I know I am late with this but I worked on getting a good story on shipping as NEWSMAN, and pushed to get on the radio with Freaky and a bunch of us getting two hours of free airtime to chide Bahamians into racing us this June. Then, had to get money and building materials for Carlon in order to stuff everything together before settling down to editing a special chiding Bahamian show for How Culture Works. Lots of chiding on Wednesday.

But, then the WIV production staff got surly about having to work late on Valentine’s Day, so I was reduced to a puddle and postponed the show only to arrive home to see that I had not done the Log yet. Didn’t even get it to TCI Mall after Adventurescape did such a good job putting our new Access Marketing ad on our homepage. So without further ado  I did a manana, and here the Log is today.

Happy Elections
That’s that, no more, had enough…

Sailing Is A Small World
I keep forgetting that sailors remember sailors. I wrote a story for publication in Latitude 38, a pulp sailing magazine that serves the San Francisco Bay Area and a lot of cruisers worldwide about the upcoming Mariners’ Week, and addressed a copy to the publisher, who I hadn’t seen for over ten years.

He wrote me back reminding me that we worked together in Sausalito at a sailboat sales company when I was the only black sailor working on San Francisco Bay. He also edited the story and reminded me that when he had the idea for the magazine, thirty years back, I was a supporter of its relaxed format and contributing sailors concept.

The story will appear in this next Issue of Latitude 38 with a three-page spread, so if you have any friends who subscribe I would like a copy… It is also on the web.

Then I wrote a general concept release for the Atlantic Challenge newsletter and the Ex Dir of that wrote to remind me that when I was up in Maine we worked on trying to get a beautiful Norwegian ferryboat for our organisation in the Cayman Islands.

Euwonka Selver Joins Writers’ Group

We started a Writers’ Group back during the Summer with me, Ed Williams and Sandra Garland. Gilbert Morris and David Bowen joined a little later and then we decided to do a book, a collection of prose and poetry on our Turks and Caicos’ experiences. Now, Euwonka Selver, who just won the Miniature Golf Club Kareoke Championships, has joined the Group and we are putting some of her work in that same book, A Walk On Our Beach.

We have decided to associate and register as The Writers’ Group to further publishing aims and get more groups going. If you are interested in writing, from any level, writers groups are a good way to get your work edited in a positive and free way by a group. It works that way. A small group meets regularly and they read their writings for the week. That work is positively reviewed by all present with suggestions, if need be, on what they would like to hear or read from the piece. The writing can be proposals or novels, it really doesn’t matter. But the criticisms have to stay positive and constructive.

 Call me if you are interested in joining or starting up a writers’ group, 243 2093 Ross.

Middle Caicos Valentine

The Middle Caicos St. Valentine’s Day Cup, model sloop race is an annual event that offers everything most visitors to these Islands should crave. There is overflowing hospitality, beautiful scenery, probably the most dramatically beautiful beach in the whole of the Islands, a profound history of the people living in this area, a host of models sloops built along lines that date back infinitely, competitive invitation, fun, food and music.

But, it only hosts a few lucky people each year and is almost put on the side as a promotional attraction by the powers that be…

At this point in time  it is understandable though, because there seems no extra energy is put into getting visitors to Middle Caicos for a day’s outing, and there are very few places to stay. There is a 7:10AM and a 4:20 PM into and out of Middle Caicos on that special Saturday from Providenciales where the majority of tourism abides. One can charter but most visitors are unaware of that facility.
So, the event stays a virtual secret for those lucky few who mainly live here, and who want to both support good preservation causes and have a great time.

Bambara Beach, with one r, is a destination attraction in its own right, with pure white sand and iridescent seas. A few years back beach huts were built for relaxing and enjoying this sight, and for this years St Valentine’s Day Cup celebration, were used for serving delicious Middle Caicos food and the inevitable t-shirts and caps.

 Daniel Forbes and Sara Kaufman are the principals in the St Valentine’s Day Cup orgnisation, with Daniel heading up the Middle Caicos Sailing Association, with an energy that is definitely inspiring in an area noted for being way past laid back.

The model sloop races are divided into three classes with the smaller sloops leading off first followed by larger and larger vessels from the water’s edge. At the signal, a screaming hand waving affair, they let go the sloops and attempt to guide them by finger to tiller pulls and pushes, and the changing of the weather boards that give stability to the gemelemi wood boats. Gemelemi is light and porous-like a balsa wood and the outrigger is a balancing tool to insure the vessel staying upright. As the sloop is turned around to tack the weather board has to be manually taken out and put in on the side the wind is coming from.

Unfortunately for the veteran sailors, first two classes the breezes were light, allowing the novice visitors to win and place. But the grumbling was good natured as was the day and the sailing and enjoyment of getting in the water with this historic work of art was the real pleasure of the day.

The following list is not complete but these are the names and places I received:

Class C (-30”)  Skipper(-/Crew) 
1st Shimmer  Pam Leach/Marsha Pardee  
2nd Ghost  Brodie Forbes
3rd Jupiter  Marlon Hibbert
4th Daniel’s Café Malfred Hamilton
5th Whitewind  Justin Ross

Class B (30”-45”)
1st Horse Eye Jack’s Mark Parrish 
2nd Blue Bird  Malfred Hamilton
3rd PPC Flyer  Rory Stevens
4th Red Arrow I
5th Warbler
6th The Destroyer

Class A (45”+)
1st Red Rocket  Brodie Forbes
2nd The Sara  Mark Parrish
3rd Mystery  Malfred Hamilton
4th C-C Train  Rory Stevens

In case you are interested, the sloops can be ordered and purchased on Middle Caicos or at the Middle Caicos Coop outlet in Bluehills, Providenciales.

Just a Little Note on Models and Bambara with 1 and 2 r’s

The model sloops of the Turks and Caicos probably have their origins back in the original Bermudian sailors and shipbuilders who settled the Turks Islands in the late 1600s. Models have always been ways in which to design a vessel. As late as the early 20th Century a model was designed and when agreed upon one half was given to the client and one half to the builder as a blueprint. I am sure in the early not much doing times of salt raking races were performed by those same dream boats of the Bermudians.

Historically, the legend of Bambarra, which is where the event is held, begins in the early 1800s and combines slave heritage and shipwrecked Africans naming this area for the language of the Mande and Mandingo people in nine West African countries. The Bamanankan language, Bambara, with one r, is the most widely spoken language in West Africa and has at least four settlements using Bambara in their names.

The name Bambara, with two r’s, first pops up in the early 1900s looking through H.E.Sadler’s Turks Islands Landfall.

Beaches Supports Heritage
The Primary Schools Maritime Heritage Programme starts its second phase in the Enid Capron Primary School Friday 16 February at 10AM.

The Sailing Our Sloops (SOS) Programme of the Maritime Heritage Federation starts with putting sixth grade students onboard a Caicos Sloop to familiarize them with what mariners used to do.

Then, they bring in a local speaker and give a lecture on Turks and Caicos maritime history. The speaker tomorrow will be J.J. Parker, whose father was the great skipper Bell Glade Parker used to take JJ out fishing and cargo transporting when he was the sixth graders age.

The General Manager of Beaches, who is sponsoring the programme at Enid Capron, is coming to get a lesson on the history for himself.

Carlon Forbes Almost Finished With Leeward Sloop
 Combining the trip with the Valentine’s Day Cup with a visit to Carlon to see about measurements of the Sloop and the sails, running and standing rigging specifications and design and getting a timetable I arrived in Middle Caicos to do what most people do upon arrival- waiting for my pickup. The Middle Caicos airport must be the most not quite there airport I have ever been in. I remember once landing in a bush airport in Western Oaxaca and having to go over to the guy in the hut to ask what do I do next and he didn’t know. I have that kind of feeling every time I go to Middle Caicos. Like I don’t know what to do next…

 I was given a ride to Daniel Forbes’s house, I think it was Daniel Forbes’ place, it could have been Sara Kaufman’s place… anyway, Daniel was up and Sara was standoffish, and finally Carlon arrived and took me to his place.

 The sloop was beautiful… from a sailor’s perspective at least. I try to see from landsfolk’s perspective and seem to fail a lot. Her lines were not like anything I have seen around here yet. She impressed me as a Herreschoff design, rougher definitely but a Quiet Tune design was what was suggested by her graceful sheer (deck curve) and flat bottom (hull curve into the keel), her bow was sharp and directly angled. She was fast on a reach but with no cutaway forefoot and therefore slow to tack.

But, she was comfortable and definitely Carlon reached back into the designs of his youth to find her. She would be a good tour boat giving the acceleration of speed while maintaining stability and comfort to those aboard. She could also take a lot of sail.

Leeward Going True, our tentative name for her, had clean decks. Her dimensions are: 
Length overall       23’ 7” 
Beam (max breadth)    7’ 6’ 
Draft (depth from waterline)      22”.
Length on the waterline 20’6”
Keel length   19’6’

 We worked out that the mast will be 30’ long. The mainsail will have a 26’ 6” luff, 19’6” foot and a 29’ 9” leech, making a very big sail with a shoulder of mutton rig. The 5/6ths jib will just pass the shrouds with a 10’5” foot, a 21’ luff and a 20’ 6” leech. This is a lot of power but the mainsail will have a double set of reef points and the jib a single set.

 She is built of Spanish Cedar and Locust framing and Fir deck beams under 5/16ths inch marine plywood decking.

Old Fashioned Launching
If you remember back to the 2nd Annual Wahoo Tournement at Turtle Cove Marina the money raised went to purchase Wing Dean’s 1 Can of Whoopass, a winning Wheeland Sloop. Well, the sloop had some problems and Wing decided not to make the transfer to us until those problems were solved. So, with the help of friends and relatives but mostly his own efforts Wing replaced the deck and the sheer plank, which evidenced considerable rot.

This Saturday, 17 February, at 2PM, we are going to take delivery of 1 Can of Whoopass with the new name, Wahoo at a special launching party. We need volunteers to help put the Sloop in the water and volunteers to enjoy a sail aboard a really performance oriented design. Just come down and go sailing. We hope to have lots of offerings for fun, such as music, food, refreshment. You can bring your own and have a picnic. Remember, Bluehills-Wheeland has palm trees…

If you are not familiar with the area, go past Sailing Paradise and ask for the Dean beach, or keep driving if you are shy, until you see boats pulled up on the beach next to a small complex of colourful beach huts. That’s it.

Saturday Sailing
We are moving our regular class from 1PM to 11AM because of the launching, so please be advised.