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Capt. Terry Stansel
By Jan Fogt
When it came time to choose a new captain for the Hatterascal, Bayliss recommended Terry Stansel, then captain of the highly regarded Blank Check, a 53-foot Hatteras based in Isla Mujeres. "Knowing what it is like to be separated from your family, I thought a husband-and-wife team was the perfect choice for the job," Bayliss says. "Terry and his wife, Bonny, impressed me as being a professional couple that could do it all, from entertaining to fishing to relating with the customers."
For Stansel, life as the Hatterascal's captain has played out as a major case of déjà vu. Stansel is a second-generation fisherman who bought his first car with money he earned running a line of crab traps and mating weekends and summers in St. Petersburg. At 16, he landed on the Treasure Isle, a 53-foot Hatteras run by Capt. Ray Howard. One of the few boats from Florida's west coast to travel the circuit, the Treasure Isle fished Mexico, St. Thomas and the Bahamas. On Stansel's first trip, they traveled from St. Petersburg to Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale. Tied up next to them was the Hatterascal. Just like the kids he sees behind the boat now, Stansel stared at the closed salon door, willing the captain to step out. When he did, he greeted the youngster warmly, inviting him not just aboard but to join him for dinner as well. Although Stansel has forgotten the captain's name, he remembers saying to himself, "I'd love to do something like this someday."
Some 20 years later, Stansel is not only living his dream, he's redefining the job once more.
"Terry has been a real asset in terms of providing feedback on the new systems we try out on the Hatterascal, and in providing information about trends in the marketplace that can be incorporated into our products," says sales manager Johnny Hicks, who has been with Hatteras since 1976 and who worked on the first traveling Hatterascal -- the 46-footer Capt. Jimmy O'Neill campaigned up and down the East Coast. "The new 68 is a perfect example. For the past three and a half years, Terry has been instrumental in collecting data for the design team to incorporate into what we believe is the finest boat in the industry for travel and big-game fishing."
While product development represents an important facet of the job, camaraderie remains at the heart of the operation. As a result, the Hatterascal hosts an ever-changing cadre of customers, prospects and VIPs as its tournament anglers, and does not compete for money. Yet while not intentionally competitive, sometimes the Hatterascal team can't help itself. At the 2002 Ocean City White Marlin Open, Bonny Stansel caught and released 23 whites and finished seventh overall among a field numbering more than 1,000 anglers. In the spring of 2004, the Hatterascal won two in a row in the Bahamas, including the inaugural Bahamas White Marlin Open and the first leg of the Bahamas Billfish Championship.
"From the start, the boat has functioned as an outreach of the factory," Hicks says, "as an example of the kind of teamwork and quality that is behind every boat we build." Under Stansel's leadership, the breadth of that outreach continues to grow. In 2003, the Hatterascal's tour included dozens of stops throughout Florida, the Bahamas and the U.S. East Coast, as well as a two-month campaign in the Caribbean in celebration of Club Nautico de San Juan's 50th anniversary.
Customers often are flabbergasted at how the Hatterascal seemingly is everywhere. "A lot of them think we must have two boats, but the truth is there is only one Hatterascal at a time, and we travel on our own bottom wherever we go," Stansel says. "People ask us how we maintain that schedule, but the truth is we love traveling, and we enjoy the people we meet and the people we work with. To us, it's like being part of a big family that opens its doors to anyone."
Those who have fished her know that there's truth to Stansel's statement. No matter where the ocean or what the language, the Hatterascal knows no stranger.
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