Greek caïques
Photographs of Greek harbours often show them being full of the traditional double-ended fishing boats that have been the mainstay of Greece’s fishing industry for centuries. Before the extensive network of government-sponsored ferries they also provided formal and informal transport between islands (and even isolated mainland villages) for people, goods and livestock.
A handful were still being built by traditional methods – from memory rather than from plans – less than 20 years ago. At that time there were around 14,500 caïques registered in Greece.
The picture is rapidly changing. Incentives to surrender fishing licences have seen as many as 80% of caïques destroyed in the past 20 years. Sadly, even if not all owners were conscientious about best practices for conserving fish stocks, concentrating fishing into fewer very much larger vessels is unlikely to help.
What was the largest fishing fleet in Europe is therefore already partly decimated, and the boats have to be scrapped to trigger payments for surrendering a fishing license, so few are transferred to private ownership. However, a number of privately owned sailing caïques still remain, most of which were built between the 1950s and 1970s.
These are usually in the 20-40ft size range and are generally not great sailing yachts, as most are shallow draught with little ballast. And few offer spacious accommodation, yet the owners I’ve met gain a huge amount of satisfaction and enjoyment from their boats.
Even if the boat is not expensive to buy many are in a rustic, or even run-down, state and long-term running costs, including repairs and replacement of kit, are liable to be expensive. So one of these boats is only a sensible option for those with plenty of time and money to spare – though you’d be helping to keep an important piece of history alive.