Key West's offshore powerboat finale has found a sponsor as local as the water it races on: the island's own rum distillery.
Key West Legal Rum Distillery, the island's first legal rum producer since Prohibition, has signed on as a sponsor of the Key West World Championships. Both the distillery and the offshore powerboat circuit trade heavily on Key West's identity as a hub of maritime history and hard-edged island character, making the pairing a natural fit.
Chef and distiller Paul Menta founded the operation in 2013. It runs out of a historic 1903 building at 105 Simonton St, a site with its own layered backstory, having served as Jack's Saloon before later becoming a Coca-Cola bottling plant.
USA Today named it America's "Best Craft Rum Distillery of the Year" in 2023, no small claim in a category crowded with producers chasing craft credibility.
What sets the operation apart is its process. The distillery uses a "salt-curing" ageing method, soaking oak barrels in local ocean water before filling them with rum. The seawater opens up the wood's pores, drawing out coastal flavours that are difficult to replicate anywhere else. It is also the only rum actually produced in Key West itself, rather than merely bottled or branded there.
For Race World Offshore, the sponsorship adds another local touch to a championship event that leans heavily on Key West's reputation as a winter gathering point for the sport's fastest teams and boats. The distillery joins a growing roster of backers lining up behind race week, following news that three Key West properties under Meisel Holdings confirmed their return as sponsors for the 2026 championships, alongside hospitality names like Tipsy Rooster Liquor Store & Bar. The world championships have long drawn international entries to the island, and sponsors with genuine local roots tend to resonate more with the crowds lining the water.
There is no mention of any New Zealand teams or sponsors tied to this particular announcement. Still, Kiwi followers of offshore powerboat racing will recognise Key West as one of the circuit's marquee venues, a fixture on the calendar that regularly features competitive performances from teams chasing year-end titles.
The rum angle is a small story set against a world championship, but it fills in the texture of an event New Zealand fans often watch from a distance, through results and standings rather than atmosphere. It is the kind of off-water flavour also captured when race week's evenings turn from raceboats to key lime pie at the Key West Cooking Show.
Expect more sponsor and logistics news as the Key West World Championships approach. For now, the distillery's involvement is confirmed, its barrels soaked in the same waters the raceboats will soon tear across, a neat bit of local flavour ahead of the gun.
