Shipping Registry
The Virgin Islands Shipping Registry registered 282 ships in 2010, down from 293 in 2009, according to the maritime regulator’s 2010 annual report, which was tabled in the House of Assembly last month.
The report, the most recent that has been made public, blames the reduction in new registrations in part on a “cyclical downturn in the global shipbuilding industry.”
“With fewer owners prepared to invest in new construction, shipyard order books remain low and therefore there are fewer vessels to register,” the report states. “As the global economy recovers and the shipbuilding cycle continues, it is anticipated that the number of new registrations increase.”
The registration and fee revenue the VISR generated in 2010 — $628,858.29 — marked a 24.8 percent increase from 2009’s $503,924.54 figure. But even with the revenue increase, the revenue was outweighed by expenses. It cost $1,334,009.90 to run the agency in 2010, though this was about $100,000 cheaper than the 2010 budget originally forecast.
According to the report, there were 3,557 vessels registered in the VI at the end of 2010: 3,425 pleasure craft such as yachts, 33 ferries and passenger vessels, 82 cargo and commercial ships, 11 tugboats and six fishing boats.
VISR also issued or renewed 213 boat master licences in 2010, 24 to Virgin Islanders and 179 to non-nationals.
According to the report, the regulator responded to two accidents in 2010: a fire aboard the Sun Express, and the death of Pawel Kwiatkowski, the second engineer aboard the 154-foot megayacht Charisma. Mr. Kwiatkowski went missing while he was driving the yacht’s tender near Norman Island. His body was later recovered off the coast of St John.