V.I. Olympic Medalist Gives A Sailing Lesson in Cowpet Bay

After days of dark skies and rain, it was hard to say what the waters of Cowpet Bay would offer the guests at the St. Thomas Yacht Club. Sunday was St. Thomas Sailing Center’s “Open House” event, where the public could sign up for a free sailing lesson.

It was a lesson made special by one of the instructors – 1988 Olympic Silver Medalist and America’s Cup Skipper Peter Holmberg. Three passengers set out with Holmberg in an IC24 sailboat under partly cloudy skies and a light chop on the bay. For roughly half an hour, the group sailed away from the dock at the yacht club and toured the bay. Passenger Isaac Peters eagerly took a hand at the rudder under Holmberg’s guidance. “ … watch what happens; if I go too close to the wind, watch what happens. The sails stop catching wind – the boat stops. All I’ve gotta do is turn the boat, present the sails to the wind again, and the boat starts moving,” Holmberg said.

In between instructions, he told a story of a happy childhood in Cowpet Bay, learning how to sail along with his brother, John. Learning to sail as a child was more like play than work, he said and never posed a challenge until his teenage years when he entered his first sailing competition in Puerto Rico. “The hardest thing is getting on the big stage and getting any pressure in competition,” he said, “In every sport, every performance that you do, nerves can be your biggest thing.” Out in the bay, about half a dozen children on Sunfish sailboats bobbed along while their instructor followed in an inflatable topped with an umbrella. The sight of them evoked memories of sailing to sleepovers in Christmas Cove along with his brother and their childhood “sailing posse,” who camp out in different spots along the shore and hop into their boats to stage midnight fights out in the bay.