New Beach Bar for the BEYC
Grab yourself a beer on tap, red or white wine by the glass, or a craft cocktail like the Bitter End 2.0 (gin, peach schnapps, ruby grapefruit juice, soda, and dark rum) while shooting the breeze about sailing at the Bitter End Yacht Club’s (BEYC) newest beach bar, Reef Sampler.
Reef Sampler, a 34-foot hull purchased in the 1960s from fiberglass lobster boat pioneer Webber’s Cove Boatyard in Maine, and fully outfitted at Essex Boat Works in Connecticut, lived a long life as the BEYC’s marine workhorse. In the mid-1970s, she hauled boatloads of construction materials as the nautical outpost expanded.
She wasn’t all work and no play. Reef Sampler ferried staff and guests alike to Anegada for diving in Horseshoe Reef, fishing at the North Drop, and picnicking at then-uninhabited Necker Island. In 2017, she was tied to the BEYC’s strongest mooring when Hurricane Irma struck. But, when the sun came out, she was gone—lost at sea.
A year later, Reef Sampler was found when the UK Hydrographic Office conducted its first BVI survey since 1926. The BVI’s Sunchaser Scuba team refloated her, and she waited for her next incarnation.
“After the hurricane, Mother Nature brought us an expansive beach adjacent to the marina which did not exist before. Reef Sampler now sits right on Marina Beach, a short walk to The Quarterdeck Marina and up a set of stairs to the Village Plaza,” says Kerri Quinn Jaffe, BEYC’s chief marketing officer. “Our cocktail program is a mainstay after a day on the water. Signature drinks served at the Reef Sampler are Dark ‘n’ Stormies and Painkillers (of course), and some of the newer favorites are the Mezcal Rosemary Negroni and the Bitter End 2.0.”
Reef Sampler’s eats include bar bites like conch fritters, North Sound Fish Dippers with sriracha mayonnaise, and crispy coconut chips with sea salt. beyc.com
-by Carol Bareuther