A Q&A with Charles Pessler, the regatta director of the legendary STIR

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 22 Mar 2017 Late March is a tough time for many sailors who are based in North America and most of Europe, as spring’s arrival-and the start of sailing season-is more promise than delivery. Region-depending, some yachts are still on the hard, and snow even has the audacity to be actively blanketing front yards, yacht clubs lawns and dinghy parks. In short, there’s a lot of potential for great times with family and friends ahead, but, for now at least, the realistic options for sailing this weekend for most of us likely either involve wetsuits, drysuits and more polypropylene base layers than a ski shop stocks on its shelves, or a plane ticket to a place with blue skies, bathtub-warm water, dependable tradewinds, world-class race-management and plenty of other racing sailors, not to mention great nightlife. If Plan B sounds like the smarter option to you, St. Thomas and the St. Thomas International Regatta (STIR) offer the best of all worlds, at least from March 24-26, 2017.

Some backstory: In 2010, I was invited to St. Thomas to pen a story about racing IC-24s for SAIL Magazine, where I was working at the time. For anyone not in the know, IC24s are “re-imagined” J/24s which use the same hull form but with an open, Melges24-style ergonomic deck and transom, and which are typically junkyard rescue boats that locals repair and rebuild and race with serious passion and aplomb. My skipper and crew were about-to-graduate high-school sailors who knew exactly how to get the boat around the buoys, usually with the bulk of the fleet safely astern.

We enjoyed a great, athletic weekend of banging-out windward-leeward races, as well as a longer “mini-distance” race that took advantage of St. Thomas’ beautiful coastline. This gave me a fantastic opportunity to experience STIR through the eyes of locals, and, dear reader, I can assure you that the optics were just fine.

Still, I couldn’t help but notice the big-boats and multi-hull classes, which looked to be having an equally great time, both on the water and back ashore during the evening parties and concerts. As much fun as the IC24s were, I'll admit to daydreaming a little bit about circumnavigating the island while flying a hull or carrying a full press of sail.

I recently corresponded via email with Charles “Chuck” Pessler, who is serving as the regatta director of the legendary STIR, to learn more about the changes and evolutions that have taken place at the event since my 2010 trip to racing paradise.

What’s new and exciting about this year’s STIR for seasoned Caribbean race veterans?

Two things.

First, we’re seeing a big growth in the large offshore multihull class. Not only in numbers, but also in brands. For example, last year there were exclusively Gunboats. This year, we’ve got a Bieker and H/H, as well as Gunboats. Something exciting is that the owners and crews aboard these vessels are working to create a new rating system.

Two people leading the charge are Grant Matthews and Larry Rosenfeld, who will be racing with Stephen Cucchiaro aboard his Gunboat 60, Flow. Flow won this class at STIR last year. In fact, the class members are meeting at the St. Thomas Yacht Club on Thursday [Ed Note: 23 March, 2017] to discuss the system and refine the rule. They will be using data obtained while racing in STIR, as well as the Heineken Regatta earlier this month and the BVI Spring Regatta next week, to fine tune. They’ve created a phone app that allows them to evaluate the rating while racing.

Secondly, we are hosting the first C&C 30 [One Design] class in the Caribbean. We have four entries. This is a new class and we’re looking forward to seeing this class grow in participation next year.

How are your entry numbers shaping up, compared to other years?
What can I say. It’s an off year for all regattas, from Key West to St. Maarten and our numbers are down slightly, too.

What classes are you seeing the concentrations of numbers in? IC24s? 30-footers? Big boats?
Certainly, one of our biggest classes is the IC24. Sailors love One Design racing and the IC24 fleets are local; mostly in the U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

The Large Offshore Multihull class has more than doubled in number this year and we’re hoping for the same result next year.

Beyond this, we have a strong spinnaker class with more asymmetrical. The Jib & Main class is growing too with more performance boats participating, not just cruisers.

There’s been a lot of talk about trying to move away from windward-leeward races to courses with reaching legs, etc. Do you guys have any unusual courses or distance races planned this year?

Windward-leewards are traditional courses for our One Design classes, like the IC24s. But even in this class, we [send] them off on island courses during Friday’s traditional sail to the Charlotte Amalie harbor and back. Then, during the next two days of racing, we run a combination of W-L courses in the morning with island races in the afternoon for them.

For all the island classes, it’s primarily island races, including this year for the C&C 30s. Round-the-island racing, or using islands as marks, is something we can do because the Virgin Islands has something like 50 to 60 islands, cays and rocks. This makes us unique and means that we have a large variety of different racecourse options available to us.

In addition, this is the second year we’re running our Round the Rocks Race. This happens on Thursday [March 23, 2017], the day before STIR begins. This 21-mile circumnavigation of the neighboring island of St. John presents several local knowledge elements.

Can you tell me about the kinds of shore-side entertainment that you guys have planned this year?
We’re offering more shore-side family-oriented activities this year. A good example is our daily Beach Party, starting at [1100 hours] There will be games, water toys and a DJ. Families can come enjoy the beach while their other family member or members are out racing.

In addition, we’ve added a Family Fun activity on Saturday from [1600 hours to 1900 hours] at IGY’s Yacht Haven Grande. Again, there will be fun and games, plus the new St. Thomas Sailing Center will be bringing one of their boats for the public to see. After this is our signature ‘Party Like a Sailor’ party at Yacht Haven Grande.

All our parties offer a nice mix of reggae and calypso, as well as rock and roll.

Anything else that you’d like to add, for the record, about this year’s STIR?
The U.S. Virgin Islands celebrates its centennial this year or the 100th anniversary of when the U.S. purchased these islands from Denmark. In commemoration, all our boats will be flying the Virgin Islands flag into Charlotte Amalie harbor for Friday’s race [on March 24, 2017]. After finishing, we’ve asked each to sail once along the waterfront bulkhead as a Salute to the Centennial.

Also in commemoration, we will have two Danish Navel training ships, the Thyra and Svanen taking part in both the Round the Rocks race and STIR. These are 1960-built, 60-foot-long, Bermuda-rigged yawls that the Danish Navy uses as part of their officer training.

The Thyra competed in a transatlantic event in 1966, a race from Bermuda to Skagen to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the Royal Danish Yacht Club, and finished 12th overall. Since then, these boats participate in only one event annually in Kiel, Germany. They are really excited to race in STIR.