Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Family Island Regatta
The Family Island regatta is held every April in Georgetown, Exuma. It is the Grand Prix for Bahamian sloops who have competed in their own Island races to come here and vie for the championship. The races were originally started by the government to promote travel by the population in order to spread out the gene pool.
4 classes compete. A,B,C,&D. These boats are kept to a strict style and look, resembling the old sturdy boats that were used to travel and move freight in the day of sail. While logos and sponsorship is allowed on the hulls, the sails must remain free. The sail area is enormous for the size of the vessel, so long boards (Prys) are moved out to one side and the crew sits on the pry to balance the boat so it does not tip over. On the “A” class, it is not uncommon to see 5 crew on each of the 2 prys. The start is from anchor and when the gun goes off, everyone starts to pull on the rode giving the boat headway, while the sail is being raised. Approaching the first mark, it is pandemonium as all these craft try to round the mark first. While “starboard” has priority, “balls” prevail, and collisions and bumping are quite common.
I was fortunate enough to crew on all classes (except D) for the four days.
