Sandbaggers

The Sandbaggers are in town! I asked what was going on and apparently these are replicas of the boats that oyster fishermen used to race for sport. It started out as just crab fishing sailboats racing each other, but soon specially built boats were used. There were strict rules on hull size, but no restrictions on sail size, so sail size got totally out of control. So they were ballasted with 50 or 60 pound bags of gravel that the crew moved from one side of the boat to the other each time the boat changed tack. Not a single-hand situation! The skipper was at the helm, the sail trimmer tended the sails (and actually did much of the steering with the sails), and 10 or so other people moved the "sandbags" around.

The sport died out in the late 1800's when the rules changed, but these two replicas travel around and introduce people to sailing by having them crew, using water bags instead of sand bags to keep from scratching them up. I may just give it a try while they're here.

Here's their website. Quite fascinating. Check out the video here (click on "The Sandbagger"). And here is a beautiful picture of "Bear" under sail.