Sportswear giant Nautica continues to harass local St. Croix sailor and entrepreneur Jeannie Sylvester regarding her line of Nauti-gal apparel. Sylvester has received several threatening “cease and desist” letters from Nautica’s legal department.

Jean decided to design her own line of sailing garb for gals after suffering years wearing what the “big boys” thought she should wear. Tired of the same ole same ole, she set out to design sailing apparel for women that would fit, function and “appeal to her feminine sense of style”.

Despite no similarities in products, designs, or logos, Nautica thinks her brand name Nauti-Gal is too similar to theirs, claiming a right to the prefix “nauti”. Even Microsoft, famous for throwing its weight around, hasn’t been so bold as to claim trademark rights to “Micro” and bully Microcom,Microdyne, Microlab, Microprose, Microtech, Microtek, et al.

We think that if Nautica put as much effort into designing comfortable competition-quality sailing apparel for women as it does in trying to intimidate possible competitors, Nauti-Gal would never have come about and Jeannie could have spent more time sailing and less designing clothes.

If you agree, you can tell Nautica to leave her alone by:

Calling: (212) 541-5757;    Faxing: (212) 887-8136

or writing: Nautica, 40 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

Nauti-Gal -

Nautica -

If you want to get a massage while staying at the Divi Carina Bay Resort in St. Croix, you MUST patronize their new spa, or hide in your room.

My wife, Terry, and I have been providing quality professional therapeutic massage and spa services to Virgin Islands visitors and residents for over eight years. Terry has been enhancing the experience of guests at the Divi since the hotel opened its doors. Back in the early days, she set up a tent by the pool, at their request. She would sit out there, hour after hour, at no cost to the hotel, giving massages to guests, upon request, and paying a commission to Divi for every massage. As her business grew, she no longer had the time to sit out there for free, but would go to the resort to provide massages by appointment.

Now the hotel has built a spa and no longer wants us to provide massage to guests. They don’t call us, we don’t leave brochures, but business goes on. We advertise, as other businesses do, and we have many satisfied customers that call on us year after year. We do not seek out guests at the Divi hotel, but we do have guests who know us by personal experience or reputation that seek us out. We do not take any business from the hotel’s spa. We do not leave brochures or cards on property. We do not solicit patrons directly, in their rooms, on the beach, or in the hotel’s public areas. When a guest, familiar with our quality work, calls on us, we provide professional therapeutic massage, or other out-call spa services, per their request, in their room, on the beach, or in one of the hotels open public spaces, outside, where it does not negatively impact any other patrons or hotel operations.

In fact, the hotel still benefits from the value added service as well as collateral promotion for the spa. We post no signs, logos or other business identification. Guests who see us on property are left to assume the service is provided by the hotel. If they inquire about spa services at the front desk, concierge, beach activities desk, or check the table tents in their rooms, they will be referred to Divi’s spa, not to our business.

The management has decided to arbitrarily restrict guests from utilizing the resort facilities for which they have paid. They can receive services from us if they hide in their room, but they are prohibited from using any other hotel property for this purpose, unless they use the spa’s therapists.

Apparently this decision applies only to massage (or maybe only to massage by us). As far as I know, guests may choose where they dine, in fact, the conceirge will book reservations for them at restaurants that are not on property! There is a dive shop facility at the resort, but guests are not obligated to buy, rent, or receive instruction from them. The hotel boasts two bars, but get this, guests are allowed to drink what and where they choose. They can mix a cocktail in their room and walk with it out on the hotel’s dock to enjoy the view, the sounds of the surf and the refreshing tropical breeze, as long as they don’t get a massage while they’re out there.