The late Egbert Connor was one of Anguilla’s most legendary boat builders. He had an innate sense for how a boat should be formed and shaped, so it would slice effortlessly through the seas. In addition to understanding the elements of design, he also wielded an adz, auger, hatchet, saw and all the tools needed to build a boat from fancy to finish. His skills today would be considered artful, but in his day they were merely a means to survive.

So often these kinds of treasured talents die out, smothered in our modern, mass-produced world. But not in Anguilla. Boat building on that tiny island thrives, and among its most talented artisans
is a handsome and thoughtful young man named Devon “Beggar” Daniels. Some might say Beggar comes by it naturally, since he’s Egbert Conner’s grandson. Perhaps that’s why he began building model boats at age 11 … not the kind that sit on shelves, their bits held together with gobs of smelly glue. His models were strong and large enough to race against others in the island’s salt ponds.

When we visited Beggar recently at his boatyard, several of his 40-inch models sat in the yard, nearly obscured by creeping vines. Through the green veil we could see the bow of Creep Up and Angel propped off the ground on their 4.5-foot keels. Beggar explained how he built them and how they led him to build his first large boat at the age of 19. Lady Elvira, a 22-foot fishing boat, was the first … but there was a beautifully designed fleet constructed after her, including a 40-foot long-liner.

Happenstance is how Bruce met Beggar last year during a local boat race. The Sandy Ground beach was alive with crew hauling ballast, masts, rudders, sails and gear from trucks to the boats tethered in shallow water. Bruce heard Beggar announce that one of his crew was missing, so he asked if he could join them. He did, and a friendship was born from their shared love of boat building and sailing. After the race that day on the 21-foot R.O.B.B. (Return of Blue Bird), Beggar recognized Bruce as a good hand and invited him to race again. Although 10 months passed before our next meeting, the invitation was still alive … and not just for one race, but for all we could make.

The first competition of the 2008 season was to take place in late February, so we dashed there from St. Barts two days before the race, anticipating a day of rigging and practice beforehand. By race day, though, we hadn’t heard anything and watched the beach for the action to begin, but gave up by 4 that afternoon. We later learned the race was cancelled because of a combination of strong winds and a feud with the boats from Island Harbor.

Not long after that uneventful day, Beggar came by to invite us to his boat-building shop to see the remaking of Blue Bird, his 28-foot race boat. “Come today,” he said. “Today she cut. Tomorrow she back together.” Anguillan race boats, all built of
wood, are rebuilt almost as often as they’re sailed. Beggar, in an effort to gain more speed, had removed every frame and cut every plank seam. Blue Bird sat on her keel looking like a bony turkey carcass after a Thanksgiving feast. To explain the transformation, he pulled out the line drawings and I could see where, frame by frame, the boat had undergone a metamorphosis.

The next day we returned and were astonished to find Blue Bird’s planks glued up and the last frames being set in. With several helpers in and out, they had worked half the night like doctors in the E.R. Their patient, with a new coat of paint, would be good to go.

Jan