Dark & Stormy: Race to Anegada
The 25th annual Dark and Stormy, one of the West End Yacht Club’s flagship races, took place from March 5th to 7th. The race, is noted for its camaraderie, good fun, games and opportunities to explore Anegada, the BVI’s most remote and intriguing island.
On Saturday, the race started off Marina Cay at 10am, with boats racing up to Anegada where participants gathered for a weekend of food, drink, and music at the Anegada Reef Hotel. On Sunday, “Lay Day,” there was copious socializing and a variety of activities, including island tours, which introduced participants to the rich beauty, endless beaches and wildlife of Anegada. Tortola residents arrived by ferry and visiting yachtsmen joined in the festivities. On Monday, H. Lavity Stoutt’s Birthday (a public holiday in the BVI), sailors raced to Soper’s Hole where there was an Awards Presentation at Omar’s Fusion.
Founder Martin Halpern, a retired orthodontist, long-time BVI resident and live aboard yachtsman has been sailing to Anegada over the course of his many years here.
“The Dark and Stormy helped put Anegada on the map with cruising yachtsmen,” Marty remarked. A good friend of Anegada fisherman Vernon Soares and his family, Marty has spent a lot of time on Anegada. In the 1990s, he marketed the Soares’ freshly caught seafood through his Tortola-based company, Sailor’s Ketch.
“Vernon suggested the idea of a race to Anegada as a way to get people to come to his new beachside restaurant at Neptune’s Treasure,” said Marty. Anegada’s treacherous Horse Shoe Reef has ensnared innumerable ships, including Spanish galleons and freighters, and navigating the reef has been a major challenge for modern sailboats. The eventual introduction of marker buoys has made passage into Setting Point safer, opening up the island to cruising yachtsmen, something that Vernon and Marty wanted to encourage with their new race.
Marty named the race “Dark and Stormy,” a nod to Harriett Beecher Stowe’s classic novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which he had read as a child. The Gosling Rum drink, the Dark and Stormy, later became a popular drink with the event’s participants. Vernon and his family organized the food, entertainment and games and the event took off, increasing in popularity every year.
The Dark and Stormy is now run by the West End Yacht Club, and this year sponsors were the Anegada Reef Hotel, Jeremy’s Kitchen and Omar’s Fusion. Following a bumpy period for BVI yacht racing during Covid, organizers were pleased with the 2022 race.
For information on the West End Yacht Club go to westendyachtclubbvi.com
