“In 1987, the whaleboat Maria Armanda took to the sea for one last hunt. Though whaling had officially ended in the Azores several years prior, the men whose livelihoods had depended on it could not let it go easily. Fast forward 20-some years, and the man who captained this last hunt stands in the harbor, watching his old boat cross the finish line in a whaleboat regatta, with a man more than 60 years his junior now in charge.
Azorean whaleboats are a vessel of particular beauty. Just shy of 40 feet long, the handcrafted and colorful wooden boats take to the water with an ease and silence that make you feel as though you are floating just on top of the sea. First built in the late 1800s, the seven-man canoes were adapted from the American whaleboats many Azorean men had come to know well during the height of American whaling, when they were taken on as crew.
Throughout the years, while the rest of the whaling world took to factory ships and grenade harpoons, Azoreans continued catching only small numbers of sperm whales with hand harpoons out of these traditional boats.
No longer used for whaling, the boats are now an icon of Azorean culture and the centerpiece of a vibrant sports culture among younger generations, who use them for rowing and sailing.
Every summer, the whaleboats come out of storage and the islands come alive in anticipation of the regattas. Teams practice every day after work, race on Saturdays, and rest on Sundays before starting it all over again. The transition from hunting for necessity to adventuring for sport happened quickly—and effectively.
“What we did with the whaleboats, which is absolutely incredible,” says Filipe Fernandes, current captain of the Maria Armanda, “is we removed the whale. And the interest has not vanished. People still relate to the whaling because old rivalries are still present today, old stories from whaling still come up in discussion nowadays when things heat up over competition. But when you look at other areas, you see how impressive that is, because I can’t imagine in bull fighting that they would find a way to remove the bull and still keep the emotion and the attraction around the activity. I think we have a lot to be proud of.””
Read the full article at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/whaleboat-regattas-racing-new-sport-old-custom
