Hi everyone!

I am Felipe, and I would like to tell you about the jabega. A boat with a lot of history behind it. This is a typical boat on the Malaga coast, whose origin dates back to the dawn of time.

Usually, it is said that its origin is Phoenician. Maybe. Probably.

Málaga's history spans about 3000 years, and both the city and its port in the middle of the bay are one of the oldest in the world. 

According to most researchers, it was founded about 770 BC by the Phoenicians as Malaka. And there is an evidence of the presence of phoenitians dromons, which is a kind of rowing boat, in this shore. 

There are similarities that points to an inheritance of the ancient dromons to the jabega:

For example, the peak in the bow, with a snake head. In phoenitian times, the ram, or in spanish, the espolón, was used as a weapon to sink other boats. 

And also de four wooden bitts, the vertical sticks in the bow. here called maniquetas. They were already present  in ancient egyptian boats, where it was used to operate with the nets and the ropes. This element it's also found in some Whale boats

Finally, the stem (roda) in both the bow and the stern. This is an extension of the keel, and it is a typical part in byzantians dromons, which are a direct heritage from phoenitians boats.

If you compare the latest byzantiams dromons in the twelveth century with the first jabega boats in pictures from the sixteenth century, it seems very difficult to deny the link between them. The sail was recently eliminated, but it was present in some jabegas until a few years ago.

Other parts of the boat are the rowlocks, named here as escálamo. 

And, instead of the rudder, we have an spetial oar called espailla, which gives the name to our club. 

Probably, you know these sides are called the port and starboard. But, what you probably didn't know is that the starboard name came from steering board, estribor en español, because the steering row, la espadilla, which is, obviously, in the right side of the pilot. The port board, or the back board, is in the opposite, an the side of the boat, close to the dock, use to go up or leave the boat.

And what behind the name, jabega? In fact, the real name of the boat is barca de jabega, boat of jabega, as this is the name of the fishing art used here. The name came from the times of the muslim occupancy of Andalusia. 

Xabeq is probably the original name, which is dated about the 13th century.

The jabega is a net with a conic shape, which is extended using the boat forming a arc of about one kilometer length.

After laying the net, using the boat, the rowers, called here the jabegotes, pull the net back to the shore using an ancient instrument called the traya. 

In present, this kind of fishing art is forbidden, due to the huge amount of young fishes captured by using this technique. But, eventually, we repeat this "ceremony", but only for cultural and ethnological reasons, as you can see in the video link I sent you. For example, we did it two weeks ago. Of course, after finishing, we freed the fishes.

Probably due to the prohibition of the fishing art, and also because of the appearence of new motor boats for fishing, the jabegas started to disappear everywhere. At the beginning of the XX century, there were hundreds of jabegas. From Almería to Huelva. Along 500 hundred kilometers.

In the other hand, 20 years ago, there were no more than ten jabegas, and all of them in just a 5 kilometers shore, from Rincón de la Victoria to Málaga. 

But, ocassionally, a small group of rowers, to which our boss, agustin, belonged, kept another tradition with the boats: the summer races between them. And due to the competition, the jabegas arise as phoenix from the ashes. And, I think, it's important to say that our club was a pioneer in this reborn of the jabega. 

Nowadays, there are ten clubs for traditional rowing  and the number of jabegas duplicated in ten years thanks to the sport use of it. And also thanks to Jose Pedro, the last of the coastal carpenters, which is working with us these days, repairing the Santa Cristina, a boat from nineteen ninety, which, joint to Araceli, are the latest members of a dying era. 

In contrast, the light and fast boat Carmen y Gloria, is a representant of this new age for the jabega: a boat born for competition, but holding the tradition in its shape.

Now, it's time to know, from first hand, how the ancient phoenitians, bring the boat from the sand to the sea, because nothing changes in thousand of years... 

Thank you