39th Annual Carriacou Regatta Celebrates Island´s Boat Building Ancestry

Creating a colorful spectacle for those on and off the sea, the 39th annual Carriacou Regatta will take place from July 25th -August 2nd, 2004. The festival, which began as a mere boat racing event in 1965, is a salute to the Caribbean sister island of Grenada´s indigenous art of boat building, handed down by Irish and Scottish ancestors.

The Regatta race events, which take place the entire week, focus mainly on the locally built ´workboats´ with some ten different classes of boats ranging from 14 to 35 feet in length.

Onshore cultural and sporting festivities include the Miss Aquaval Queen Show, a donkey race, bicycle races, musical chairs, tug-o-war, greasy pole competition (where a well-greased pole is suspended over the sea and participants vie to reach the prize hanging from the end), arm wrestling and weight lifting competitions, and many more fun-filled activities appropriate for the entire family.

The island of Carriacou is the most southerly of the Grenadines, situated 20 miles north of Grenada. It has an area of 13 square miles and is the largest of the chain of islands between Grenada and St. Vincent.