The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ROCK Sound, Eleuthera -- Robert Hall wanted to teach the young boys a lesson.

On Saturday, Hall dominated the Bahamian Brewery's 'Sands in the Man' sculling races that made it to the Family Islands for the first time after the four new boats were introduced in New Providence in February.

The races were held as a part of the Rock Sound Homecoming Celebrations.

Hall, a 64-year-old resident of Rock Sound, said it was a shame that the young boys, including a number of police and defence force officers, were not able to scull properly.

"I just wanted to show them how it's done," Hall said. "They should be ashamed, especially the defence force officers because they all should know how to scull in case they go to sea and their boats break down. "But since I was home, I decided to go out there and show them how to do it."

After a series of preliminary races, Hall beat out Eugene Williamson and Vernon (who didn't want to use his surname) for the title. He collected a trophy and a series of products from the four products produced by Bahamian Brewery - Sands, Sands Light, High Rock and Strong Back Stout.

Hall, a local favourite, said all he had to do was stand tall, spread his legs at the edge of the two sides of the boat and push the rudder up and down.

"I got into a rhythm and that was how I pulled it off," he said.

Williamson, a police officer, sculled for the first time but he won his preliminary race before he lost out to Hall in the final.

"This is just the first time that I had a chance to scull," Williamson said. "I only had a crash course about 15 minutes before the first race so I was very pleased with the way I performed.

"The other guy knew how to scull so I wasn't really worried about him. I just wanted to make sure that the other guys didn't beat me. I was so excited about the way I performed that I'm looking forward to competing in the race again."

For his third place finish, Vernon said he went out and performed his best. But, because he never sculled before, he knew it was going to be a very difficult time for him.

"I was just having some fun out there," he said. "I didn't know what to do before I went out there, so I was pleased that I was able to perform the way I did."

For many of the other competitors in the preliminary rounds, they had some problems getting around the buoy on the course and they drifted too far away from the course so they had to be towed in.

Another local favorite, Rasta Brown, complained to the officials about not having a chance to complete the course after he got towed in. He said he knew that he had a chance to complete the course.

After christening the boats at the St Valentine's Massacre in Montagu Bay, Robert Sands said he and his staff at Bahamian Brewery were eager to get the Family Islanders involved.

"We didn't know what to expect but we were just proud to see the response that we got here," he said. "It was a very good showing and we look forward to doing it again."

Sands also got into the preliminaries, sailing against Hall. But after taking the initial lead, Sands couldn't hold on as Hall stormed back before the finish line to win.

"I was really pleased that a resident from Rock Sound won," Sands said. "Now he will get a chance to travel to Grand Bahama at the end of the year when we have all of the winners from the other regattas and homecoming that we go too."

Lynden Johnson, the marketing manager at Bahamian Brewery, said if the response in Rock Sound was any indication, they are looking forward to the other Family Islands.

"We were very pleased with the way the people here came out and supported what we were doing," he said. "Although we got off to a late start, the response was much better than we had anticipated."

The boats will remain in Eleuthera for another series of races in Governor's Harbour next weekend. Then they will head to Elizabeth Harbour in Georgetown, Exuma, for the National Family Island Regatta at the end of the month.