On an unusually hot day in June, I meet Jamel at a small inlet on the shores of East End, Tortola where he is quietly tinkering with a dinghy. Jamel is fondly known as “Fiyah” or “Fiyamel” – a nickname given to him as a child with its roots derived from Rastafarai patois or Iyaric.
“I grew up right here” he says looking out across the bay. “From as early as I can remember we used to jump off the dock, swim and go fishing right here” he continues.
Around this time, Jamel began shaping simple little model boats out of foam rubber. It strikes me that this early interest, talent and affinity for boats comes as second nature to him. I suggest that boat building is in his bones, to which he quickly replies, “No, it’s in my DNA”.
Jamel descends from a long line of boat builders. Across the road is the Davies family home and what was the “wuk wuk” (work yard, or boat yard) where his Grandfather, the late Claremond Floyd Davies and father Samuel Davies built Virgin Islands sloops under the shade of the tamarind trees with the water lapping a few feet away, in the years before the land was reclaimed.
“Before the Virgin Islands was the modern territory it is today, from as early as the 18th century people travelled on horseback and donkey but mainly by boat. Boats and boat building were the mainstay of the economy. Cattle, ground provisions and charcoal were produced and traded with other islands all over the Caribbean and transported by boat. People were ferried to school and work by boat. The types of boats built were unique in their design and different from any others. They were known far and wide as the “Tortola Boat” or “Virgin Islands Sloop” says Geoffrey Brooks, in his book “Building a Virgin Islands Sloop – The Story of Sea Moon”.
Surprisingly, Jamel learned how to build and repair dinghies and later larger yachts out of fibre glass before he learned the art of building traditional wooden sloops.
In 2006, as part of it’s Traditional Wooden Boatbuilding project, UNESCO invited Jamel to be a part of a Virgin Islands Sloop building project in Anegada. It was there that he learned how to build a traditional wooden sloop under the guidance of the late Mr Watson-White, a Master Shipwright.
Although Mr Watson-White was some 50+ years older than Jamel at the time, it was a meeting of the minds where age knows no bounds – As it turned out, their Grandfathers, James Smith of Anegada and Claremond Floyd Davies of Tortola had worked together a generation before, building sloops in Anegada.
Jamel is now an accomplished sailor, having raced in many regattas including Foxy’s Wooden Boat Race and the Sloop Shoot Out on “Youth Instructor”, against some of the BVI’s top sailors.
He plays an important role in continuing the legacy of the BVI’s rich seafaring past as Chairman of the Virgin Islands Sloop Foundation that provides funding and supervision for the maintenance and restoration of historically significant wooden sloops, and organises and develops programmes that teach and enhance boat-building skills as a learning opportunity for the youth of the Virgin Islands.