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SPOTLIGHT carriacouregatta.com |
JESSIE COMPTONOver the 40 years of the Regatta, a great many builders have emerge and many more have flourished. Some have occupied the center stage for a moment and disappeared, while others have their trails and tribulations but have managed to be up with the others for a while. Few however have made it big with the measure of lengthy and consistent occupation of the limelight over the entire period spanning the history of the Carriacou Regatta Festival. Nestle on the Eastern foot of the highest peak in Carriacou, and guarded from the sea by fleet of fishing, cargo and racing vessels, the village of Windward boast of some of the loveliest sailing boats in the Caribbean. JASSIE COMPTON a boat builder was born in this famous fishing and boat building village in the year 1922. Married, with a family consisting of 7 children, this shipwright cannot remember learning the trade from anyone. True, his father was a builder too, and he worked with him for some years, as early as age 18, but Jessie only learnt to build small fishing boats since no one was interested in fast sailing boats at the time. “Our fore parents were first responsible for preserving the trade, and now our closeness to the seas and competitive spirit is beginning to spur us on”. With the inception of the Regatta in 1965 and the urge to build fast sailing boats, Jessie attempted his first sloop. Modeled along the designs of a fish pot boat with an extra torque and without after transom, his new boat JUPITER went into Regatta. And although she was beaten the owner knew that Jupiter could have done better with a few feet more. Subsequently Jessie constructed the after transom and for the remaining nine years this beautiful sloop beat all comers in the “B” Class, after some time she was sold to Mr. Golden Bethel of Petite Martinique who later sold it to some one in Canouan. Michael ‘Neg” Bethel returned home after sailing abroad for many years was inspired by the success of the first Jessie Built sloop. He offered the shipwright the contract and the MARIE STELLA was built. This vessel, tipped as one of the loveliest and fastest boats every built on the Grenadines, has beaten every boat in Regatta since 1978 and even if built for the “B” Class, she has been sailing in the “A” class with Just the same success. Jessie subsequently built the MARGITA from the Same Model and closely resembling the Marie Stella. The new boat however has not achieved the success that her sister sloop has, and continues to take third place in Regatta. Jessie claims that he is not sure what actually makes his boats faster than most. He believes that the ability of the builder to know what is necessary to model a fast boat and also choice of material count; wind haul and depth prevents it from drifting. “Captaincy has a lot to do with it, a bad captain makes a good boat loose, while a good captain can make the ordinary boat win. Builders have much more tension within them while a race is going on than those who are on the boat racing it” Jessie says for that reason, he does not like looking at Regattas. Jessie also modeled boats for other builders. They have never setup the boat along the specific lines of the model. He is often disappointed when those things happen. “I lose beautiful boats, care must be taken of them so that they can gave long service and be quick at all times.” Jessie thinks that there will be many upsets in the races in the Regattas to come. This is nor gospel prediction though, but one thing is certain; the competition will always be keen, captains will honestly try to excel and excitement will be generated at all levels that only the Carriacou Regatta is capable of Producing. Reproduced from: |
