bwhealy
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May 24, 2010, 9:05 AM
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St. Thomas Talent
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The St. Thomas Yacht Club has a reputation of continually producing talented sailors over the past few decades. The tiny club is located on the East end of the island in Cowpet Bay, among the United States Virgin Islands. Sailors who have risen through the ranks at the club have gone on to achieve success internationally, in the worlds of both college and professional sailing. To name a few, Peter Holmberg, who is known for his America’s Cup career with Team Alinghi and his Maxi success, and Anthony Kotoun, a professional sailor who holds several national and world titles, began their careers at the St. Thomas Yacht Club.
The club has also produced exceptionally talented college sailors. Thomas Barrows, currently in his senior year sailing for Yale has been a top performer since his freshman year. Cy Thompson, a senior at Roger Williams University, is another solid example of the level of sailing developed in St. Thomas, as is Taylor Canfield, another top performer in college sailing, and currently in his junior year at Boston College. All three of these individuals have been recognized by the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association as All-Americans in their college careers. Additionally, each one of them has qualified for this year’s ICSA Fleet Racing and Team Racing National Championships coming up in early June in Wisconsin.
The talent at the St. Thomas Yacht Club is not limited to its college and professional sailors however. Antilles High School, also located on the island, uses the club as its practice venue and home. The school has been a high school sailing power house and has achieved podium finishes at the High School Fleet Racing and Team Racing National Championships over the past few years. In fact, each of the sailors mentioned above are Antilles alumni. I recently had the opportunity to go to St. Thomas, along with SUNY Maritime head coach, and previous Antilles coach, Russ O’Reilly, to sail with the Antilles kids as a practice for their upcoming High School National Team Racing Championships, to be held in Seattle, WA over May 22nd and 23rd. Their team is made up of Antilles students from both St. John and St. Thomas, and led by seniors Tyler Rice, Olin Davis, Max Nickbarg, and junior William Bailey. Throughout the week, the kids showed an incredible amount of team racing talent. After reaching the final four at last year’s Team Race Nationals, the team is looking to improve on their performance this year. Look for these seniors to provide a strong contribution to their college teams next year, as they head off to Brown, the University of Vermont, and Yale.
Initially the club’s location in the Caribbean may appear to be a disadvantage, as the island is quite isolated. Antilles School does not necessarily get the chance to practice against other high schools on a regular basis, as most northern schools do. With the exception of one school on St. Croix, and a few BVI sailors from Tortola, the team practices entirely in-house. These considerations aside, the island’s location seems to be the key to its sailors’ success. STYC sailors have the advantage of training year-round in the most ideal conditions imaginable. The winter Trade Winds blow at a steady 15 knots plus from the Southeast on a daily basis from around November until May. In the summer months, the breeze dissipates slightly providing sailors with a full range of conditions. The fact that Caribbean temperatures rarely dip below 80, just adds to the perfection of island sailing. The club also possesses a very strong Opti program with the ability to travel to events throughout the Caribbean, South America, and the U.S. Kids have the opportunity to sail nearly every day of the year, either for fun or to practice for upcoming events in minimal sailing gear.
With the major high school and college Spring championships just around the corner, it should be very interesting to see who rises to the top. Although the St. Thomas Yacht Club may be small and seemingly at a “disadvantage” geographically, they clearly know the formula for producing exceptional sailing talent.
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