Photo by Ellen Birrell
The teeth of the cleats that tension the sprits had worn out over the years, so the kids learned a knot that gets around the problem. Having run out of line of the proper size for the cleats, however, it was also discovered that the next size smaller line went deeper into the cleats where the teeth were not worn. So two solutions were found. A third solution is new cleats, which were not in stock at either of the catalog chandleries. I asked the kids, “If this was your boat, would you pay for a new cleat or tie the knot?”
Equipment problems are kind of a theme in this version of the Carriacou junior sailing program. In May, when the better half of the kids’ fleet that had been based in Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou, was taken to Windward, the other end of the island, I requested that they take the best boats and equipment, I would see what I could do with what was left. They were on a regatta agenda, they wanted to race. I had higher ambitions. The motto that went with the Windward fleet is “Inspiring Children”. My motto is “Opening Minds”. I’m into recycle, repair, and improvising. Also, moderation, simplicity, and sustainability.
Four boats had been left, one in need of a major repair. I got three boats operational, put up a notice that there would be kids sailing on Saturdays, and wrote a “Dear Parent” note for the kids to take home. The note said what I was doing, but also that my intention was to turn the program over to the community as soon as possible since I’m aboard a yacht that must come and go. The deadline was the end of July when the rent on the current location ran out – a week before my immigration ran out.
I hadn’t intended to run the kids sailing program. My six years of working with the club during times I was anchored in the bay had been doing maintenance and showing up on sailing days, helping with rigging problems, and sailing my own dinghy with the fleet as escort. It has long been known that managing a crowd of kids who have come for the fun, sometimes sent by parents in need of a break, is not my cup of tea. I have never been a parent. But I’ve helped keep the club alive before and it was time to do it again.
This time I was on my own in that I was doing it entirely on my own initiative and was taking full responsibility for whatever outcome. But I had the best help that one could ask for, better than I could have dreamed. Cassiopeia I, Mina’s little sloop, aboard which she has been single-handing these islands for some years now, was in the bay and she was sailing the dinghy, Cocoa, which can either be sailed by the kids or used as a safety escort. Mina is a Canadian grandma, two kids of her own, but raised five, and taught them and their friends about being outdoors, including canoes. And she is an experienced volunteer with the club. Most importantly, she understands how kids work. Mina was there with Cocoa every Saturday and saved my sanity.
From early June into July Mina and I had sailing every Saturday. We had two kids the first session, one each for the second and third sessions, and four for the fourth Saturday. We didn’t exactly set the world afire. But the kids that did show up got full value for their time.
With three Saturdays left before deadline, having not found any responsible locals willing to take on the project, I was thinking that if the boats weren’t going to be used at the south end of the island, they ought to join the fleet that had gone to Windward, a sailing community said to be enthusiastically supporting the program, where the fleet was reportedly being heavily used. They had five boats but said they needed more. And the purpose of the boats, it was agreed by all, was to get kids out sailing – even if only to race.
Then Valerie, whose daughter was coming to sailing, made a decisive move that set history on its proper course. Valerie and Jim would be the logical parents to take over the club, Jim was already a frequent volunteer. But they were moving away, they’d be gone before I was. I told Valerie that I couldn’t get hold of Allison, whose two sons had been in the club before but were not coming now. Valerie got out the phone book, dialed Tourism, got through to Allison, and handed me the phone.
Allison and I immediately saw eye to eye. Keep it simple, kids out sailing, bring them back safe, start teaching them what they’ll need to know about being on the waters surrounding the small island they live on, where boats are transportation, fishing, employment, recreation, and a doorway to the rest of the world. Keep it low budget, sustainable, operated within the community, not dependent on or subject to outside organizers. Grass roots. Not to exclude outside donors or volunteers, but not needing them to succeed. Once things succeed, support materializes.
Allison attended the next sailing session at which nine well behaved kids and three extra volunteers off of yachts showed up. Mina was there with Cocoa, both of my sailing canoes were there, and we had three club Opti’s. Three of the kids (and two of the volunteers) lived aboard a Danish yacht cruising the region. Two of the kids were visitors from Trinidad who had roots here. At the end of the session I told Allison that we couldn’t have put on a better show for her.
But the next Saturday we did. With Allison now the general manager, me the operations manager, and Akim, a local sailor, training for my job, helped by Mina plus four yacht volunteers, we had seventeen kids. It went real well. It blew me away. It blew us all away. The vice president of Grenada Sailing Association, who happened to see it, said, “Brilliant!”
We did one more sail before moving the club from Tyrrel Bay to its new home on L’Esterre Bay. Ellen, a long-time volunteer with the club who is a hot dinghy racer, conducted a special session for three kids who wanted to race in August Carriacou Regatta, the coming weekend.
Allison’s schedule took her off island for more than a month after Regatta. I had extended with immigration into early October – which they said was my limit – and continued to conduct Saturday sailing at L’Esterre with a lot of help from yacht volunteers. Mina (Cassiopeia I), Jim and Ellen (Boldly Go), and Bob and Debbie (Chimayo), are all continuing supporters of kids sailing on Carriacou. Several local sailors who volunteered drifted in and out. I reported to Allison, “This still looks like a yachtie show.”
On our sixth Saturday at L’Esterre, now halfway through September, things started to fall into place. Allison was back, Akim was there, and Olando came to help. Olando is a local marine biologist with lots of experience on and in the water, but not a sailor. I gave him two intense half-day lessons during the week. Mom, a boat that had been on loan to the club in the past, was loaned to the club again. Akim repaired Static of Light, which had broken a previous structural repair. Catfish, the fourth boat that had been out of service all this time, was being repaired by Slow. Now we didn’t have enough rigs, so In Stitches repaired some old sails that had been put aside long ago and I built a set of bamboo spars – if you need bamboo for dinghy spars while in Tyrrel Bay, ask for Slow. In Stitches has been repairing the club’s sails for years. Jim, Boldly Go, has been a mover behind the scenes. He built the box in which the fleet’s rigs and equipment are stored, climbed the tree to rig lifejacket stowage, and much more.
Thus the old boats begin to sail their next new generation of kids.
Caribbean Compass, Feb. ‘13