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.

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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/.

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While some might question how much trickle-down there is from the current breed of foiling America’s Cup boats to the average sailor, there’s one area certain to benefit all of us—technical sailing clothing. In their second campaign with American Magic, Helly Hansen has been in constant consultation with the team to develop what, for us, represents the next generation of innovations in technical gear. Some are specific to AC boats, such as where knives and rescue air will be stored or strategically placed armor. But other aspects, such as the continued development of highly resilient materials that allow sailors to perform at the highest levels, are something we’re already seeing in Helly Hansen’s commercially available products. And while you can’t purchase the exact gear the American Magic team wears on the water yet (select pieces will be available next year), you can get a version of it, right now, through Helly Hansen’s In-Line Sailing Collection that feature some of the favorite pieces the team uses day in and day out. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Helly Hansen’s partnership with American Magic has also resulted in something sailors will love: the AC 37 NYYC American Magic Supporter Collection. We got a sneak peek at a few samples of the product line, which will have limited availability on the Helly Hansen website, with more gear being introduced throughout the campaign. A new red, white and blue American Magic logo adorns the back of each piece of gear, as well as a smaller version of the logo on the front.

First was the waterproof crew jacket, which is perfect for those cool spring sailing days when you’re on deck and just need a small buffer to keep the elements away, or maybe for a cool, foggy morning beach walk. It’s just a great, all-around grab-and-go jacket. You’ll appreciate the fleece-lined collar, behind which is an envelope for the hood, and fleece-lined front pockets. Speaking of pockets, there’s all you’ll need, including a front breast pocket for stashing a cellphone, the aforementioned hand-warmer pockets, and an inside security pocket.  But what’s really cool is the mesh liner in both the jacket body and the hood—the perfect moisture barrier. 

Then Helly offers the American Magic hoodie and racing tee.. The hoodie is made from cotton and includes a beefy drawstring and usual kangaroo-style pocket, for a classic comfy feel. The Racing Tee feels and acts like cotton but is actually made from recycled polyester that has been infused with recycled coffee grounds during the fiber creation process to provide everlasting UPF protection and natural anti-odor properties – yes, from recycled coffee grounds. It comes in what Helly Hansen calls a gray “fog,” in other words, a light gray. It’s a great all-around color that will keep you from overheating on hot days but not show dirt as easily as a white tee. It’s perfect for working on and around boats—or just showing support for the American Magic team. The Supporter Collection has a coolness factor that takes them well beyond your typical hoodie or tee.

The collection includes a wide variety of practical items, including tech T-shirts, jackets, pullovers, polo shirts, fleece, backpacks, belts and hats—something for every taste, interest and budget. And while much of it is unisex, there are a number of products designed specifically for women and kids, including a polo shirt, vest and fleece pullover for women, and tees and hats for kids. For more information on the complete collection, go to: hellyhansen.com/mens/shop-by/american-magic.

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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.

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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.

The post Industry Insider: West Marine appeared first on Sailing World.

The idea to compete in the Bermuda Race started off as kind of a joke, something that was seemingly impossible. After all, as some of the girls pointed out, it’s a huge race; the word “crazy” was used. But the seed had been planted.

The young sailors, made up largely of teenagers, had been racing with the Collegiate Offshore Sailing Circuit in summer 2021. Their final race, the Ida Lewis, was canceled thanks to Hurricane Henri, so they were figuring out what to do next over pizza when the following summer’s Newport Bermuda was thrown into the mix. 

“It was [our coach] Richard Feeny who ended up saying, ‘That’s not completely out there,’ and it put this idea in our heads that we could do it,” team member Milla Clarke says. “And we did it!” And that’s how the country’s oldest organized ocean race got its first-ever all-female youth team at its 52nd edition this past June. 

The team is made up of seven students from the Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island, ages 16 to 18—Milla Clarke, Sophia Comiskey, Callie Dawson, Gigi Fischer, Elizabeth Gardner, Phoebe Lee and Olivia Vincent—plus Sarah Wilme, age 20, a boatbuilding student at IYRS in Newport, and four female coaches. They not only “did” the race, but they did very well, finishing 27th overall out of the 187-strong fleet, and placing eighth in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse division of 18, which comprised mostly professional crews. 

Bitter End Yacht Club became their title sponsor when its President, Kerri Quinn Jaffe, was reading about them in Newport This Week over her morning coffee and realized that one of the girls had gone to preschool with her daughter, which really brought it home for her exactly how young they were. 

“That had me daydreaming about being a mother of one of these brave youth sailors, and how I might feel if my daughter came home and told me she wanted to compete in the 635-mile offshore race, considered one of the more challenging offshore races in the North Atlantic,” Jaffe says. “From there I started thinking about the face of sailing and our industry, and how Bitter End has always been a training ground for youth sailing, and the importance of us continuing that tradition as we evolve our next chapter.”

The girls had been training at Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, New York, which is run by Dawn Riley, a three-time America’s Cup sailor and also a Bitter End ambassador, representing its Bitter End Provisions clothing line. “Dawn and I talked about how this was a moment in time not only for these young sailors, but also for women in sailing and for youth in sailing. As we look to the future, it is critical that we develop more youth and more diversity in the sport, and we felt this team stood for something important,” Jaffe says.

In the months leading up to the race, the girls lived and trained together at Oakcliff Sailing every weekend, leaving straight after school on Thursday, sailing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and returning to Rhode Island on Sunday night in time for school Monday morning. They trained and raced in the Farr 40 that they would use for the Bermuda race under head coach Libby Greenhalgh, who had been the navigator on the all-female Team SCA in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean race.

This intense lead-up and the fact that they had been sailing together for over a year helped them tremendously, they say. “We know each other really well, and we understand what people are going through, how to help them, and what they need in order to do well. When you have that dynamic within a team, I think it’s a lot easier to do well,” Sophia Comiskey says.

Gigi Fischer seconds that: “We have this aspect where on land, and even sailing sometimes, we have so much fun, but we also know how to come together as a team, and click into what we call ‘race mode’ and stay focused.”

They describe the mostly downwind race as fairly seamless, until the last morning, when they lost their gooseneck pin connecting the mast and boom overboard and had to jury-rig a solution out of Dyneema. “It was definitely a tense moment for our team. But we were all able to rally and come together and safely work out this problem. Other boats had encountered this as well, and they had to head back unfortunately, but we muscled through as a team and were able to finish,” Olivia Vincent says.

Their watch schedule was grueling, with little sleep to be had over the three-plus days it took them to reach Bermuda: four hours on deck, where they would rotate positions, two hours of standby watch, and just two hours of sleep, “which you didn’t even get most of the time because we would have either an all-hands-on-deck situation, or you weren’t able to sleep,” Fischer says.

In the tough moments, such as being roused from their bunks, faced with wet leggings and “waterproof” socks that weren’t doing their job, their camaraderie pulled them through. “My partner, Callie, would always say, ‘We can’t get out of this; let’s just get into this,’” Clarke says, and they made it fun together. They also had the mindset of “I get to be here, instead of wishing I were somewhere else,” Comiskey adds. “And I think that makes you appreciate everything you’re doing.”

In general, they played it safe with sail choices, averaging 13 knots over the course of the race, while preserving their sails. “We ended up ripping only one sail, which we were able to repair on the boat with the sail-repair kit,” Fischer says.

An unintended factor in their success was the fact that they had no satellite weather data, so they did not end up routing around potential systems as some other teams did. When they neared Bermuda and their phones came back to life, they were able to access the tracker app, and it came as a surprise to them how well they had done. 

In contrast to their departure from Newport, where they said they had felt empowered and respected, in Bermuda they felt that they were treated differently because of their gender. They didn’t get offers to sail on better boats with more established teams as boys who hadn’t done as well as them did, but they found their own networking opportunities—in the women’s bathroom of the yacht club of all places.

“That was our favorite place,” Comiskey says. “We did some serious networking in there,” Clarke adds. “There were so few women, but the women who were there have experienced the same things as we have, and they were much older than us. They shared their wisdom and told us how they’ve made it. It was really encouraging.”

More than 30 years have passed since Dawn Riley was part of the first all-women’s team to sail around the world in the Whitbread race. “There’s still a place for all-women and all-girls teams. But it isn’t a fight; it’s a celebration,” she says.

“Overall, it was just an amazing experience,” Clarke says. “I feel so privileged to be able to do this and also so grateful to be able to do it with these girls.”

“What these young women did was an incredible adventure at sea, and we encourage and celebrate those adventures, albeit on a different scale,” says Lauren Hokin, third generation of the family who has Bitter End since 1973. “Our mission is, ‘Get out there, get on the water, get under the water, get close to nature and the elements.’ There’s so much to learn from the adventure.”

The post Team Bitter End Makes History appeared first on Sailing World.