Back to Cortez Village

I went back down to Cortez Village (Florida) today to their annual seafood festival. The boat shop had many boats on exhibit. Here are a few of them.

The Sallie Adams is a centerboarder and one of the first boats built by the Cortez boat shop.

The Esperanza is a genuine Cuban refugee boat that was found beached and abandoned and has been restored by the Cortez Boat Shop.

Mighty Sparrow is a traditional Abaco (Bahamas) built sailing dinghy. She may have been built by the Malone family.

This is another larger Abaco built sloop with a "smack" well. The well that you see in the center of the boat is water tight to the bilge at the bottom. Holes are drilled in the bottom planks of the hull to allow seawater to fill the well like a live baitwell. Thus live fish and Conch can be harvested and/or transported over great distances without refrigeration in the tropical climate. This type of construction is still used and can be seen even  in large sloops called "Smack Boats" or in Bahmian dialect "Smaak Booats".