Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - March 2021

HOPE MCLAWRENCE
WWW.JUSSAIL.COM
Carriacou & Petite Martinique
Boatbuilding Aims
for UNESCO Status
by Nikoyan Roberts
Smelling sea brine. Hearing the call of wild seabirds carried on cool wind currents.
Feeling the exhilarating salt spray on your face flung high into the air as a ship’s
pointed bow cuts through the water. Is this Paradise? I truly believe this is as close
as you can get to it while sailing through the Caribbean’s amazingly blue waters on
wooden sloops and schooners built using traditional craftmanship in Carriacou and
Petite Martinique.
Carricou sloops
make strong showings
in today’s regattas.
Here Exodus races in
the Bequia Easter Regatta.
The first Carriacou sloops and schooners were built in 1886. Thus began the
legacy of boatbuilding traditions passed on from fathers to sons on two small
Grenadine islands: Carriacou and Petite Martinique. These smaller islands are
dependencies of Grenada. Carriacou is 12 square miles in size with a population of
approximately 10,000 people, while Petite Martinique is 586 square miles with a
population of approximately 900 people.
Over the years, families practiced building these wooden boats using the power of
their minds, the dexterity of their hands and simple tools like the adze. This
rudimentary cutting tool is similar to an axe, with an arched blade at right angles to
the handle, used for cutting or shaping large pieces of wood. It is recognized as being
used since the Stone Age to smooth and carve wood by hand and is integral to the
art of wooden boat building on these Grenadine islands. Initially these wooden
sloops and schooners were used to facilitate inter-island trade between other
Caribbean islands including St. Barts, St. Maarten, Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda,
Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and Dominica to the north and Trinidad, Tobago
and Venezuela to the south.
Moving with current trends and changing economic conditions, their use morphed
over the years from marine trading into competitive, specialized racing or pleasure
sailing. The Carriacou Regatta Festival was born in 1965 and is currently the
longest-running regatta in the Caribbean for wooden boats, or any others for that
matter. One dozen vessels skimmed across the sea’s surface during the Round de
Island Race in 2019. Most of the sloops in that race were built by a globally
recognized master boatbuilder from the village of Windward, Carriacou, Alwyn Enoe,
and his sons. Many of the wooden boats built by hand in Carriacou and Petite
Martinique have been purchased by mariners living in the USA, UK, Europe and
other parts of the world.
How are we protecting this ancient and most unique heritage, you ask? By having
Carriacou & Petite Martinique Wooden Boat Building inscribed on the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Representative
List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The seed that gave life to this project was the consistent and compelling feedback
received from Carriacou and Petite Martinique stakeholders at various engagements
centered around conservation, culture, heritage, and sustainable development. The
actual conceptualization was carried through by the Carriacou Grenada Tourism
Authority (GTA) team. With the support of Kirl Grant-Hoschtialek, Manager of Product
Development & Research, this idea was placed on the action agenda for 2020. Due to
Covid-19 and the ensuing challenges of working through various state mandated
restrictions, the project did not fully take flight until late 2020. However, working with
the various stakeholders on island as easements permitted has brought us to the
home stretch, as we prepare final documents for submission to UNESCO this month.
Every department at the GTA was engaged in efforts to make this project a success.
Most importantly, the people of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, particularly the
shipwright communities, individual boatbuilders, cultural stalwarts, the business
stakeholders within the yachting sector, and owners of traditionally built sloops and
schooners across the globe have made significant and invaluable contributions
KENMORE HENVILLE
Above: The schooner Jambalaya in timbers, with master builder Alwin Enoe
within her hull.
Bottom: Baldwin DeRoche, the oldest living shipwright in Petite Martinique, built
beloved wooden boats like Beauty and Savvy.
towards the inventory process and documentation of this timeless legacy. Deep
appreciation is expressed to all and with special thanks to our consultant, Margaret
Snagg, for her diligent research and contribution to planning and executing the
project scope of works, and the Carriacou Tourism Office.
Videos, documented interviews, signed consent forms and a wooden boat inventory
list have been collated. Our inventory list, formulated from the memories of persons
within the communities, has captured 124 traditionally built sloops and schooners
across the two islands.
This UNESCO recognition will protect Grenada’s unique cultural heritage for
generations to come when it inscribes Carriacou and Petite Martinique Wooden Boat
Building on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity; it will assure protection and continuation of this legacy for the benefit of
the people who practice this cultural tradition; as well as owning and growing the
existing Wooden Boat Inventory.
Team Pure Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique invites you to visit us soon and
be a part of this legacy tradition to race wooden boats built by hand at the Carriacou
Regatta Festival and the GSF Westerhall White Jack Workboat Regatta when protocols
permit. During your trip you may even get to see a wooden boat being launched by
the hands of hard-working men and women in Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Be
assured that this unique Wooden Boat Building culture in Carriacou and Petite
Martinique will be well protected and preserved for the future by being inscribed on the
UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Our wooden
boat builders are actively involved in documenting the age-old process and in passing
on their skills and valuable asset inventory to the younger generation.
Nikoyan Roberts is the Manager of Nautical Development in the Grenada Tourism
Authority. Visit www.puregrenada.com for more information.
Built by Zepherine McLaren
in the early 1960s,
Mermaid of Carriacou has
been owned by John Smith
for decades, and is currently
waiting in Honduras
to be relaunched.
JERRY JOHNSON
MARCH 2021 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 19