Donna Romasco
Donna Romasco was born and raised in South Florida and her sailing experience began at only 6 weeks of age when her Dad took her out in his open day sailor. This was a family tradition as his Dad had taken him sailing at exactly 6 weeks of age. Since that day she has been a life-long child of the water. She began racing a Sunfish by the age of 8 before moving on to a Hobie 14. She and husband David met as teens in school and by college they’d purchased their first three boats, an older 26’ Chris-Craft woody they restored, a Hobie 16 and a Flying Fish. After attending university in South Florida, they were lucky enough to embark on a life of adventure and travel which took them to many corners of the world. This was mostly a fringe benefit of David’s employment but mixed with a good dose of wanderlust. They have traveled to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, USVI, BVI, St. Marten, Canada and a good deal of the USA. Their varied careers afforded them the luxury of living in many interesting places including Japan, South Florida, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland where they lived for many years exploring the Chesapeake Bay.
While living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland they started a wooden boat building business on Kent Island which produced precut kit boats. They later landed a nice contract producing a run of 16’ wooden rowboats for the US Parks Department. At the end of that contract they fell victim to another case of wanderlust and decided it was time to go cruising and return to the Caribbean. Setting off from Annapolis, Maryland, they took two years to cruise south down the ICW, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Spanish Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and finally the British Virgin Islands, which they now call home.
On their first stint in the Virgin Islands back in 1983, Donna was one of the first employees aboard the day Kathleen Mullen purchased and took over what was then known as Charter Services. Charter Services has grown over the past 30 years into Regency Yacht Vacations today. Donna also worked for Regency in the mid 1990’s before taking a sabbatical to care for ailing parents. She and David have now owned over 18 boats, thus proving they are either utterly insane, are having a whole lot of fun or both! They have lived aboard for 18 years and currently live aboard a Tayana 42 in the BVI. Aside from enjoying sailing the local waters, David is the sailing director of KATS (Kids and the Sea program) where they both volunteer to teach local kids how to sail and they are members of the Royal BVI Yacht Club.
