Scott and Sheree started sailing on the Chesapeake Bay after college on a 16’ Prindle Catamaran. Their next boat was a McGregor 36’ catamaran, a larger version of a Prindle. In 1990, they purchased a partial built catamaran out of Nova Scotia, finished it and named her Blown Away just before their son, Logan, was born.
In 1994, Scott sold his business, Sheree quit her teaching job of 15 years and the three of them went cruising for a year. That was the first year they sailed to St. John and fell in love with the island.
Fast Forward to 1999 when, after a two year cruising stint, they found themselves sailing to St. John again looking for work before heading back to the U.S. Scott got a job right away captaining a new boat called Calypso. Four years later, Scott and Sheree bought Calypso and started York Yachting.
In 2006, Scott, Sheree, Logan and friends sailed Calypso and Blown Away to St. Marten. They towed five center console dinghies back to St John and started St John’s first center console dinghy rental business.
In 2008, they bought their first wave piercing power cat. Scott and Logan converted it to its current layout. Scott thought that it was such a “bad” looking power cat and that’s how “Bad Kitty” got its name and their Virgin Gorda Baths boat became a reality. In 2011, they bought the sister ship to Bad Kitty in the BVI and made Bad Kitty 2 part of the family. Seamore, a Thompson 42, joined the company in 2014.
The most powerful hurricanes ever recorded to hit land, Irma and Maria, destroyed the Virgin Islands and York Yachting in September 2017. Calypso was de-masted, flipped over with her starboard bow broken off. Bad Kitty was left a dozen feet up in the air on a terrace with 15’ of her starboard hull missing and more than a dozen punctures to her hulls. Both boats were declared totaled. Bad Kitty 2 was on the hard in St. Thomas. She was blown off her chocks and sustained hundreds of scrapes and dents but no structural damage. Seamore sank and was never seen again. Blown Away, the York’s home for 20 of the 27 years they owned her, was crushed at the dock she was tied to and sank resulting in a total loss. Both fuel and supply boats were destroyed along with the rental dinghies.
Chez Shell, the rental villa the York’s bought six months before the hurricanes, was also destroyed. Six weeks after the hurricanes, Logan and Tessa had a baby boy named Harbor, Scott and Sheree’s first grandchild. A true son of a son of a sailor!
Scott and Jeremy, the captain of Bad Kitty 2, patched her up and they resumed charters in December of 2017 as the first inspected vessel to do so out of St. John.
Scott and Logan, the captain of Bad Kitty and Scott’s son, moved her from a terrace she was sitting on to the beach for repair. Two months later, she was Coast Guard inspected and put back into service.
Calypso was the last boat to be repaired due to the fact that she was upside down in National Park waters and they were not allowed to get her back for 11 months. Scott and Mike, the captain of Calypso, repaired, inspected and launched her in June of 2019. The York’s plan to replace Seamore and rental dinghies to get back to pre-hurricane status.
York Yachting is family owned and operated; and the oldest continually owned Day Charter Company on St John. When you do a trip with us, you are going on boats that the family and associates have built, repaired and maintained themselves. We have the best captains and crew in the Virgin Islands. Our safety record is impeccable. We pride ourselves on how many repeat customers we have year after year. Our mission is to make sure “your day trip with us is the best day of your vacation.”
We truly appreciate your business as we recover and hope you will come back and sail with us! Who knows, one day you may have Harbor as your captain.
Thank you for your interest in our story,
The York Family
