Yole racing in Le Marin; Martinique

 Well sitting thinking of all the yachts that visit the Caribbean one tends to overlook what boats have been built here and sailed around the islands. The Scottish apparently were involved with the boating industry ... if you can call it that... on some of the islands and I guess who ever else arrived here would soon have felt the need for a boat, either as transport or for fishing.

 

 

These boats are brightly coloured and seen on many of the beaches usually with a pile of nets nearby. In many of the islands we saw the local folk out sailing or fishing in these delightful boats.

The best place we came across the more serious racing was in Le Marin in Martinique.

Yole racing around the islands comes to a head with the main regatta where pride is everything and a colourful boat the rest. The boat has lovely lines with a deep bow. The rudder is a large sweep/paddle at the back with up to three guys ready to row the boat around or keep it on course.

 The crew hang out on poles the get moved from side to side.... talk about hard work. The masts as the next photo shows is cut out of the forest and trimmed and joined up for the occasion.

The people arrive on the shore and the bands are playing as the crews for each team ready the boat.

The start is off the beach and quite spectacular.

Capsizing is not an option as the boat fills to the gunnels and the crew all get on the rescue boat and leave a few on board to bail out the boat. This then gets towed backwards to the shore as the bow is too deep and would not steer well going the other way around. In the end the winner’s are hero’s and the losers will have to wait another year to make amends.