WHAT PLASKETT’S WIN MEANS FOR THE VI CHARTER WARS

Stacey Plaskett was making the case against the BVI’s charter fee increases before she ran for governor. What happens now that she’ll be the one negotiating with us?

When Stacey Plaskett wanted to explain how the BVI’s charter fees felt to a captain in St. Thomas, she reached for an example she figured we would understand. How would BVI residents feel, she asked on the Caribbean Currency Podcast, if the USVI started charging us a fee to come over and buy groceries? 

In the early 2000s, that question would have landed. Plenty of us remember when a grocery run to St. Thomas was common enough to make a fee on the trip feel personal. That was then, but shopping in the BVI has changed. Improvements in our retail infrastructure mean we can buy our essentials locally, and online shopping gives us options that used to require a ferry ticket. People still go to St. Thomas. Being able to choose where we shop is precisely what makes the comparison feel dated.

Plaskett was warning that retaliation could cost both territories. Fair enough. Her example, though, assumes a degree of dependence on St. Thomas that many BVI households have outgrown. A charter operator selling a day on Jost Van Dyke has a different problem. If the customer is paying to see White Bay, another beach is a different sale. And now that Plaskett has won the USVI governorship, she will be in a position to negotiate on that operator’s behalf. 

What does a day in the BVI cost?

Take a St. Thomas captain who brings six visitors to White Bay. The captain collects the charter fare. A restaurant on Jost might get the lunch trade. For years, the annual BVI licence that allowed a foreign-based day boat to sell those trips cost $200. In June 2025, it rose to $8,500. A comparable BVI-based day boat under 40 feet pays $400. 

The $24,000 figure that often makes the headlines applies to certain foreign-based overnight charter boats whose operators want unlimited entries. They can instead pay $7,500 for seven charters, then $2,100 for each additional one. These are commercial licence fees, and the foreign-based rates apply to operators regardless of which country they come from. The USVI feels the increase particularly sharply because its charter companies can sell a BVI destination from a dock a short boat ride away. 

Premier Dr. Natalio Wheatley’s position is that rates dating back to 1992 gave the BVI too little return on the waters that make those charters worth booking. Plaskett’s objection was to the speed of the increase. As she put it, “you can’t make up that time in one year.” A captain who comes over twice a week has far more bookings over which to spread an $8,500 fee than one who comes twice a month. 

The BVI has an interest on both sides of that calculation. A local captain might pick up bookings from a St. Thomas operator who decides the licence is too expensive. A restaurant on White Bay might lose customers if those visitors spend the day in the USVI instead. Wheatley has reported an increase in government revenue. Across the water, a USVI charter association survey of 33 marine businesses recorded at least $2.3 million in losses that respondents associated with the changes. What we still need to know on this side is how many visitors continued coming ashore and who earned their business. 

How much pull does Plaskett have in Washington?

Plaskett spent six terms as the USVI’s delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served on the Ways and Means Committee, which handles trade. We already know what that access looks like in practice. In December 2025, she raised the BVI charter fees directly with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. By the time she asked BVI listeners to imagine a fee on their groceries, she had already put the charter industry’s complaint in front of someone with the power to bring it into American trade discussions. 

Outgoing Governor Albert Bryan Jr. had Washington’s ear, too. In September, after meeting federal officials, he asked Wheatley to attend talks in Washington and gave him a deadline to respond. Wheatley offered to host on Tortola. The two territories already had a council for settling matters between themselves, Wheatley argued. Bringing U.S. officials to the table would give the BVI reason to involve the UK. Bryan sent a revised proposal in October, which Wheatley said his government would study. Its terms have yet to be made public.

What changes for the BVI is who will be on the other side of those talks. Plaskett knows whom to call in Washington, and she has made that call before. She has also spoken directly with BVI legislators and said publicly that USVI operators could absorb an increase if it came gradually. Her record establishes access. How much influence that gives her over a decision taken in Road Town is something her governorship will test. 

As of November 6th, Plaskett has yet to announce a new charter policy as governor-elect. The opening for a conversation is in what she has already said. Wheatley wants the BVI to earn a fairer return when somebody sells a day in our waters. Plaskett thinks her operators need more time to pay for it. How much time, and at what price? Those are questions the two neighbours could reasonably sit down and answer on Tortola.