The Tribune

ELEAZOR “the Sailing Barber’ Johnson has earned praise for his initiative in putting on the first Back to School sailing regatta in Montagu Bay at the weekend.

Johnson, known for his annual St Valentine’s Day Massacre event in February, said he decided to assist parents who normally have a hard time dealing with back to school expenses.

“We know things are tough, so we decided to have the giveaway of school bags and lunch packs and all the other stuff from the sponsors to give away to the children,” Mr Johnson told The Tribune.

“Vitamalt and Coca-Cola all made the donations. The Minister (of Local Government, V Alfred Gray) helped, Sir Durward Knowles helped. They all did some things for this weekend. I also want to thank the Nassau Yacht Club for allowing the children in the youth sailing to participate and the Nassau Plastic Company for providing the trophies. This was good. I was very pleased with what I saw. We had so many people out here watching and we didn’t need any police to watch us.”

Ten boats participated in the sloop sailing competition on Saturday and Sunday and there was also a junior competition for competitors from the Bahamas Sailing Association and the Bahamas National Sailing School.

Race co-ordinator Stafford Armbrister was relieved the weather was kind over the two days as the event had to be postponed two weeks ago due to the threat from Tropical Storm Erika.

“All the races went well. We didn’t have any problems,” he said.

“One boat broke her mast, but that’s about it. I was happy to see that we had ten boats that came out to participate and there were more boats who wanted to come, but we had to limit the amount of boats that could compete because it was just a fun regatta and we did this for the children so they could come out and collect their goodies for back to school.”

Rev Dr Philip McPhee, who competed in the races, said he appreciated the gesture by Mr Johnson and the sponsors for putting the regatta on for the children. “Once it’s something for Sir Durward, the Bahamian sailors will come out and support because he’s done so much for sloop sailing, for sailing and for The Bahamas,” he said. “As you know, he’s responsible for One Bahamas where he’s been trying his best to unite all Bahamians. So whenever he calls us, we will come and do our best to make sure that it is a success.”