An extraordinary documentary about one man’s battle to keep his local boatbuilding tradition alive.

The film is the story of the local wooden sloops of the Caribbean, most of which were built in Carriacou near Grenada. The boats were used for fishing and travelling between the islands and still have a reputation as fast and seaworthy craft. The film brings together a mixed but salty bunch of characters who describe how the sea dominated life in the inter-dependent islands, making everyone reliant on the sailing and boat-building traditions. “The sea is our extension, that is our goldmine,” says Michael Caesar a twice former United Nations Ambassador.

The local tradition is that a group of Scottish boatbuilders landed on the island in the 19th century and started a boatbuilding industry, building the trading schooners and other craft which traded under sail across the whole Caribbean, well into the latter half of the 20th century. Some of these wooden craft, converted to power can still be seen plying the waters between the islands and others have been restored and converted to yachts by sailors who want a traditional local boat as the coolest way to sail in these waters.

Carriacou sloop under full sail

Alwyn Enoe is a descendant of those boatbuilders who built a boat called Genesis for a local film-maker of Antigua, Alexis Andrews. Hurricane Ivan blew through his boatyard while the boat was still a skeleton of wooden frames, but the sea just washed out again and he was able to finish her for Alexis to join some other Carriacou Sloop sailors at the Antigua classic regatta in 2005. The 40ft boat was great value at $50,000 US dollars (although Alexis had to complete her interior) but despite some interest Alwyn did not get another order… His sons drifted into other work and it looked like there was no demand for his craftsmanship or the good looking boats he could turn out, in the time-honoured fashion, on the beach at Carriacou.

In the film, with Alexis behind the camera now, we join him as he decides to build another boat, for himself. The Exodus will use wooden grown frames of local cedar and Alwyn gets his sons back to help him locate the right trees and tree boughs, cut them and drag them out of the Carriacou forest to begin the building work. Planks are then imported for the boat’s hull and deck and Exodus slowly takes shape with Alwyn, mostly alone, doggedly carrying on the work. The locals begin to look concerned… what’s he trying to prove, hammering away on the beach under the bone-bleaching sun?

Alwyn adzing a frame: “Windward is a boatbuilding village in Carriacou, and if this thing gone from here, everything gone you know…”

But, almost as if it was coming off the pages of a novel, his sons do return and with just days to go to that year’s Antigua regatta (where Alwyn hopes the boat will be noticed and he can sell her) she miraculously gets finished and put in the water by a huge crowd of people pulling on ropes led through a heavy anchor buried offshore.

There’s still nothing inside the boat, but with a couple of mattresses over the boards and a bottle rum to toast sunset and moonrise Alwyn and his sons set off to sail to Antigua 350 miles to the north.  Caribbean music, the ghosts of the ancestors and the blue crystal clear currents of Carriacou and the Grenadines run through this film infusing it with the spirit of hope and determination that reminds you of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. Go and see it!

 

 

Watch the trailer: HERE

 

See more and other screenings at: vanishingsail.com

Reviewed as part of our Great Sailing Films Collection