Port of Las Palmas, 1857. Canarian Museum
143 years of Latin Sailing boats preceded us, but I am convinced that the competition between Latin Sailing boats is previous and we should add a few more digits to that figure.
It has been established that the official date of the competitive origin of the Latin Sailing boats is July 24, 1904, in a regatta that was held on the occasion of the patron saint festivities of the neighborhood of San Cristobal in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. However, this date is clearly incorrect because, prior to this date, there were many races between boats that had the rank of official and some were also held upwind.
It should be noted that from the point of view of the theory of the origin of sport, the origin of a sport is established at the point at which there is evidence of the first manifestation of the sport, and of course the date of July 24 does not meet this requirement, because there are many regattas held earlier that would meet it.
What is clear is that the configuration of the structure of a sport is not established overnight, because this structural configuration is made with the practice of sport, which is polishing the configurating elements of the sport in question.
What's more, not even the regatta held on the aforementioned 24th of July, had all the configurating elements that give shape to our sport, but rather those elements were added as the different sporting competitions were carried out.
The Latin Sailing boats are no strangers to this principle; the Latin Sailing boats had to undergo an evolution from the first competitions in the mid-nineteenth century to its current configuration.
Perhaps the date that fulfills the mentioned principle would be the regatta that was celebrated the 1 of May of 1876 that has faithful reflection in the press of the time: "Day 1. To the five of the afternoon, maritime cucañas, and regattas of boats with several prizes, during whose games there will be music in the dock of this city (The Press, 1876)". It also appears in the program of the celebrations for the commemoration of the conquest of Gran Canaria: "Day 1: At five o'clock in the afternoon, maritime cucañas and regattas of boats with several prizes, during whose games there will be music in the dock of this city.
This regatta, which was held on the day of San Pedro Mártir, 29 April, was organised by the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Town Hall, in which prizes were established for the best and in subsequent years official regattas continued to be held on the same dates.
But I am convinced that before this date and held boat races, as evidenced in the press of the time, and in 1874 was published: "In the afternoon maritime cucaña on the dock and boat bargaining from that point to the port of La Luz, with three prizes to be distributed in this way: the boat more walker, that is the first to reach the port, eighty pesetas, the second, forty, and the third, twenty. (The Truce, 1874)". Note that the regatta course is from Las Palmas Quay to Puerto de La Luz, that is, from South to North, which suggests that the regatta is also planned against the wind.
This proves that a sport is configured with the different sporting manifestations until it acquires the definitive structure that characterizes it, as has happened with the Latin Sailing boats.
What is clear is that all the regattas held before 1934, when the first boat championship organized by the Sociedad Deportiva Ahemón was held, contributed to give shape to the sport as we know it today, because it is Ahemón who establishes the first formal structure of the competition, bringing together all the elements that shaped the sport that had previously emerged.
This formal structure, established by Ahemón, has reached us to the present day with the evident transformations that have been included from the sixties to the present day, because the Latin Sailing boat competition is a living sporting manifestation and, therefore, open to competitive and formal modifications.
Apart from these sporting events that show that more than 143 years ago there were already boat races, there are other data that corroborate what was said in the press of the moment or in the party programs.
These other data can be found in the Las Palmas Ship Registry and are provided by José Daniel Rodríguez Zaragoza in his blog "Notes on the maritime history of the Canary Islands". In his entry: "Así comenzó todo. 1.- Los botes de vela latina canaria", he states that in 1866 Latin Sailing boats were already being built exclusively for recreation. So Rodriguez tells us:
"following the track in the Las Palmas Ship Registry, the first boat that appears as strictly made for recreation in the fourth list of the Las Palmas Ship Registry, [...] was the one that appears in folio 14, it was built in 1866, and it was a boat, that was called, curiously, "Eolo". It was built by the riverside carpenter Don Antonio Herrera."
Continuing with Rodriguez's article, we find that the register of boats for recreation and bargaining does not stop there, since in 1872 another boat is registered, the Neptune and 1874 another, Christopher Columbus with similar dimensions.Later, in 1876, two boats were registered that already sound more familiar and are not others than El Canario, which is 5.90 meters long, 1.88 meters wide and 0.74 meters long and the Marino, with 6.15 meters long, 1.94 meters wide and 0.71 meters long.
These data from the Las Palmas Register of Ships, provided by José Daniel Rodríguez Zaragoza, show that the competitions between Latin Sailing boats were already taking place in the middle of the 19th century and that there was a group of amateurs who built boats no longer to work, but exclusively for sporting competition.So, to conclude, it must be said that the sporting origins of Latin boat sailing should be established in the mid-nineteenth century, because there are not only journalistic proofs of these sporting events, but also proofs of registration seats of the boats that were built to participate in these competitions.
