A Bequia dinghy is a double-ended wooden sailboat hand-crafted on the Island, and I have heard it said over and over that if you can sail a Bequia dinghy you can sail anything!
Bequia had very few vehicles back in the ‘70s, you could almost count the number of taxis on one hand and there were hardly any private cars. Dollar buses had not yet been introduced to the Island and people didn’t have bicycles. The main road was paved, but others, like the roads to Mount Pleasant, Lower Bay, Spring and Friendship, were nothing but two strips of broken concrete. Transportation by road was not easy so people walked.
It was easier to move about on the water, and Bequia dinghies were everywhere! It was sometimes simpler to beg a ride from the Harbor to Lower Bay in a sailboat than it was find a land taxi, and I often went to the beach that way. Today there are water taxis with engines, back then people sailed, and they sailed WELL.
Bequia dinghies are not as easy to sail as the Islanders make it look. Over the years I have watched countless tourists professing to be good sailors capsize repeatedly, much to the amusement of the locals! The boats have large sails, and if you aren’t used to the Trade Winds and don’t have enough ballast chances are good you will end up in the water.
Mac loved to sail, and although he didn’t own a dinghy he always seemed to have access to one. He sailed up to the Frangi one afternoon as I was relaxing under a tree and offered to take me around the harbor. That sounded like fun, why not??
Getting into the little dinghy posed the first problem for someone not used to such boats, even with Mac’s assistance it was difficult for me. While others leapt into the dinghies with agility I had to kind of crawl over the side and plop myself into the boat. Very graceful! There were no seats, I had to scrunch myself up in the bow and it wasn’t very comfortable.
Off we went. It was windy that day and there was a bit of chop in the bay. We sailed over to Forban VI to say hello to my friend Gilbert, then headed towards Hamilton. Mac showed off a bit, tacking through the anchorage with skill. He sailed me around the Harbor as promised, even as far as Moonhole to show me the odd houses there. I confess I was relieved when we finally got to Lower Bay Beach, I had had enough sailing for one day! However, getting OUT of the boat proved harder than getting IN, I was so stiff from sitting in such an uncomfortable position that my legs didn’t want to work properly.
I staggered my way up the beach to De Reef, where I was rewarded with a cold beer. Mac was pleased with himself, he had taken me for a fun sail around the Harbor and he promised we could do it again soon. Inwardly wincing I nodded with enthusiasm, there was no way I was going to tell the man that I would rather walk!
I got used to riding in the bow of a Bequia dinghy, and it wasn’t long before I was able to leap in and out of them like an old pro. I never did learn how to sail one though, I was content to just sit and enjoy the ride!
Great pictures! Forgot about the big raft at lower bay!
I will never forgot the time spent working with Athneal in the boatshed between the Green Boley and Whaleboner. I believe the Gingerbread Hotel is there now. Learning the traditional hand worked boatbuilding techniques was a priceless experience., and I even built my own bequia dinghy. It was Nolly who took me into the hills above Hope to teach me how to find and cut the cedar I needed. Great times.
When I was there in the early 70’s an old man and his grandson were building these double-enders on the beach below the house I was staying in. I was not much older than the grandson. He was calling them whale boats. He was using Canadian cedar for the planking and grown wood for the frames. When it was time for the next frame we headed off down the beach with the grandfather looking in the trees for the right shape of the next frame. When he found it he turned to the grandson, pointed up to it and said “up de tree boy.” With a machete on his head up he went hand over hand. I tried it but could not get very far. We dragged the branch back to the boat and it got shaped to fit.