The Better of the Greatest Regatta attracts picket Bahamian racing sloops from the various far-flung islands of the Bahamas. The 2024 regatta, the most important ever with greater than 85 entries, was sailed December 5-8 off Montagu Seaside in Nassau, The Bahamas.
Article and Images by Jan Pehrson
It’s Regatta Time once more in Nassau. Lots of of sailors are coming to city. For 2 days from daybreak to nightfall, Bahamian picket racing sloops arrive within the harbor as deck cargo on inter island barges. They’re loaded onto trailers, hauled to the launching crane, and dropped within the water.
This regatta is rising a lot that the organizers are speaking about relocating it to a different seashore and harbor with extra room for land-side in addition to water-side actions. On the land, there may be a lot leisure that many regatta goers don’t understand that sailboat racing is happening – they’re there to celebration! On the water, inter island rivalries result in fierce competitors.
There are 4 racing courses – Class-A (28 toes lengthy), Class-B (21 toes lengthy), Class-C (17 toes lengthy) and Class-E (12 toes lengthy).
Essentially the most spectacular boats are the A-Class. In windy circumstances, they often have as many as 18 crew. The quantity, just like the mast peak and increase size, is limitless. With lengthy overhanging booms and masts of limitless peak, sails are large and billowing and simply overpower the hulls. Sails are balanced by movable human ballast mountaineering out on “pry boards” held to the deck by massive staples, and lead ballast within the bilges. The pry crew – hopefully! — maintain the sloops from capsizing.
“What makes the Better of the Greatest Regatta so particular?” I requested Dari Turnquist from the Bahamian Authorities’s Regatta Desk.
“I believe it’s the variety of sailors who come from everywhere in the Bahamas,” he replied. “There are 22 regattas all through the Bahamas, however some regattas are restricted and may’t accommodate the bigger sloops because of the time of the yr and the harbors they’re crusing in. We have now all of the sailors coming collectively into one huge regatta the place each class is featured.
“We try to place the crusing again into the regattas and put the emphasis on crusing. We don’t need folks to suppose that regattas are solely about having a very good time, these guys are on the market truly competing. They need to be revered. We need to spotlight the sailors; they’re the celebrities of our nationwide sport.”
“Why all the expansion in sloop crusing?” I requested the organizer Clyde Rolle.
“There are numerous new boats, particularly within the E and C courses,” noticed Rolle. “Crusing goes to the following stage, and I’m so proud to have been part of it for the previous 61 years. E-Class was designed for the juniors after which we made it an open class and since we opened it, sloop crusing has grown by leaps and bounds. I don’t know what we’re going to do, we’re going to need to put a cease to it. Everyone needs to personal an E-Class, it’s so inexpensive.”
E-Class is extra of a one design. Within the different courses, mast and increase dimensions are limitless. As boat builder Mark Knowles factors out, the masts, which on a 28-foot-long A-Class boat might be far more than 60 toes excessive, are self-limiting: “If I construct them too tall, they take themselves down.”
E-Class boats are simpler to handle than the opposite courses, because the 12-foot-long boats have a limitation on mast peak (20 toes) and increase size (12 toes). Trainer Sheldon Gibson designed and constructed the primary E-Class boats in 2010 for kids, and about ten years later the category was opened to seniors in addition to juniors. Now that that is an open class, the juniors are beating the seniors. The introduction of the E-Class introduced youth into sloop crusing and inspired boat constructing on varied islands.
Race Organizer Dwayne Higgins factors out that “with the E-Class, you’ll be able to experiment with boat constructing as you don’t lose lots when you make a mistake, so they’re a great way to study to sail in addition to study the artwork of boat constructing. There are a number of boats beneath development proper now.”
Nassau is the capital and largest metropolis of the Bahamas, however boats are right here from the Out Islands of the Bahamas. There are roughly 700 Out Islands, about 30 inhabited. The Out Islands are additionally known as the Household Islands.
Crusing households from the Household Islands are everywhere in the water on the Better of the Greatest.
Nothing brings folks from the Household Islands collectively like a regatta. For sloop sailors, regattas are about crusing along with your cousins towards the households from different Bahamian islands and coming collectively after the racing for some good instances. And educating your kids and grandchildren to sail.
On the Better of the Greatest nearly all people is household. A number of – just some – of the households are:
The Knowles household from Lengthy Island
Often known as “Tripple Crown” as a result of he received the A-Class, B-Class, and C-Class at this yr’s Better of the Greatest, Stefan Knowles is the winningest sloop sailor in recent times. He sails, with household on board, in picket Bahamian sloops constructed by his brother, grasp boatbuilder Mark Knowles.
Mark has constructed greater than 30 lovely and quick boats, harvesting the wooden himself and utilizing no plans apart from his artist’s eye. Stefan is commonly in eye-catching, dramatic picture finishes crusing towards his brother David Knowles.
Brother Ian Knowles serves as bowman for one or the opposite brother. That is essentially the most trusted crew place on the Bahamian sloops, because the helmsman can’t see by way of the large mainsail and should depend on his bowman to keep away from collisions. The present technology of the Knowles household can monitor their lineage again six or seven generations of Bahamian boat builders.
The Leslie “Buzzy” Rolle household from Exuma
Buzzy is multi-talented. He builds boats that he skippers himself and is invited as visitor skipper on different boats who carry a grasp helmsman on board in hopes of profitable trophies on the prize giving. Crusing along with his spouse “Boss Woman” Kayla, their sons Chris and Vano, and different household, Buzzy’s crusing pictures embellish the partitions of the barbeque that he and Kayla personal.
The Jeff Gale Household and Associates from Abaco
Many of the sailors on the 2 Abaco sloops, B-Class Lonesome Dove and C-Class It Ain’t Proper, aren’t associated household however shut pals from Hope City, Abaco, who’ve sailed collectively for 20 years. Skipper Jeff Gale’s household represents three generations of sloop sailors.
“My mother and father had been each sailors and I realized to sail from them at a really younger age,” shared Gale. “My father was crew on the Tough Waters which was an A-Class sloop out of Man O Battle Cay, Abaco within the Nineteen Seventies. They let me on once I was 11 and I used to be a part of the Tough Waters after which Abaco Rage crew within the Nineteen Eighties. I’ve been crusing sloops ever since. My son Joey can also be an completed sailor and we frequently sail collectively. He has crewed for me in earlier Better of the Greatest regattas and has skippered It Ain’t Proper in different regattas.”
The Lee Armbrister Household of Associates, homeport Duncan City, Ragged Island
At 81-years-old, Lee Armbrister simply likes to sail and has spent his life on the water. On the Better of the Greatest, he drove the B-Class sloop Ants Nest II to a second-place end. Earlier this yr, Lee received the A-Class Nationwide Championship on Ed Sky. Supported by regular backup helm and crew comparable to James Wallace and daughter Janaee, who flies in from Atlanta for regattas, Lee continues to reveal, in every new regatta, that he stays one of many high sloop sailors within the Bahamas.
The Emmett Munroe Household, homeport Duncan City, Ragged Island
The Bahamian sloop crusing neighborhood misplaced a crusing legend this yr with the passing in November of Captain Emmett Munroe. Captain Munroe and household sailed the Unique Brave, constructed by Edgar Moxey in 1977 in Nassau. New Brave adopted in 1997, constructed by Mack Knowles in Mangrove Bush, Lengthy Island.
My introduction to Captain Munroe started like this: “Welcome to my sloop. Let me introduce you to my crew, my sons and grandsons. I realized to sail at Ragged Island on weekends. Two or three of us younger boys would sail on a ship collectively and watch the older guys. I got here out of faculty at 15 and went to sea with my father. He was within the sloop commerce between Cuba and Haiti. We had solely a compass and used lifeless reckoning. I’ve at all times labored on the water. I used to be a captain on the commerce boats—barges and tugs—and mail boats.”
The Knowles Household from Exuma
On the Summer season Olympics in Tokyo 1964, Durward Knowles and Cecil Cooke grew to become the primary athletes representing The Bahamas to win an Olympic gold medal, competing in crusing within the Star Class. On the 2024 Better of the Greatest, Sir Durward’s nice grandnephews, Joss and Emit Knowles, positioned 1st and third within the E-Class, representing the Exuma Crusing Membership. Joss can also be the Junior Nationwide Champion.
The Exuma Crusing Membership was began to show younger Bahamians to sail and develop them into worldwide sailors in addition to Bahamian sloop sailors. Studying to sail from a younger age from their dad, Exuma Crusing Membership lead coach Dallas Knowles, and their mother, coach Tamara Knowles, each Joss and Emit have continued the household custom of amassing crusing medals. Youth sailors from the Exuma Crusing Membership swept the E-Class on the Better of the Greatest, ending 1-2-3.
The Effort Kemp Household from Blackpoint
At 83-years-old, Effort Kemp is the oldest of the sloop skippers, drives the B-Class sloop H20, surrounded by his brother and sons and nephew and grandsons. Says his son Kelly Kemp, “I’d say he’s essentially the most winningest skipper there may be, he being round from historic instances, and crusing on the legendary Tida Wave and profitable many regattas. Now he’s crusing on my boat, H20. We’re from Blackpoint.”
The Smith / Robinson Household from Blackpoint
Simply as households have a household lineage, boats have a lineage too. The A-Class Sloop Pink Stripe competed in and received sloop regattas for years, skippered by Captain Lundy Robinson, some of the famend and revered skippers within the Bahamas. When Captain Robinson handed in 2021, Pink Stripe missed just a few regattas.
Now she’s renamed Silent Associate and owned by Chuckie Smith from Blackpoint, Captain Robinson’s homeport. Chuckie is on the mainsheet, and Robinson household and Smith household cousins from Blackpoint spherical out the crew. Chuckie introduced in visitor helmsman Buzzy Rolle from Exuma for this regatta. Pink Stripe / Silent Associate is again!
The Cartwright household from Lengthy Island
Colin Cartwright, Sr. and his two sons, Colin and Colin, sail sloops from all courses on the Better of the Greatest. Generally as crew, typically as proprietor/skipper. To keep away from confusion, the boys are referred to as CJ and Cristo, leaving their dad to be referred to as Colin.
The household have crusing of their genes. Says Colin, “My grandfather was Rupert Knowles the boatbuilder again within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties. He constructed all of the boats just like the well-known sloops Tida Wave and Woman Muriel. After he handed, his sons stored constructing. Now the grandsons are entering into it. I’ve been crusing for greater than 40 years now, and my sons have been crusing with me since they had been infants. Cristo and C.J. sail all day lengthy now, in all 4 races.
Prior to now, sloop skippers ranged in age from 80-plus-year-olds to youngsters. Now with the E-Class progress, the sailors are getting even youthful, and the fleet is getting bigger. As Colin Cartwright says, “Will sloop crusing be dying out any time quickly? No, it should maintain going till judgement day comes!”
Race Outcomes:
Class-A: (1) Operating Tide, Stefan Knowles, Lengthy Island (2) New Legend, David Knowles, Lengthy Island (3) Rufff Justice, Joshua Knowles, Lengthy Island
Class-B: (1) Susan Chase V, Stefan Knowles, Lengthy Island (2) Ants Nest II, Lee Armbrister, Duncan City, Ragged Island (3) Ole Boy, Roger Fox, Salt Pond, Lengthy Island
Class-C: (1) Sassie Sue, Stefan Knowles, Lengthy Island, (2) Whitty Ok, Cochise Burrows, Lengthy Island (3) Bull Reg, Leslie “Buzzy” Rolle, Exuma
Class-E: (1) Woman Kayla, Joss Knowles, Exuma (2) One Bahamas, Tanaj Manos, Exuma (3) Mako, Emit Knowles, Exuma
Jan Pehrson is a crusing photojournalist who spends summers in San Francisco, California and winters in St. Pete Seaside, Florida. As a racing and cruising sailor and Coast Guard licensed skipper, Jan’s familiarity with crusing and the crusing neighborhood lends an in-depth factor to her prolific array of images and articles. Contact her at www.janpehrson.com
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