The moment the tow rope is released, two of the strongest crewmembers leap forward and begin to haul up the mainsail gaff as quickly as possible. The secret is not to power up the huge main too early, before the halyard has been made off on its rudimentary jammer made from whalebone. Once the sail is raised, you can turn towards the wind and sheet in, but there is definitely a skill in learning how high to point and just how much power these slender hulled rowing gigs can handle on the wind. A capsize and there is definitely no coming back.
Welcome to Azorean whaleboat racing, where the top crews are truly athletic, able to not only row and hike hard, but also raise and lower the main mast, which is literally a 9m tree trunk, cut from the locally grown cedar forest at the base of Mount Pico. I’ve had the enormous pleasure of racing on everything from IMOCA 60s to Extreme 40 catamarans and more recently even traditional luggers, but the experience of sailing the Azorean whaleboat left a huge impression on me.
The design of these traditional boats, which were used right up until the 1980s to hunt and catch giant sperm whales migrating through the Azores archipelago, has changed very little over time. While I might feel uncomfortable about their
