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Getting the Formula Right: Significant vessels are falling apart before our eyes… Entrants are vanishing from Wooden Boat events in droves…. Timber yachts prices are plummeting… Respect for maritime traditions is disappearing down the sewer of short attention spans and social media…
RUBBISH!

Save the Dates: The 69th Annual National Family Island Regatta will be sailed April 22-26th, 2025. Don’t miss it!

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The National Family Island Regatta is the largest and oldest of the 22 yearly Bahamian wooden racing sloop regattas. This year’s NFIR regatta, the first since sailing became the national sport of the Bahamas, was sailed in Elizabeth Harbor in George Town, Exuma, Bahamas from April 23-26.

Regatta Time: Download the NFIR App from your phone’s App Store. Watch live, get up-to-the minute scores, latest news, meet the skippers, and vote for your favorite boat. NFIR is the first use of my Bahamian Wooden Racing Sloop photos in a phone app!

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by Rob Kelly of Daily Doc “I was so pumped after watching “Around Cape Horn” and “The Race to Alaska” that I started a list of all the best documentaries on sailing I could find.”

by Jan Pehrson, shown here with Bahamian film director Charlie Bahama “My personal favorite is the 5th on Rob Kelly’s list. “Pull and Away: National Family Island Regatta”

Well, blow me down with a sea breeze and serve me up a Goombay Smash—the “National Family Island Regatta” is a salty, swashbuckling romp!

What’s not to love about this annual tradition off the shores of George Town, Exuma in the Bahamas?

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Tradition: An exhibition of the latest collection of paintings by Bahamian artist Jonathan Bethel, including paintings of Bahamian Wooden Racing Sloops derived from the photographs of Jan Pehrson

Click on the picture to read more! Our recent Good Jibes podcast (#109) with Jan Pehrson of the Richmond Yacht Club highlighted many of her sailing adventures over the past 50 years. It also called attention to her recent Moorings charter, out of Marsh Harbour in Abaco, with three other accomplished sailing women, Kim Bullock, Michele Logan, and Nancy Ibison. We wanted to hear more about the charter and the women aboard. Jan shared their story after collecting the crew’s extensive and impressive sailing resumes. Anyone would sail anywhere with these women.

Click on the picture to read more! In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams wrote, “A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”

For Jan Pehrson, it was sneakers.

Not long after Pehrson moved to the Bay Area in the 1970’s, she found herself talking to sailors in the No Name Bar in Sausalito. She quickly learned there were plenty of oportunities to do more sailing. If she always wore sneakers, ready to jump on a boat! Her sneakers led to many adventures!

Click on the picture to read more! Famous for his yellow Bahamian wooden racing sloops, Hughrie Lloyd builds each boat by hand from designs drawn in sand.

In his yellow house up the hill in the tiny settlement in Exuma, Bahamas, 80-year-old Hughrie Lloyd rises each day and heads out back to his shop. On a sand floor, with no plans, he builds Bahamian wooden racing sloops by hand. If he needs more boatbuilding materials, he cuts buttonwood tree roots and other local hardwoods from the nearby swamps. He was born in this yellow house that overlooks Barraterre Bay where he still races his yellow sloops in sailing regattas on weekends.

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This week’s host, John Arndt, is joined by sailboat racing photographer and journalist Jan Pehrson to chat loving sailing with or without a camera. Jan is a racing and cruising sailor, Coast Guard licensed skipper, and former juniors instructor who captures the world’s most exciting and beautiful sailing regattas and beyond.

Click on the picture to play the trailer! This film is currently in limited release, playing in some theaters and film festivals and yacht clubs in the USA and The Bahamas. Jan Pehrson interview is shown here.

Nassau, BAHAMAS: From highly-acclaimed Bahamian Producer-Director Charlie Smith, a.k.a. Charlie Bahama and Executive Producers Fred Munnings and Nadir Hasan comes See How the Main Sail Sets, a documentary on the history of the National Family Island Regatta and chronicling the legacy of sailing and boatbuilding in The Bahamas. 

Click on the picture to read more! An all-woman bareboat charter in the Bahamas becomes a team effort where learning and having fun are the best part of cruising.

My article about our all-woman bareboat charter in the Bahamas is the cover and the feature of the September issue of Sailing Magazine.

Michele Logan, Kim Bullock, Nancy Ibison and I formed a team where learning and having fun were the best part of cruising.With photos onboard courtesy of our team, and helicopter photos courtesy of The Moorings Yacht Charter Company, we take you on an unforgettable journey through the cruising paradise of the Bahamas.

Click on the picture to see more! The Bahamas has an exciting new sports media website with up-to-the-minute coverage of all major sports including Sailing, the new national sport.

This startup will cover all of the Bahamian sports with the latest scores and news .. from A to Z, so from Aquatics to Baseball to Basketball to Sailing to Tennis to Volleyball. Check out my photos in the Goombay Punch sailing regatta!

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The Journey of Sailing As The National Sport of The Bahamas.

Article by Kendea Smith, Photos by Jan Pehrson

For hundreds of years, The Bahamas has been known as the premier destination for sailing. History chronicles many occasions when sailing defined who Bahamians are. From the times of the Lucayans and Arawaks, piracy and the Eleutheran Adventurers, history has proven the connection of the Bahamian people to the nation’s breathtaking waters.

Regatta Time: The Little Cottage Library presents Mr. Ian Knowles and Mr. Kendrick Knowles (and other local sailors as well!) Champion sailors from Long Island’s prestigious family of boat builders and sailors will present stories and images from the National Family Island Regatta and share their sailing adventures!

Click on the picture to read more!! It's official! Parliament has voted! Sailing is now the national sport of the Bahamas!

The National Family Island Regatta is the largest and oldest of the many yearly Bahamian wooden racing sloop regattas. After a three year pause due to pandemic concerns, this year's much anticipated regatta was sailed in Elizabeth Harbor in George Town, Exuma, Bahamas from April 19-22.

Eighty-seven wooden sloops from the far-flung, 760-mile-long island chain of the Bahamas arrived to compete for prize money, trophies, bragging rights, and fun. Not to mention an adrenaline rush they won't soon forget!

Click on the picture to read more!! It’s official! Parliament has voted! Sailing is now the national sport of the Bahamas!

The National Family Island Regatta is the largest and oldest of the many yearly Bahamian wooden racing sloop regattas. After a three year pause due to pandemic concerns, this year’s much anticipated regatta was sailed in Elizabeth Harbor in George Town, Exuma, Bahamas from April 19-22.

Click on the picture to read more!! A capsize photo series from the 2023 National Family Island Regatta, George Town, Bahamas

Click on the picture to read more!! See How the Main Sail Sets Debuts January 18th - A documentary that details the legacy of Bahamian Sailing.

From highly-acclaimed Bahamian Producer-Director Charlie Smith, a.k.a. Charlie Bahama and Executive Producers Fred Munnings and Nadir Hasan comes, See How the Main Sail Sets, a documentary on the history of the National Family Island Regatta and chronicling the legacy of sailing and boatbuilding in The Bahamas.

Click on the picture to read more!! This year's Best of the Best Bahamian wooden racing sloop regatta was sailed on Sunday Dec 4th in windy, challenging conditions. The regatta is the year-end culmination of many local regattas sailed throughout the island nation of the Bahamas during the year.