Ancestors

The fishing boats of yore were the direct ancestors of today's racing boats. They were usually between seventeen to twenty feet in length, often with no deck and carrying one mast around twenty-five feet in height on which hung a jib and mainsail. From these boats, the fishermen set their pots and fish on line as far north as Old England Bank where fishing is still done today. It is significant that a tradition was built up around these fishing boats, whereby those that were finished hauling or setting pots would wait on the rest so that there could be a race for home. Although the wiser reasons of safety and companionship were undoubtedly part of this tradition, the spirit of racing certainly profited by it and gradually grew.

The seamen on the schooners were in many ways more exciting than the fishermen and it is they who forged our heritage of boat racing much more than any other single group. Apparently they seemed to have seized every possible opportunity to race and their schooners were far more commonly known as household names and definite personalities than the racing boats of today. The reasons for this are again quite obvious, but exciting nonetheless.

Let's look at this facet of our culture a bit more closely. After the collapse of commercial agriculture on a large scale and the beginning of mass emigration, there arose a very definite need for transportation and the only mode was in those days, travel by schooner or large sloop. Most of the other Leeward Islands were still by the early 19th century involved in sugar. None had developed a local trading fleet, preferring instead to rely on the merchant marines of their respective metropolitan countries. Anguilla had very little direct relationship with any metropolitan country, including Britain, and was forced to fend for itself. Thus, as far back as the early 18th century there were schooners and sloops, which in time of drought and famine, (a very frequent experience in the past) became the lifeline of the inhabitants. From this time then the art of seamanship and especially of shipwrighting was cultivated, gradually growing stronger through the years.

<<Back | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4| Next>>