For sailors, riggers and manufacturers, the focus of rope technology has long been on the core, rope covers a mere consideration. But today, far more sophisticated covers are being realized for better rope performance, longevity and safety. Chris Manson-Hing, an authority in marine rigging at Marlow Ropes, argues that cover construction is now the topic of conversation.

For the average sailor, cordage has not evolved much over the last 10 years,” Manson-Hing says. “We haven’t seen major changes with cover technology until now. That’s the interface that you are touching and that your hardware is touching. It’s the cover that’s protecting the core and this is what’s going to give you strength in the rope.”

For Manson-Hing and engineers at Marlow, technical cover development has been hand-in-hand with top riggers and grand prix programs that demand precision control of highly-loaded ropes that take beatings from aggressive winch drums, clutches and blocks. This has now enabled Marlow to bring advanced, tried and tested products to club racers and dinghy sailors.

“For the everyday performance cruiser or club racer with modern sails, hardware and mast technology there also needs to be a new standard of performance in their rope.” Manson-Hing says.

The majority of failures that he has seen point to the cover as the culprit. “That’s due to improper cover materials being used, and that’s where you’re putting the core at risk,” he says, “and that’s where the breakages happen.”

And that’s where Marlow’s development of “triple-blend” covers comes into the conversation. The workhorse raceboat blend for most cordage manufacturers is polyester and Technora, but Marlow goes beyond with one blend of polyester, Technora and Vectran, a combination that’s ideal for runner tails, spinnaker sheets and jib sheets.

“With anything that’s being eased and trimmed continuously, especially around a winch drum, we need to consider heat and having a good balance of grip and slippage,” Manson-Hing says. The rope’s Technora and polyester elements provide grip when trimming the sail or runner tail and adding Vectran as a third fiber adds strength and abrasion resistance, while allowing slippage for smoother and more controlled eases on a winch drum.

“It’s going to give you more finite control and prevent that jumping motion you feel when you ease any line,” Manson-

Hing says, “so you’re going to be more active with trimming, experimenting and making smaller adjustments.”

A second new triple-blend uses Technora, Dyneema and polyester. While Dyneema lacks heat resistance, it is lighter and delivers chafe resistance and durability in more static applications—think tack lines and halyards on cabin-top winches. For a controlled ease of a loaded halyard for example, this blend allows for multiple wraps. “Because it’s a bit more slippery, you’re going to have more control of a drop or ease with more wraps,” Manson-Hing says. “Being able to have a controlled ease, without having to push the rope around the drum, is a gain for any situation.”

The benefits of these blended covers go beyond big boats with winches. Manson-Hing is an avid Formula 18 catamaran sailor, who enjoys the fruits of Marlow’s recent developments in its high-performance, small-boat range. Whereas winches eat lines on the big boats, more aggressive ratchet-block sheaves on dinghies and sportboats are cover munchers too.

“The trend in the dinghy market is to go to smaller diameters, but there is a limit to that,” Manson-Hing says. “What we really need is something that can give millimeter precision control but also grip when the puff hits and you need to ease sheet. And we need it to last.”

Marlow’s solution is to right-size lines for modern sheaves while reaping the benefits of a triple-blend approach. As the key technical fibers, Dyneema in the cover ensures durability and slip for sheet while Technora delivers grip in the sheave and hand when the load is static.

“Having more contact space with the ratchet, you’re giving yourself the same exact feeling of adding more wraps to the winch,” Manson‑Hing says, “and you’re now giving yourself the opportunity to ease in a controlled manner.”

As validation, he says, he finds himself using the mainsheet cam cleat less and less as the line runs so well and is easy to adjust downwind, also he’s now getting three times the life out of a set of sheets.

Manson-Hing emphasizes that high-quality rope is never going to be inexpensive, but it will last longer. What is expensive is replacing rope often or losing a sail overboard.

“I’ve found that we’ve been getting so much more time out of the same equipment,” he says, “and investing in the right rope that lasts through multiple seasons then allows you to invest in the hardware as well.”

The post The Cover is Key appeared first on Sailing World.

Advances in code sail furling systems have revolutionized the way racers and cruisers manage their headsails with greater ease. Facnor and Profurl have been at the forefront of this transformation—an intertwined pair of brands whose innovations have made sail handling systems that are safer, faster and more reliable. Wichard Groupe North America’s Mark Van Note, a veteran rigger and expert on these systems, says today’s refined furlers are not just about the hardware—they’re about reducing fret on the foredeck. For racers, that means better sail changes. For cruisers, it’s more miles and stress-free passages. 

Innovation in Sync

Facnor and Profurl have long been operating in the same technical space, and while many attributes of the two French brands are similar, they still operate independently, Van Note says. This unique relationship between the two companies has driven both competitive innovation and mutual advancement. Facnor has a little bit more of a custom reputation, Van Note says, adding that Facnor’s flexibility helps them tailor products for serious racers and unique projects. By contrast, Profurl doesn’t necessarily have as much customization, Van Note says. They instead focus on providing robust, standardized furling systems that work right out of the box and are suited for everyday sailors and cruisers.

The Wichard Groupe represents both brands in the US, but the technical similarities and hardware integration between the two brands are striking, and there’s a point to that. “We can take components from one brand, bring it to the other, and vice versa,” Van Note says, “which helps when we’re dealing with a boat that has a diverse inventory of flying sails.” 

Ratchets and Drums

Profurl and Facnor have invested heavily in improving the user experience to ensure easy and consistent furls. Profurl redesigned its range about five years ago, Van Note says, and its drums are now slightly larger than Facnor’s drums (for a comparative-sized unit). A larger drum provides more power when furling, which makes it easier. Racers and high-performance sailors favor Facnor’s smaller drum for the speed advantage. While ease of furling is typically more important than speed for shorthanded cruisers, recreational sailors and club racers, Profurl does, however, offer smaller drum “speed versions” for high-performance applications.

Both brands have ratchet mechanisms integrated into the drum. Facnor implemented their ratchet technology quite a while ago, and Van Note admits that engaging and disengaging the ratchet remotely with the furling line does require a subtle technique. Profurl’s ratchet is simpler to use. Crucially, the ratchet mechanisms of both Profurl and Facnor ratchet units can be engaged from the cockpit using the furling line. 

The Right Applications

The flexibility of having both Facnor and Profurl units for customers allows Wichard Groupe North America to accommodate customers with diverse sail inventories. Facnor’s code sail furlers, for example, can be used for either bottom-up or top-down furling. The latter is accomplished with an optional integrator fitting. To convert the unit from bottom-first to top-down furling when an anti-torsion cable is integrated into the luff of the sail Van Note explains, “You simply install an integrator in the drum, which gives you an independent tack swivel. When you drive the furling drum, it’s going to drive the cable only.”

Profurl’s top-down furling kit, the Spinex, offers one crucial advance for soft-sail applications where the cable is external to the luff of the sail. It comes with an isolation tube as part of the kit,” Van Note explains. “What happens a lot when you top-down furl is, no matter how good the cable is, you’re going to end up with a certain amount of twist in the cable. When you’re finished with the furl, the cable will tend to unwind and grab onto the first wrap or two of cloth and spin it the other direction, which can cause problems when you unfurl. The isolation tube within the Spinex system prevents that from ever happening.”

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Whether you’re chasing the podium or your next escape, Garmin can help with sailing technology engineered for your helm. Their award-winning products include chartplotters, sailing instruments, autopilots, radars, stereos and more — with a wide selection of sizes and setups to work with any vessel.

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Sailing is both an art and a science, a sometimes-complicated pursuit that, once learned and mastered, can offer a lifetime of rewards. Sailing a catamaran well is an altogether different experience, as a light, fast cat can provide speeds and thrills that are simply unattainable on most monohulls.

As the founder and builder of the Xquisite line of bluewater catamarans, which can take their owners literally anywhere in the world, Tamas Hamor understands this fully. He also knows that taking command of a powerful cat requires a specialized skillset. How, he wondered, could he ramp up the experience level of potential Xquisite owners, while also exposing them to the unbound joys and singular satisfaction of commanding a superb sailing catamaran?

Enter the Xquisite 30 SportCat, the high-tech, beautifully executed answer to that seemingly simple question.

The 30-foot SportCat is a collaborative effort between Hamor and accomplished French naval architect François Perus, who conceived of the boat, and built its prototype, as his senior project while finishing his master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Perus is an engineer, but he’s also a devoted sailor, and he conceived of the SportCat as something he could moor off his family’s home on Brittany for fast, fun daysails, but with simple accommodations in the hulls for occasional camping cruising off the rugged French coastline. 

Hamor realized that the SportCat would also be the ideal teaching boat for his new owners, some of whom had little practical sailing experience. With a small fleet docked at Xquisite’s base in Freeport, Bahamas, the SportCat would offer direct, sporty feedback of pure, powerful sailing on a responsive platform in glorious Bahamian waters while they learned to operate their larger cruising cats. The SportCat would also serve as the ideal little race boat for small overnight regattas to the nearby Berry Islands, further enhancing its vast potential.

Also, as a trailerable boat that can also be stored and shipped in a standard shipping container, the SportCat is also a vessel attractive not only to other sailing schools and day-charter operations, but also to private owners who know how to sail but who seek to enjoy a next-level sailing experience. In other words, the little cat can serve many missions.

To accomplish all this, the SportCat had to be light but strong, and built with the best materials and building practices. The hulls of the cat are a vinylester laminate with a foam core that employs bulletproof carbon-fiber in high-load sections. The rotating wing mast, which permits the spar to pivot to optimize the apparent wind angle, is also constructed with carbon. The state-of-the-art 3Di North Sails maximize the performance in all wind strengths. Yet with all this leading-edge technology, the SportCat is also simply laid out with easily accessible rigging and sail controls. And driving the boat, with the long tiller extension providing fingertip steering control, is a sublime experience.

The Xquisite 30 SportCat started off as a straightforward project by a singular, passionate French sailor. It’s evolved into a catamaran that will introduce the sport to a willing audience in countless ways.

For more information on the Xquisite 30 Sportcat, visit 30sail.xquisiteyachts.com.

The post Serving Many Missions: The Xquisite 30 SportCat appeared first on Sailing World.

Perched on the shores of the deepwater Pensacola Bay, in the farthest northwest corner of the Florida Panhandle, the city of Pensacola had for years eluded the sailing spotlight. So-named for the long-haired indigenous inhabitants encountered by the Spanish explorers of the 1500s, Pensacola’s identity has ebbed and flowed with the tides. This City of Five Flags was abandoned for nearly a century after a hurricane wiped out its original Spanish inhabitants, to later be governed by France, Great Britain, the US and the Confederate States of America. 

A significant economic contributor to Florida for timber and fishing in the 1930s and 1940s, Pensacola’s sailing culture flourished in the decades that followed but fell dormant in the aftermath of the 1970s and 1980s hurricanes, which once again drove an entire generation elsewhere. 

With a history as turbulent as the hurricanes that defined it, the city on the bay is rising again, this time capitalizing on its distinguishing geographic features. 

Immediate past commodore of the Pensacola Yacht Club Tom Pace knows the city—and its bay—quite well. The once-professional windsurfer grew up in Pensacola, moved away during the aforementioned dormant years, but returned to care for his ailing parents. His love for Pensacola inspired a Quixote-esque quest to showcase the bay’s ideal location and sailing conditions. 

Spanning roughly 5-by-11 miles in depths of 22 to 32 feet, Pensacola Bay’s sail-racing area takes advantage of the optimal sailing conditions. Here, wind conditions vary from season to season, but serve up a perfect 8.1 mph average punctuated by 15 to 25 mph frontal surges between October and May. The warmer months see light winds in the morning building into a southwesterly sea breeze later in the day.

The bay has been home to several notable youth sailing events in recent years, including the 2018 Optimist National Championship and the US Sailing Youth National Championship, as well as a host of national and international regattas. 

“It had been a dream for years,” Pace says. “We are trying to rebuild a sailing culture.” 

Pace’s vision coincided with the brewing of the perfect storm—one propelled by the New York Yacht Club’s decision to challenge the 36th America’s Cup. Led by three-time Maxi72-class champion and yachtsman John “Hap” Fauth, businessman Roger Penske and Quantum Racing head Doug DeVos, the AC Cup Challenger team American Magic was looking for a training base. Key West offered the infrastructure but temperamental conditions. Pensacola’s protected bay, on the other hand, offered conditions similar to Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.

“We kept bugging American Magic to relocate from Key West to Pensacola,” Pace says. “The bay offers winds from every direction and, unlike San Francisco or New York, it’s not as seasonal. The cost of living factors in as well.” Team representative Dr. Jim Andrews visited during a particularly stellar 40-knot day. “We got a call a month later from Tyson Lamont (WHO). They would need a dock, containers, and stakes for tent structures for the AC36 Challenger team who would use Pensacola Bay as its winter training base, named Warehouse 10.

“In the 1984 Olympics, the US took gold or silver in each of 12 sailing medal divisions,” said Pace. “Since then we’ve fallen off; during the past three Olympic cycles, the US has had one medal. Hap and Doug saw this stagnation of American sailing and went back to the cradle. They needed a performance sailing center.”

In 2020, the biggest names in American sailing turned their attention not only to US sailing, but to Pensacola as well. Names such as Paul Cayard, Dawn Riley, Ray Palmer, Terry Hutchinson, and Mike Cazer were each influential in the fledgling opti, foils, and Moth events now surging on the bay.

This year, Pace’s vision for Pensacola came one step closer to reality when the board of Triumph Gulf Coast voted unanimously to approve an $8.5 million grant for design, renovation, and completion of the American Magic training facility. The new Center for Maritime Excellence will serve as the permanent headquarters for the American Magic team. On top of this, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a $3.9 million grant from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund to strengthen Pensacola’s infrastructure and “promote economic opportunities in the sailing industry for the Florida Panhandle.”

“There is a lot of excitement here now that real hard dollars are going into our vision,” says Pace. “None of this would have been possible without Merrill Land Company President/Owner Collier Merrill at the state level and Ellis Bullock, President/Creative Director of marketing and communications firm EW Bullock on the local level. Without them we would not have begun the sponsorship of American Magic. In fact, Pensacola, Florida will now be displayed on the sails through the Cup Finals. They have been critical to the relationship with local leaders as well as with the Governor, Florida Senators and Congressmen, and remain the bedrock of all of this.

“Our task now is to build out the infrastructure,” says Pace. “The marina space may be a challenge but the water is not. There is a load of potential in revitalizing the waterfront as well as downtown Pensacola.”

Now that the momentum is going, Pace can already taste an American Magic win in Barcelona. “If American Magic wins, how do we shape up the defense in Pensacola? There is a lot of excitement. We need tourist development and the county engaged, if it’s all going to work. What we have is an incredibly cohesive core group that we hope will influence the ancillaries. Everything has been set, we have legitimate money, everybody is in. If you build a little bit of infrastructure, you will attract a lot.”

Godspeed, Pensacola. We’ll see you on the bay.

To learn more about Pensacola sailing visit www.visitpensacola.com/feature/sailing/.

The post Winds of Change appeared first on Sailing World.

For many people, being named a crewmember aboard an America’s Cup boat is considered the pinnacle of sailboat racing. These sailors are among the world’s best of the best, having earned their spots on board after years—sometimes, after decades—of honing their skills and knowledge in fierce competition out on the water.

Then, once they have reached that pinnacle of the sport, they have to learn all kinds of things anew. In 2012, foiling sailboats became part of the America’s Cup for the first time, requiring the athletes to learn how to fly. In 2018, the creation of the AC72 required lessons involving yet more new sailing techniques. For the 37th America’s Cup, which is scheduled to be raced in 2024 off the coast of Barcelona, Spain, sailors are out on the water right now, learning everything they need to know about the AC72’s smaller sistership, the AC40. 

As the boats are evolving, so are each of the systems on board. Think about the technology you carried around in your pocket a decade ago compared with what you have available at your fingertips today. Now, extrapolate that exponential increase of power and features into the highest of high-tech equipment on board America’s Cup boats. Imagine being tasked with fully understanding every last bit of it, with a depth of knowledge that allows you to make smart, split-second decisions.

Even the most experienced, celebrated sailors in the world are always learning something new. That’s how life works—not just for them but for us all. All day, every day, we are growing, learning and changing. 

We all need help to manage and simplify life’s ever-changing complexities. Sometimes, we need more, or different, help than others.      

As the Whittier Trust team knows firsthand, it takes a full crew working in practiced unison to make sure all the moving parts continue to move in the right directions. 

In fact, Whittier Trust built its whole business on being able to give clients anything they need as their own needs and desires change, and as the world’s complexities shift all around them. The company’s focus is on helping generation after generation of a family achieve their goals, simply and efficiently, regardless of what those goals might be.

From their roots as a single-family office in 1935 for the Whittier Family, and now as a multifamily office for a broader client base, Whittier Trust has a singular, refined focus on the business of wealth management. The company’s breadth of services includes everything from investment advice to managing family office needs, family trusts, philanthropy, real estate and more. Whittier organizes the right team of advisers from the start, matching their skills with the client’s needs and dreams to simplify day-to-day decisions. 

And those advisers are always learning and growing their skill sets. No matter what areas of expertise a client requires and no matter how those needs change over time, Whittier maintains a ratio of just 25 clients for every adviser on the team—a level of personalized service that is unmatched anywhere else. 

The result for the client is a lot less stress about life’s complexities. Just as with an America’s Cup team, where each crewmember is personally responsible for a daily check of, say, the boat’s electronics or wing controls, the Whittier Trust team members are each accountable for managing their corner of a client’s life balance sheet.   

If you listen to interviews with sailors who have won the America’s Cup (especially those who have won the Auld Mug a few times in their lives), they often talk about how, throughout all the races, their team improved. Maybe their boatspeed got faster each day,      their turns got tighter with each run or their grinders pushed that much harder with each crank. Whatever they realized they needed to do differently to win, they learned and grew and did it. That’s what makes champions.

It’s also what the Whittier Trust team aims to do for each of its clients: help them simplify life’s complexities so they can succeed at whatever new thing they choose to try next. It’s a winning strategy that’s served Whittier Trust clients well for over 85 years.

For more information about Whittier Trust, visit whittiertrust.com.

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Precise and active sail trim is the final-percentage difference in maximizing your boatspeed advantage on the racecourse. Harken’s new Zircon range of blocks use a ceramic race and ceramic ball bearings to achieve a better feel for a light-air trim and heavy-air efficiency. This is a true trimmer’s block, says Matt Schmidt, of Harken Inc., the global leader in performance sailboat hardware. After months of R&D, world champion sailor Ravi Parent confirms his Zircons make him faster and shares how he integrates Zircon blocks into the precision sail-trim systems of his high-performance crafts. For more information about the Zircon blocks, visit harken.com/zircon.

About Harken

The real fuel behind a company’s success is its people.

Peter and Olaf Harken recognized this basic business principle over 50 years ago when starting Harken/Vanguard in the snow and corn country of southeastern Wisconsin. Since those early days, Harken has grown from a backyard dream of two brothers to a global reality with offices and distributors around the world. Harken gear dominates events like the America’s Cup, the Ocean Race, the Maxi Worlds, Super Yacht events worldwide, the Olympics and one-design championships everywhere, with blocks, travelers, deck hardware, winches, and hydraulics.

The Harken story has been full of twists, turns, successes, and reinventions, but through it all the goal of challenging the status quo and commitment to excellence has always remained the same.

The post Harken Zircon Block Range appeared first on Sailing World.

The British Virgin Islands—home of the famous Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival— are known among sailors for steady winds, an abundance of well-maintained moorings in scenic, protected bays and coves, and easy line-of-sight navigation that makes for fun, breezy day trips and adventures.

The BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival, one of the Caribbean’s premier annual sailing events, held March 27 to April 2, 2023, has become a favorite among boaters who crave big competition followed by even bigger afterparties. This year marks the 50th anniversary of this international event, so expect the fetes to deliver like never before. The week draws in more than 90 yachts from around the world as well as attendees taking advantage of the BVI’s massive rental fleet to enjoy five days of racing – two days for the Sailing Festival and three days of racing for the Spring Regatta – and three course areas. Note that the regatta offers 12 classes and the Sailing Festival offers five classes, welcoming every skill level from novice to expert so anyone who loves the salty life can take on action to suit their speed, from high-intensity, competitive racing to leisurely cruising. Each race finishes at a different spot, giving attendees a taste of the BVI life of island-hopping, from Foxy’s Bar on Jost Van Dyke to the newly remodeled restaurants and accommodations of Nanny Cay on Tortola.

If you can’t make the Spring Regatta, rest easy. The British Virgin Islands is a year-round sailing hotspot where you can create your own itinerary highlighting whichever isles you choose. Charter a monohull or catamaran either with a captain or bareboat—there are plenty of options to make the trip your own.

Most trips start on Tortola, the biggest island and home to the international airport. Tortola also serves as the base for most boat charter operations, including The Moorings, Sunsail and Waypoints, the newest charter option, launched in late 2021 and operating out of Nanny Cay. Of course, the island itself has much to offer as a destination. One of the more popular anchorages is Cane Garden Bay on the northwestern side of the island, known for its turquoise water, as well as choice kayaking, snorkeling and surfing November to March. Stay into the evening for the barbecue and live music at Quito’s Gazebo, a local favorite. Soper’s Hole Marina serves as another great base for provisioning and strolling the pastel-colored boutique shops. Active types won’t want to miss the hike up to Sage Mountain National Park, the highest peak in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

One of the other four biggest islands, Virgin Gorda, sits 8 miles from Tortola. It’s the home of The Baths National Park, an iconic scenic spot where basalt boulders lean against one another permanently, forming grottoes and tunnels to explore and climb. Multiple routes weave throughout, each leading to a different high point perfect for taking a group photo or a hand-holding group jump into the deep waters. For a relaxed meal or cocktail while still taking in this epic scenery, head to the Top of the Baths or tuck into a grilled lobster before enjoying a frozen coffee drink or mudslide cocktail poolside. On Virgin Gorda, you’ll find one of the resorts most beloved by sailors: The Bitter End Yacht Club. This resort reopened in 2021 and now offers overwater bungalow accommodations, an upgraded option should you want to enjoy a night off the boat or extend your trip a few days. In 2023, the resort will roll out new amenities, including a massive expansion to its legendary Club Fleet with new watersports programs, including kiting, wing foiling and windsurfing.

From Virgin Gorda, sail two-and-a-half hours north and reach 11-mile-long Anegada, the least visited of the inhabited BVI. It’s a rare gem well worth the effort. Anegada offers that back-in-time peaceful respite. Take Cow Wreck Beach, a haven for solitude-seekers. You can walk miles in any direction and often not see another soul. The bar itself is a different story; it’s a place drawing an eclectic crowd of scuba divers, snorkelers and other nature lovers. Horseshoe Reef, the world’s fourth-largest barrier reef, is not to be missed, with ample opportunities to encounter eagle rays, Atlantic spadefish, permit and a host of other marine life. 

Then there’s Jost Van Dyke, a day-tripper favorite for its soft, white-sand beaches where there’s always a party. Soggy Dollar Bar on White Bay is the center of the action, where boaters converge to partake of the local cocktail called the Painkiller, a mix of dark rum, cream of coconut, pineapple and orange juices, topped with fresh grated nutmeg. Each bay on Jost Van Dyke offers its own beach bar, from Sidney’s Peace and Love on Garner Bay (Little Harbour) to Foxy’s Bar—home of the world-famous New Year’s Eve Party—at Great Harbour. If you want to overnight on Jost Van Dyke, you have a couple of new options. The Hideout, a newly opened boutique seven-villa resort, offers a high-end experience on White Bay. New as well are the neighboring White Bay Villas with 20 units, all with traditional Caribbean style and unbeatable sunset views.

In between the big four islands are countless smaller ones and more than 17 easy-to-find anchorages. In the BVI, you can also take advantage of a handful of private island resorts open for day visitors. Enjoy a cocktail or gourmet meal at Saba Rock, reopened in 2021, or book a spa treatment at Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina. Of course, a few undeveloped islands don’t offer much by way of amenities but have plenty of escapism. A hiking trail on Salt Island leads to small cliffs overlooking crashing waves. It’s also home to the country’s most famous scuba-dive spot. Boaters who overnight here get first crack at snorkeling or diving the R.M.S. Rhone, arguably the Caribbean’s best preserved shipwreck, dating to 1867. Norman Island, rumored to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, is known for its seaside caves, hiking trails and deserted beaches waiting to be enjoyed.

That’s the beauty of the British Virgin Islands: There’s so much to explore in whatever way you like, whether that’s rafting up flotilla-style with your best mates and taking on the sights, bars and bites together, or breaking away for a quieter, more intimate getaway, navigating your own path toward nature, solitude and one-of-a-kind hideaways. It’s all here in the British Virgin Islands.

The post Chart Your Own Course in the British Virgin Islands appeared first on Sailing World.

The British Virgin Islands Painkiller cocktail is one of the most iconic drinks in the Caribbean. If you have visited the BVI, it is likely you tried one for yourself either on the shores of Soggy Dollar Bar, where the cocktail was invented, or on any one of the 60 islands, islets, and atolls that make up the British Virgin Islands.

Although the original Painkiller recipe remains a secret, Pusser’s Rum founder Charles Tobias developed a recipe to match the original flavor profile. Fortunately for all, that recipe is simple enough to make at home.

The Iconic Pusser’s Painkiller

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Pusser’s Rum
• 4 oz. pineapple juice1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. cream of coconut
• Freshly grated nutmeg

Recipe:

• Fill cocktail shaker with liquid ingredients and shake vigorously
• Pour into a goblet filled with ice
• Grate fresh nutmeg on top
• Sip while you dream of your next vacation to the 600 nautical miles of the British Virgin Islands

The post BVI Painkiller Cocktail Recipe appeared first on Sailing World.

Andrew Parkinson, editor in chief of our sister brand Cruising World, recently stopped by the Fort Lauderdale West Marine store to chat with Zach Grover, Category Manager for Sailboat Hardware, Anchored Docking and Deck Hardware, about how the marine retail supplier is keeping sailors equipped with the latest gear they need in a constantly evolving sailing world. Visit www.westmarine.com or your local West Marine retail store to stock up your gear bag.

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