Secrets of “Riding the Pry” Revealed Pry riders in the Bahamas are not your average rail meat! Better pay attention to what’s going on—or you will find yourself swimming! By Jan Pehrson Cover: Secrets of riding the pry at the Georgetown Family Regatta. Photo by Jan Pehrson.
’ve become increasingly fascinated by the sport of sloop racing while sailing in the Bahamas with my friend Capt. Ken on his Morgan Out Island 36, Slowpoke, and writing and photographing for SOUTHWINDS Magazine. To a Bahamian, a “sloop” means a type of traditional workboat, once used for transportation and fishing, now morphed into a speedster raced for thrills and prize money. This indigenous sport, unique in the world, maintains the culture and at the same time evolves. Sloops must be Bahamian-designed—built, owned and skippered. They must be constructed of wood, and sails must be made of canvas or canvas-like material. As times change and boats are continually tweaked with small design improvements, the sloops sail faster, faster— Lady Sonia on port tack, just before coming about. ever faster. Sloop regattas—which through my telephoto lens, many—amazingly—appear cool, have been aptly described as a combination of Super Bowl, calm and collected while rocketing through space over water. homecoming and the Kentucky Derby—are the highlights Pry crew—especially the skillful riders on the fastest, of the year on many Bahamian islands. As sloops and their winningest sloops—are obviously not your average rail crews soar over the crystal-clear blue water, you hear a colmeat! lective “GASP!” from the excited crowd of locals and visiI suspect that a sloop’s pry crew deserves as much tors. Hiking out on one, two or three “pry boards” held to credit for taking home prize money as the sloop’s captain the deck by large staples, movable human ballast keeps the or strategist! sloops from capsizing. There are four racing classes: Class A (28 feet), Class B (21 feet), Class C (17 feet) and Class E (12 feet). With long overhanging booms and huge, billowing sails that easily overpower the hulls, the 28-feet-long Class-A boats seem much larger. With no restrictions except for boat length, boats owners and skippers are free to experiment, so a Class A sloop may carry, depending on the wind, maybe 1200 square feet of canvas ballasted by maybe 6000 pounds of lead and maybe 12-15 crew. The most spectacular of my regatta photographs are of “riding the pry”—crews sitting on the pry boards, perched one behind the other, high over the water, feet dangling in the air, and with nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, to hold onto but the plank they sit on—all with smiles on their faces. From a distance, pry riders appear to be hanging on with their butts for dear life, but when closely viewed
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News & Views for Southern Sailors
SOUTHWINDS
July 2018
35