Eastern tip of Roatan), as well as forays just around the East end to the North side when the weather would be good is an indescribable joy.

Also part of the Bay Islands:

Cayos Cochinos can be a difficult crossing with absolutely no infrastructure.

Cisne (Swan) for the same reason.

Belize is still under served. The cheap airfares (comparatively) make it viable. On land- everything you need to keep an operation running, kind of.

The Flower Banks? Weekend outings and well served. The Dry Tortugas? If well marketed and kept cheap, you could make a go of it.

The greatest problem with liveaboards is that they have to cater to the lowest common denominator. When you offer referral OW dives as part of a certification package while you're aboard, the ship simply can't plan to take you to the better dives (i.e.: the Tobago diving, land based vs. liveaboard)

Some ships have attempted to overcome this by offering 'special' packages on unusual routes, offering gentle warnings to first timers. Sometimes this works, but they haven't been big sellers for most, however the Nekton fleet has done well with special exotica offerings.

If you want an example to follow, look at how Nekton operates. This is what I believe to be the best liveaboard operation in the Caribbean, and in the top ten in the world.

Why? How much money do you have to spend on this project?

 

[DCDivenut]

N.E. Grenada: The Southern (airport) end is served by dive ops and a liveaboard (or did it give it up?) and is mediocre diving. The NE end is a delight but a bit distant and has some rough passages/not great harborages to hide.

Bonaire: Is saturated and after paying the airfare, hard to imagine people ponying up for a dive week that would be double in cost. Besides, half the fun of Bonaire is the shore diving and the restaurants. Aruba and Curacao? Not worth the bother.

Los Roques: Difficulty of air transit to Caracas as well as to Gran Roques, Lack of commercial infrastructure and food stocks to support a vessel (without having to make ongoing crossings back and forth). Many shoals. The diving is shallow and subject to occlusion of viz with moderate currents. This makes diving the many many ancient wrecks a challenge, but well worth it for the advanced diver.

San Andres (North to) Corn and the Half Moon Banks: Mechanical maintainance infrastructure issues, food supplies, as well as transportation to and from the area is limited.

The Bay Islands of Utila, Roatan and Guanaja: Because the infrastructure is weak to support a commercial passenger vessel mechanicaly and the inexpensive diving offered by the Roatan land based is roughly the same as what the current liveaboard offers.

The Bay Islands diving is largely untouched by recreational divers. What is known, even by frequent travellers there is the mere tip of the iceberg. Two weeks on a well supported vessel cruising Helena, Morat and Barbaretta (the Eastern tip of Roatan), as well as forays just around the East end to the North side when the weather would be good is an indescribable joy.

Also part of the Bay Islands:

Cayos Cochinos can be a difficult crossing with absolutely no infrastructure.

Cisne (Swan) for the same reason.

Belize is still under served. The cheap airfares (comparatively) make it viable. On land- everything you need to keep an operation running, kind of.

The Flower Banks? Weekend outings and well served. The Dry Tortugas? If well marketed and kept cheap, you could make a go of it.

The greatest problem with liveaboards is that they have to cater to the lowest common denominator. When you offer referral OW dives as part of a certification package while you're aboard, the ship simply can't plan to take you to the better dives (i.e.: the Tobago diving, land based vs. liveaboard)

Some ships have attempted to overcome this by offering 'special' packages on unusual routes, offering gentle warnings to first timers. Sometimes this works, but they haven't been big sellers for most, however the Nekton fleet has done well with special exotica offerings.

If you want an example to follow, look at how Nekton operates. This is what I believe to be the best liveaboard operation in the Caribbean, and in the top ten in the world.

Why? How much money do you have to spend on this project?

The inquiry is actually fairly serious. I am part of a group of investors that all dive and we have recently been fairly succesful in some other ventures. Of course, we are not looking to create a money pit so we have somethign "fun to do" but we are willing to make a serious investment. We have all been on lots of liveaboards and we think that each of the different players have positives and negatives and we would like to take a shot at trying to really get it right. Of course it is hard to be everything to all people and still make a profit so we do realize we are going to have focus at some point. You bring up a point like this by lauding Nekton. Many people love it. Quite a few people deride it as the "cattle boat" of liveaboards.

In determining where to go we are looking at the following factors...
1. Quality of diving - In our opinion people who go to the trouble to go the liveaboard route want something above average. "Just another good Caribbean dive" won't cut it.
2. Accessibility - While people will go to great lengths to go to a truly unique destination (Pacific comes to mind) it certainly helps if there are direct flights from major US hubs. We would also like to see access from Europe if at all possible since there is such a large dive community there as well.
3. Demand & Supply - One option is to create a unique itinerary and generate buzz that way. The other is to go into a destination that already has a developed "interest level" but is under or poorly served.
4. Availability of support services and infrastructure - Boats and everything on them break. Simple as that. If you are in the middle of nowhere you will have unhappy customers if something goes wrong.

I agree with a lot of your assesments of what is out there. I like the ideas about Belize, as well as what previous posters mentioned about Little Cayman and also the St. Vincent and the Grenadines (possibly including St. Lucia). These were some of the areas we had identified preliminarily as well.

there are certainly a lot of challenges as well as opportunities but if it was all easy it wouldn't be fun

Keep the suggestions/comments coming...

 

[smokey braden]

dcdivenut,
i notice we live near each other.
i agree with roatanman in that los roques should be a consideration.
i went there on the antares once and would love to return.
not only is the diving very good, but the local people on the island were very nice and i enjoyed learning about their culture.

sometimes on a liveaboard, guest do not have the opportunity to interact with the
locals. going to a carribean island on holiday is more than just diving. i like getting the flavour of a place both under the water and on shore. this way when i tell my non-diving friends i've been to X island, i can talk about more things than just fish.

los roques might be a good place to do your research.
regards

 

[caymaniac]

Hi folks...
I was wondering if I could use you guys as a sort of free test audience for a minute?

If you could pick one destination in the Caribbean that is not currently serviced, or underserviced, by a liveaboard where would it be and why?

My thoughts torward the Pacific would be that the Tahiti Aggressor serves an area that is underserved, Moorea, Papetee and the like.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[DCDivenut]

My thoughts torward the Pacific would be that the Tahiti Aggressor serves an area that is underserved, Moorea, Papetee and the like.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

We are looking to stay in the Caribbean for various reasons, although I would love to move to the South Pacific. Unfortunately for me, it is a group of investors so there is a majority issue

 

[DCDivenut]

dcdivenut,
i notice we live near each other.
i agree with roatanman in that los roques should be a consideration.
i went there on the antares once and would love to return.
not only is the diving very good, but the local people on the island were very nice and i enjoyed learning about their culture.

sometimes on a liveaboard, guest do not have the opportunity to interact with the
locals. going to a carribean island on holiday is more than just diving. i like getting the flavour of a place both under the water and on shore. this way when i tell my non-diving friends i've been to X island, i can talk about more things than just fish.

los roques might be a good place to do your research.
regards

Yep... where is King George?

Venezuela is a tough country to do business in right now. There is a lot going on there politically and the crime situation is not great, even in some of the tourist areas. There have also been reports of piracy (I kid you not!)

I agree with you about the issue of liveaboards not really putting you in touch with the local culture. It is certainly one of the trade offs but I think that most people that do a liveaboard realize this and plan accordingly, often staying a few days after or before to get the local culture aspect, or willingly sacrifice this interaction for maximal dive time.

 

[mcm007]

The Caymans and the turks are covered as well as alot of the Carribean, someone mentioned St. Vincents and the grenadines, i think a trip of grenada, St. Vince and the grenadines aboard a really, really nice stable boat that has bigger rooms and first class ammenities for about 1700 - 2000 k a week would be a trip I would book, like now..

unless someone can recommend thus type of boat to me, I think this is where you want to be.

Pure paradise, with the aroma of vanilla, nutmeg and cocoa waft through the air.. Grenada is the island of spice, dontcha know.