Racing aboard TUSITIRI in the Lamu Dhow Festival

The small Swahili coastal town called Lamu is UNESCO heritage listed site of cultural significance. The labyrinth of narrow laneways is crowded with people and donkeys going about their business, not for the tourists (who are few and far between) but carrying out the commerce that’s been going on here for a couple of millennia. And for a few days each November the largely Muslim community celebrates their culture and races their dhows. These craft which first appeared on this coast five centuries before Jesus recruited his first fisherman, were designed primarily as trading vessels. They have a characteristic lateen sail, which hangs off a long boom, suspended at an angle from a short forward leaning mast. They are objects of beauty, but more importantly they are highly effective sailing craft, chiselled into their current form by two and a half millennia of practical experience. In Lamu a few dhows still work under sail, delivering coral blocks, salt, sand and the occasional tourist to where they need to be. Globally, the Indian Ocean Dhow is one of only a dozen types of wind powered craft that are still used for genuine commerce or subsistence. In November each year, just as the easterly trade winds become established, the dhows are transformed to race! There solid masts and booms are replaced with lighter racing versions, new sails are sewn from Indian cotton panels, and their hulls are patched and painted with whatever is available. With minuscule budgets, they rely far more on ingenuity and generations of unwritten seafaring lore, than technology to make each boat go fast! The lateen rig is labour intensive and the crews of twenty five or more crowd aboard a 30ft boat and sing as they wrestle their way around the 20 nautical mile course. Continual bailing is needed to stop the dhows sinking while a respected afterguard perches on a small decked area above the transom, elegant in their embroidered kofia caps, nursing the tiller and scanning the water for changes in wind and tide.