"Le Tour des Yoles" in Martinique
by Leslie Auguste and by Gaella Lenogue
Our names are Ga‘lla and Leslie and at the moment we go to Montgerald High School. We live in the French West Indies, more precisely in Martinique which is located between Saint-Lucia and Dominica. Here the weather is very hot; the temperature varies little and it is sunny all year round. Thanks to the fine weather, we can practise many water sports including sailing, kayaking, surfing and body-boarding.
Our favorite water sport, however, is called Yole Ronde. Once a year in August sport clubs organize the Tour des Yoles, a race around the island in these unusual boats. Martinique is the only island in the world where such an event is held. The teams go around Martinique in seven days. It is great fun to drive from town to town in order to follow the different stages of the race and meet the winning boat on its arrival! It is also wonderful to see all these colourful boats on the sea, but from the sky the view is even better!
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The yole ronde is a boat around ten metres long and three metres wide, with a sail surface area of twenty square metres. The word, from the Norwegian word for boat, entered the French language in the early 1700s. The yole developed as a more stable alternative to the gommier, which was worked out of a hollow tree trunk, and was initially used along the east coast by fishermen.
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However, the boat was used for sporting competitions very early on. Initially limited to just a few regions and stringing along just a handful of fishermen, the races have now become the passion of all inhabitants of the island. A crew of fourteen to sixteen men and women have serious responsibilities on board. The three people at the stern of the yole use the rudder to direct the boat. The others lean out on bamboo poles to counterbalance the force of the wind against the sail and prevent the yole from capsizing.
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Nowadays, the yole, promoted to some extent as a national sport, bring together quasi-professional sportspeople grouped in teams sponsored by local councils and companies. The most important event, the tour des yoles, arouses broad public interest and represents an important tourist attraction. |
