that time of year you will have a hard time. charters are filling up there boats with out having to make a deal!! this time of year you might be able to bargin. i only know of one power boat able to hold more than 12 for the bvi's and that is limnos. and even if he gave you the deal for 2000 you would still have to pay customs which is 25 per person so that is another 5oo plus you would also have gratuitys so you are still looking at close to 3000. limnos no. is 340-775-3202
good luck

oops I was wrong breakaway will hold 20 plus as well but they are for sure filling there boats up at full price that time of year! if you would like that no. let me know.

randy: it wouldn't hurt to enquire at www.captainnautica.com. Although their boats are limited to 16 for their regularly scheduled trips, they do offer special charter deals which, in your case with 20 people, would probaby entail use of two of their boats. Certainly worth a query and they really do offer a great trip and I think might meet your budget. Cheers!

Randy,
I think you are going to have a tough time of it. There are only a handful of boats capable of taking 20 people on any charter out of the USVI's and negotiating a better deal will be tough. To give you some background on boats and the coast guard regs. Most day charters fall under two categories. uninspected and inspected vessels. As a rule of thumb all uninspected vessels are limited to six passengers. These are commonly called six pack charters. Everything else falls into the inspected vessel category which requires the vessel to be built to specific design requirements set by the coast guard and to undergo an annual inspection to keep their status. These vessel will have a maximum number of passengers set by the coast guard and won't be up to negotiate as to how many they will take.
If you can find a boat to take you all together and really want to do it then I would book it and cut some expenses somewhere else. Your only other real option would be to charter four power boats with captains and split the group up and run a flotilla, and I don't think it would be much cheaper.
Good luck Jay

Randy, I was in your same position when my wedding party came down here to St. John earlier this year. I think we had about 25 people wanting to go on a boat trip and after much searching and asking around, we decided to break it down with everyone split up between three boats from Ocean Runner, each with a captain. While we were wary about being split up at first, it turned out to be a really great time. We all switched boats at the stops so we ended up spending time with everyone. It was a lot of fun! And I believe the cost was less than $3,000 but don't quote me on that. I'd highly recommend Ocean Runner for your trip.

if you are willing to do a usvi boat trip there are several boats that can do it! i think captain nauticas boats hold more than 16 but they only take 16 to make it more comfortable but since you are all family that may work i would suggest calling them as well. they don't do the baths anymore on regular charters but since you would be a private charter they may make adjustments!

Thanks everyone for all your advice...........I'll start getting in touch with some of the companies you've reccommended. Why is life so expensive.....we just want to have fun!! 🙂

Randy,

I had a big group on STJ and took St. John Shuttle to Jost. www.stjohnshuttle.com

They have 2 taxi boats that they run with captains. I can't remember the price since my wife handled it, but it was a good time.

The Limnos boat holds lots of people and they are pretty fun. You can take a day trip to the Baths then to the Caves at Norman to snorkel. I did this for my wedding with about 16 guests, I just had all my guest call ahead of time and book their spot.. we didn't have the boat to ourselves, there were probably about 20 other people on board, but we still had a blast. Gave us a 10% discount, I think it was around $90 per person, plus the customs fee ($25?) and tip for captain and crew. Don't have their number or link handy, but they are out of STT (they pick you up at the National Park dock on STJ), and I'm sure you could google it.