By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 22, 2022 — Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who represents The Exumas and Ragged Island in the House of Assembly, deserves widespread congratulations for working assiduously to see to it that the annual Exuma Regatta, which was cancelled during the two previous years because of COVID-19, is being staged this year.
Not only has the Exuma Regatta historically been one of The Bahamas’ most iconic sporting events from the late 1950s, but it has annually provided an huge financial boom for Exuma’s economy and is also a fun-filled weekend.
I attended my first regatta in the early 1960 when I was a sports reporter at The Tribune, at the invitation of R.H. “Bobby” Symonette, who was at the time one of the MPs for Exuma and one of the originators of the Exuma Regatta.
Next to Andros, the island of my birth, and Bimini, which I visited frequently when I was President of the Bahamas Baseball Association (BBA) in the 1960s, Great Exuma is my third most favourite island.
When George A. Smith, who was elected MP for Exuma in 1968, was general manager of Bahamian Times — where I worked after I left The Tribune in 1965 – was campaigning for his seat in the House, we used to leave for Exuma on Friday of every week after The Times was printed.
This year it is too late for me to do so, but now that the “regatta is back,” I hope I can attend next year, God willing.
