Yole Boat Regatta

   16/05/2012

What on earth is a Yole Boat Regatta?? A joyous fusion of traditional Martinique fishing boats, being sailed by energetic sailors, in an atmosphere of Caribbean Carnival, bright colours, loud music and plenty of rum punch! Yacht regattas are a dime a dozen around the Caribbean, but these guys are something else! After the Antigua Classic Week, it was very different, and very special!

Yole boats are  open traditional 35-45 ft Martinique fishing boats, constructed out of local Pear tree wood, in a time honoured way. Sailing them requires considerable skill, as they have no keels or ballast, no rudders, and carry huge Lateen sails, on bamboo spars, and with no standing rigging! Every one of the 13-18 crew members has a vital role to play to avoid capsizing. The inter village rivalry is huge, and correctly sailed by a skilled crew, they can reach amazing speeds.  One little mistake,  and everything goes pear shaped very quickly! With the boat filled with water, one guy has to get into the boat and bail, while the others keep it upright. When enough water has been bailed, a second guy gets in to help bail, and so it continues until all 13-15 are on board again. Trying to hoist the spars and sails in the water must be almost impossible! The one capsize we witnessed was towed ashore after bailing.

The basic rig comprises two bamboo masts, one supporting a square headsail, and the bigger second one, the mainsail. The head sail mast is un-supported, while the mainsail mast is supported by two guys flying trapeze on the weather side. Each of the Lateen gaffs are controlled by a sheet, as are the clews on each loose footed sail.

The ballast is provide by 8-10 “pole riders”, who move with their poles from side to side for each tack, taking their instructions from the calls from the helmsman. Helmsman? Each boat is steered by a single big oar, which is fitted into one of three notches in the transom. When “going about”, or tacking, the stern is rowed around through the wind, by three helmsman/rowers.

On the lee side of each boat additional speed is generated by one beefy fellow paddling for all he’s worth with a giant handscoop!

Spectator craft are everywhere, some complete with their own bands, dressed up in traditional Madras cotton check uniforms!

The regatta we watched in St Anne was only a warm up event for the big Round the Island event, held in July /August each year, but nevertheless it was a fantastic spectacle and we were very fortunate to have been there.

The races are started from the beach, Le Mans style, with a blast from a Conch shell.

We had tied our dingy on to a big yellow “Swimming  zone” buoy about 200m away from the windward mark….. way to close, and ended up in the thick of things, living very dangerously!!