On the outer edge of a shallow bay painted in vibrant blues, wooden boats lie at anchor with their bows in a row. This is the starting line of a Bahamian sloop regatta, and with the crack of the gun, crews rush to raise sails, haul anchor and beat to the windward mark.
Bahamian sloops were once solely workboats; today they’re racing machines with traditional bones. Regattas began in the 1950s in a bid to keep the wooden-planked vessels from fading into history. What started with a single event in George Town’s Elizabeth Harbour, on Great Exuma, has grown to a couple of dozen races per year. The sloops might no longer double as fishing boats, but they retain their roots. Sails must be Egyptian cotton. Hull and spars must be wood. There are no winches, so muscle and leverage matter. Their design includes enhanced sail area spread by impossibly long booms and countered by movable ballast — beefy humans! The “pry board” is a long plank extending out from the windward beam, bedecked with Bahamians bashing boisterously to windward.
The best known of Bahamian regattas remains in Elizabeth Harbour, overlapping with the tail end of cruising season. The National Family Island Regatta, usually held in late April, draws around 60 boats in four classes. Crews are overwhelmingly Bahamian, but cruisers have a chance to experience these boats firsthand and connect with island hosts.
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