Building a Virgin Islands Sloop

Durante mentioned a 40-foot mast he has growing on his property. "Mr [Elmore] Stoutt said that each village should have a sloop," Durante said, "and it would be good for the kids to learn how it's built and how to sail it." Once the creative team was assembled, they had to find a way to fund the project. "To us, it was important to keep the production of the book as local as possible: designing it in the BVI, with a boat built in the BVI, a book written by a BVI resident, with paintings by an artist who was creating artwork in the BVI, and we found someone locally to fund the printing of the project-VP Bank. They have been very focused on educating the population on the BVI's maritime heritage." Sjoerd Koster, Head of Banking at VP Bank said, "We believe that this publication is both a culturally and historically important event as it describes the 'how-to-build-a-sloop' steps as well as, through colourful paintings, the early boat-building history of the Virgin Islands and the important economic role the sloops played in the early stages of the territory's commercial development." He added that the publication seems to have been perfectly timed with the final homecoming of the historically significant Virgin Islands sloop Intrepid. "We are pleased to have been a part of the return of the 'lost sloop,'" he said, "as well as our involvement in this project."