- Kind — Carriacou sloop, wooden hull, rigged for fishing
- Launching — undocumented, presumably in the 1970s-1980s
- Length — 37 feet 5 inches — 11.4 m
- Width — 9 feet — 2.7 m
- Draft — 3 feet 3 inches — 1 m
- Shift — 6.2 tonnes
- Sail area — 764 square feet — 71 m²
- Manufacturer — Alwyn Enoe
- Place — Windward beach, Carriacou
- Bordered — Greenheart keel · West Indian white cedar frames
- Current base — Newport, Rhode Island (United States)
The boat that started it all
Summer Wind was hand-carved on Windward Beach, using a method inherited from the Scottish shipwrights who settled in Carriacou: no plans, just a half-model in wood, and frames shaped with an adze. It's a working boat, built for fishing, not for pleasure.
Owned by Antiguan businessman Eddie Barreto, it eventually sank in English Harbour, Antigua. To replace it, Barreto commissioned a new sloop from Petite Martinique: Summer Cloud.
1997: Alexis Andrews' pilgrimage
In 1997, photographer Alexis Andrews bought the wreck, which had just been raised from the bottom of the harbor, and set about restoring it. Once the boat was seaworthy again, he decided to sail it back to the beach where it had been built.
Upon arriving in Windward, he discovers that the island's carpenters are also disappearing. This journey triggers everything else: the photographic work on the last carpenters, the commission for Genesis to Alwyn Enoe, then the film Vanishing Sail, released in 2015. Summer Wind is its primary inspiration.
2014: From Antigua to New York, 2,500 miles in one go
In 2014, the ship left Antigua to reach New York non-stop The voyage, spanning two thousand five hundred nautical miles, was led by Denis Dowling and Dubi Klein. The crossing exposed them to rough weather off the Carolinas as well as dead calms, all within a cramped cabin—a Caribbean fishing sloop was never designed for the open sea. The two men would then return south under their own power.
It was this voyage that made the boat known outside the Caribbean, and which explains its current presence in New England.
Where is he today?
Alexis Andrews kept the boat for eight years, until the mid-2000s. Summer Wind then went to New England, where its restoration was carried out by an enthusiast who had become interested in Carriacou sloops through Andrews' books. Its home port is now Newport, Rhode Island.
In 2017, Andrews personally transported it to the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic Seaport, where the boat was displayed in excellent condition while he screened his film there twice a day.
Since then, there has been no further public trace of it. No appearances in classic regattas, no sales announcements, no reports of damage or demolition in the records or specialist press. In all likelihood, Summer Wind is still afloat in New England, in the hands of a private individual who is not communicating.
A cautious approach to documentation. The report from Classic Boat The book dedicated to this crossing names the boat "Summer Breeze" in its introductory text, but gives the dimensions of Summer Wind in its captions. One of the two entries is incorrect; we have been unable to determine which. The dimensions above are those published under the name Summer Wind.
Sources: Classic Boat, «Antigua to New York in a Carriacou Sloop», by Steffan Meyric-Hughes, May 6, 2014 (issue CB311, June 2014).
Contact — Summer Wind
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