Calm, cool, and collected proved the strategy to success for the team on the IC24, Black Pearl, winner of the highly-competitive 21-boat IC24 Class at the 51st St. Thomas International Regatta.
“We made fewer mistakes, and when we did, we took a breath, got everything back under control, and the boat back up to speed,” says St. Thomas’ Teddy Nicolosi, a college All-American sailor at the helm. Nicolosi’s all-star crew included sister and All-American, Graceann, brother-in-law Mac Agnese, who is a member of the US SailGP Team, and two-time Olympian St. Thomas’ Thomas Barrows, and his father Dan, past commodore of the St. Thomas YC.
The IC24s were among nearly 60 boats across six classes, from one-design to CSA handicap, monohull to multihull, 13- to 70-feet, with teams from the Caribbean, US, Europe, and Australia. With easterly tradewinds delivering 20-plus knots over four days, the 2025 edition was a thrilling one for all teams.
In the IC24 Class, Black Pearl also won the 2025 IC24 Caribbean Championship, sponsored by Sea Glass Properties, an event within STIR this year. Puerto Rico’s Marco Teixidor, on Cachondo, finished second, with St. Thomas’ two-time Olympian, Cy Thompson, finishing third onboard Bill T, one of St. Thomas YC’s own IC24s.
Kinship, a 52-foot Baltic skippered by the USA’s Ryan Walsh, won the CSA Racing Class. “We started the season cruising and then switched into race mode to sail the RORC Caribbean 600, the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, and STIR,” says Walsh, whose crew represented a mix of friends and family. “We enjoyed the mix of round-the-islands courses.”
The USA’s Øivind Lorentzen, helming Jax, a 43-foot Brooklin Boat Yard spirit-of-tradition design, finished second in CSA Racing, while El Ocaso, a J/122 with the UK’s Dan McGanty at the helm, was third.
In the CSA Non-Spinnaker Class, the Martin van Breems’ Jeanneau 409, Tatihou, with a crew representing van Breem’s Connecticut-based Sound Sailing Center, was the top team, proving that racing cruising boats is as much fun as racing hot-rod racers.
“We had good starts and sailed well,” says van Breems, who used STIR as the finale to his annual spring Bareboat Certification Course. “It would be great to get more cruising boats out next year.”
STIR served as the first leg of the 2025 VX One Caribbean Championship, sponsored by Evolution Sails, which continues at the BVI Spring Regatta. Sandra Askew’s Flying Jenny handily won the class with eight firsts in 11 races. “I loved one-design racing because all the boats are the same,” said Askew after the final day of racing on Sunday. “Today was difficult with the washing machine chop and high winds, but we did well.”
St. Croix native Tim Pitts, president of the VX One North American Class, finished second on his Another Bad Princess, while St. Thomas’ Chris Cilliers and St. Maarten’s Jolyon Ferron, on Easy Breezy Cheesy were third.
In the nine-boat Hobie Wave fleet, the UK’s Ian Bartlett was the top skipper after winning eight of 12 races. St. Thomas teenagers Finn Hodgins and Will Zimmerman were runners up after winning three races on the final day. “I’ve been sailing in this regatta since 2007,” says Bartlett. “It was great to see some of the younger sailors competing in the class.”
