Looking Past The Bahamas

A Revolution In Sailing Design

Wil Gibson is building two Sloops. He has Gold Williams building one and he is learning by example and building one himself in his back yard.

The design is moving away from the already revolutionary design that Gold built for  one of the two thatKevin Harvey of Sailing Paradise commissioned. That one, DC Evergreen Jr caused a lot of commotion but these two are going to throw water on the fat for sure.

For these two new boats Wil has taken the usual cut off stern of the West Country England and attached a sweeping counter stern, leaving off a lot of deadwood below and creating an easier turning radius for tacking. It also gives buoyancy in place of weight aft.

Both Sloops are broader of beam than anything around for their sizes and still shallow but the run is the thing. They are both flat with a sharp entries and nothing wasted getting the water by her hull. Gold’s vessel is the big one with a beam of about 10’8” on her 30’ overall length, and this boat will support a tremendous amount of sail having a comfortably sailing  platform for even spinnaker work.

Both Sloops are planked with Yellow, called White, Cedar and framed with pressure treated fir. The frames are of note in that they are either 2”x 6” and curve cut at their turn of bilge or reinforced with scarfed pieces to keep their width and strength as a continuum. The floor timbers are of a practical artistic shape insuring the constant circle strength when the frames are bolted below and above to the deck beams.

But pictures explain the heartfelt craftsmanship that both boatbuilders are expending first to beat the rest of us at the South Caicos Regatta then on to beat the Bahamians next June in the Mariners Week TCI Challenge Regatta, then into the future of boat design in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Oseta Jolly Students At School When Out of School

Seventeen sixth grade students showed up last Friday morning at 9AM to take their sails aboard the Carlon Forbes built Ranger on Chalk Sound. They were in for calms to gusts reaching 20 knots and looked for long toothed vampires on the cays where the current pulled them.

Mainly girls the sailing was relaxed, aside from the vampires that only one group saw, and the sailing was extended because of the small number of students left to sail from Oseta Jolly Primary School. The sailing part of the programme moves on to Ianthe Pratt Primary School next week, with class visits from local sailors and maritime history lessons on the evolution of the Turks and Caicos Sloops for Oseta Jolly.

Maybe St Patrick But Definitely South Caicos

We need a sponsor for the proposed St Patrick Day Regatta this 17th of March. The race should sail along the Grace Bay waterfront to give the visitors a gander at the symmetry of our Sloops on these waters. We want to have about seven or eight Sloops out there. If you can assist or if you want to crew, call 243 2093- Ross

Bahamas Taunt Seems Well Received

 Last week on How Culture Works JJ Parker, Goldray Ewing, H.E. Ross and Lee Penn showed photographs of the sterns of Caicos Sloops to exclaim that that was all the Bahamians who were brave enough to come to Providenciales next June would see.

A lot of feedback on the street has been reported by Turks and Caicos Islanders supporting the concept and encouraging the sailors to insure Turks and Caicos pride by giving a resounding whooping to the Bahamians.

     Would You Like A Chance To Crew Against The Bahamas?

Speaking of the Bahamas...

On the 10th and 11th of March the Maritime Heritage Federation has been invited to send representatives to attend the New Providence Challenge Cup in Nassau and to compete onboard some of their Sloops to get a feeling for what they’ve got. We will be getting a lot of publicity, in that we will be showing off our sterns to the Bahamians and going on tv and the radio to push the concept that that will be what they will see if they come to the Turks and Caicos this June.

We need assistance with travel and accommodation expenses, so if you are interested in getting your name exposed to the whole, maybe slightly irate in a friendly way, Bahamians public, give me a call for specific figures at 243 2093.

Again, the Bahamas...

Have I mentioned that the newly elected Minister Wayne Garland is now the direct representative for Tourism to the Premier here on Providenciales? No, yes, well he is and he is pushing for a Bahamas race in June…

And for the last time the Bahamas

I was just studying the history of the Family Islands Regattas and I have to say people here are doing more to ensure our racing than they did there for a long period of its over 50 year runnings.

Corporate Membership

We are planning to do a lot of things this year but we cannot do anything without the support of the private sector. Government is pledging assistance to some things and we are very grateful but to have the facility to offer the opportunity for every young person in the Turks and Caicos to have access to all these Sloops we are building is going to take organisation and dollars. We want your organisation to assist by becoming directly involved in the programmes as a corporate member and corporate sponsorships don’t hurt either.

We also want your community group to come up with ideas on how to use the Sloops for your own youth programmes and camps.

Call H.E. Ross at 243 2093 or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

International Publicity

Access Marketing has come up with a beautiful ad for inclusion in several international maritime preservationist periodicals as can be seen on our Adventurescape updated website www.maritimeheritage.tc. The ads will be placed in Classic Boat (England), WoodenBoat (USA) and Latitude 38 along with calendar entries for our sailing schedule.

We are completely thankful to the TCI Tourist Board in assisting with the publicity.

I also have an article entered in each periodical as an introduction to the heritage of this maritime culture.

How Culture Works Does Conch

We had a wild conch researcher on the show last night to continue what Chuck Hesse started with the presentation of the reality of the situation of the conch today. Ashley Spring is doing her PhD in marine biology by studying how to bring conch back to the Caribbean Basin by using the Turks and Caicos as a model.

Paraphrasing Chuck about the conservation of wild conch, it is like a bank that everybody thinks will always have money though every report shows a constant decline in the amount in the safe.

We always have something on that is amusing and interesting…don’t we??

How Culture Works  9PM  Wednesday night WIV Channel 4