SAILING IS IN JACK HOAD’S GENES, a passion inherited from his father who was “a very keen” sailor.
While he was growing up on Fontabelle, the sea was at Hoad’s backdoor and when his father set out on recreational sails, his little son Jack was often on board. Hoad remembers sailing with his father as early as age five “in a little Moses about five feet long” and skippering his father’s dinghy Blaucus in a Barbados Yacht Club regatta, his first race at age nine.
Hoad paints a picture of life in Fontabelle in the 1940s and 1950s, a community with “a bunch of local boys” who were into all types of sport.
“Our place was about where DaCosta Manning is now. We had a large backyard and we did cycling around Kensington. The Fergussons were our neighbours on one side and old Captain George Fergusson often reminded us that my father taught him to sail.”
His neighbourhood was inhabited by prominent families like the Herberts and the Badleys. But not far away in the surrounding communities were the “fisherfolk” with whom the Hoad family formed a bond.
“It was quite common to go and meet the fishing boats coming in with their daily catch and give the fishermen ten Trumpeter cigarettes and they would throw a bundle of flying fish over to us for free.”
According to Hoad, his men moved around freely as the crowd advanced on Fontabelle during the 1937 riots because of that relationship, he was told.
The Hoad home on Fontabelle was lost to progress, with the building of the Deep Water Harbour (the Bridgetown Port).
Now in his 80s, his activities curtailed by troublesome arthritic knees – he recently underwent surgery on one – and the limitations imposed by Parkinson’s disease, Hoad spends his days on shore.
“Right now I am sort of out of that,” he said when asked whether he still sails.
“I don’t have a yacht because I had surgery and at age 82, I can sail but . . .”, and immediately his wife Jeanette jumps in to finish the sentence saying, “He can sail but I don’t let him.”
Does he miss being out on the water? “Oh yes” he replies. “Sailing is something that is in your veins.”
This Barbadian has had a long history of accomplishments with boats over seven decades and appreciates that his contribution to sport and sailing, in particular, was recognised with the recent award of the Barbados Service Star in the 2014 National Independence Honours.
Together with crew member Bill Tempro, who was also awarded the Barbados Service Star, Hoad put Barbados on the international sailing map in 1967 when he won the gold medal at the GP14 World Championship Regatta in Ontario, Canada. This remains the only gold medal won to date by any Barbadian in a world-class sailing event.
His memories are many and when he talks about boats and sailing, he takes the listener on board for the experience with vivid descriptions and vignettes about sailings.
Hoad has been at the helm of a wide range of boats, from dinghies to round the world racers, winning many regattas. Racing the Fireball dinghy in Barbados, he holds a record of 52 consecutive wins and was undefeated in numerous Grenada Easter regattas.
His exploits on the 10-metre boat Blazin, which he once owned with a syndicate, are favourite memories – like competing in Antigua Race Week back in the 1960s, and when “we took her down to Petit St Vincent Regatta and we won that in 1986.”
In 1988 he won Racing Class in the prestigious Antigua Sailing Week Regatta and Blazin dominated the Caribbean racing scene for more than a decade, including winning several Barbados Mount Gay regattas and Tobago Racing Week in 1989 and 1990.
The joy at the end of all these yacht races was to have all the “yachties” aboard for a party with Hoad’s wife Jeanette and the wives of other sailors preparing the food.
Sitting on his patio as golfers rode by in their golf carts, Hoad remarked, “It was that type of friendship. We raced out there hard against each other but when we came ashore it was a different ball game, friends making jokes. That is where the wives really came in. The food would come up, the drink would come up, everything that was churning in the galley.”
But it was not always smooth sailing as Jeanette attested. She, like other sailors’ wives, often went along for the ride, supporting her husband all the way, until the time came when she decided she would no longer endure the kind of turbulence experienced sailing through the Bequia channel. “It could be rough and a little bit frightening too,” Jeanette said, and there did come a point where she decided “I can’t take this no more. I am going to fly home.”
The Hoads have just celebrated 60 years of marriage.
Hoad has taught, mentored and encouraged many a sailor and was instrumental in the formation of the Barbados Yachting Youth Training Association, which has trained thousands of Barbadians. He also served as commodore of the Barbados Yacht Club and remains a trustee of the organisation, which honoured him with life membership for his long and outstanding service.