Developing and promoting swimming, one child at a time.
About Us
Who are we and what do we do.
The SKN Swimming Federation is a non profit organization affiliated with FINA, UANA and CCCAN. Our mission is to promote and generate interest in grass roots level swimming instruction and the development of swimming both as a sport and as an activity for all.
The federation has grand plans to one day have swimming pools on both of our islands and educate and train the youth in particular but anyone who does not currently have the ability to swim.
Development and Awareness.
Part of raising the profile and awareness of our sport is through competitions and events, As we have no pool we have concentrated on Open Water swimming. Our flagship event is the annual ‘Nevis to St Kitts Cross Channel Swim’ . However we also had recent representation at the World Championships in Guanju (Korea) and regional meets in Barbados and Jamaica, which featured our current National Champion Jennifer Harding-Marlin.
Our Programs
The ‘GIFTING GOGGLES’ initiative was launched at the beginning of 2020, with the sole purpose of assisting in the development of youth swimming. The program asks of hotel guests who plan to swim whilst on vacation, and swim event participants, to donate their used goggles to our youth. We also encourage anyone who so wishes, to collect or purchase childrens swim goggles and drop them off with us, either in St kitts or or Nevis
About Us
Our Mission
Dedicated Instructors and Coaches.
Dedicated Instructors and Coaches.
To provide a foundation and resource for the development of the sport and activity of swimming in our sister island federation. We provide comprehensive Support and information for all Swimming clubs and associations in the Federation. Your success is our priority. To support our inclusive community, we provide a personal approach, tailoring learning methods to each student's needs.
Dedicated Instructors and Coaches.
Dedicated Instructors and Coaches.
Dedicated Instructors and Coaches.
Through our affiliation with FINA the world governing body for swimming, we have been able to host 3 instructor/coaching clinics over the past few years and we have plans for more in 2020. We remain cognizant of the fact that grass roots swimming is instructor/coach driven, and we are doing our best to encourage and support all of the existing programs and any new ones that arise.
SKN Swimming Results
SKN Swimming Results
SKN Swimming Results
WE have to honor and recognize the efforts of our current National swimming champion Jennifer Harding-Marlin, Jennifer is the first swimmer to represent SKN at a World Championships, this was in Gwanju South Korea in September 2019, where she competed in the 50m Backstroke and the 100m Freestyle, setting National records in both. She also
WE have to honor and recognize the efforts of our current National swimming champion Jennifer Harding-Marlin, Jennifer is the first swimmer to represent SKN at a World Championships, this was in Gwanju South Korea in September 2019, where she competed in the 50m Backstroke and the 100m Freestyle, setting National records in both. She also went on to win 4 medals at the OECS short course championships held in St Vincent & The Grenadines in November 2019. Along with procuring SKN's first pool swimming medals Jennifer also set 11 new National records!!!
N.B:- Jennifer's attendance at the World Games qualified our emerging swim nation to gain financial assistance from FINA, monies that have gone towards the construction of SKN's very first dedicated swimming facility, which will be an in-water 25m training pool that will be located at Oualie Beach on Nevis.
In February 2020 Jennifer attended her (and our) first international Olympic Games qualifying meet in Kingston, Jamaica, where she won 5 medals and 11 new national records as she improved her times in each discipline.
Sadly, with Covid 19 shutting down the world Jennifer was a casualty as she was hard in training, with other events planned to attempt to qualify SKN for the Olympic Games in Japan.
Thank you Jennifer from all of us, your efforts on our behalf are greatly appreciated.
UPCOMING EVENTS
SKN Swimming Results
SKN Swimming Results
’MV CHRISTENA’ 10km memorial swim. August 1st 2020.
Join us as we honor and remember the many lives lost and their families, and the survivors of the tragedy. This year will mark 50 years since this awful tragedy and it is our duty to try and start a new conversation that will govern the next 50 years.
Did You Know??? - 50
’MV CHRISTENA’ 10km memorial swim. August 1st 2020.
Join us as we honor and remember the many lives lost and their families, and the survivors of the tragedy. This year will mark 50 years since this awful tragedy and it is our duty to try and start a new conversation that will govern the next 50 years.
Did You Know??? - 50 Facts about the M. V. Christena
- 1. Designed and built by Sprostons Limited in Georgetown, British Guiana for the government of St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla. Commissioned in May 1959.
- 2. Captained by Mr. D. Hogarth, Christena left the shipyard, floated in the seaport of Chaguaramas in Trinidad, and after 49 hours at a cruising speed of 9 mph arrived in the Basseterre roadstead on Sunday, June 7, 1959.
- 3. Length 66 ft., breadth 16 feet, 3.3 metres draught and a 12-meter high top structure.
- 4. Was built with a grant of $132, 500 from the British government.
- 5. Powered by 2 Caterpillar Diesel engines – D326-FF Marine engines made by the Caterpillar Tractor Company in Peoria, Illinois, USA.
- 6. Did the ferry service between St. Kitts and Nevis from June 15, 1959 to August 1, 1970
- 7. Designed to carry a maximum of 5 tonnes, 155 passengers (120 on the lower deck, 30 on the upper deck, and 5 in the captain’s cabin).
- 8. Fare: $1.00 (upstairs), 0. 50 cents (downstairs), children (0.50 cents).
- 9. The Ministry of Communications, Works and Transport was responsible for the administration, operation and maintenance of the M V Christena.
- 10. Replaced privately-owned ferry, the MV Anslyn which was destroyed by Hurricane Greta in 1956.
- 11. Captained by Montserratian James Richard Ponteen, a former police officer, aged 57, on final crossing.
- 12. From August 1998, made two return trips to Nevis daily, except on Thursdays and Sundays.
- 13. The boat was thought to be UNSINKABLE.
- 14. Ponteen lived on Douglas Street, Newton, St. Kitts, with his wife Irene and 10 children, but fathered 11 other children by several women in several islands.
- 15. Crew: Captain Ponteen, first mate (Frank Matthew Tyson), engineer (Charles Moore), assistant engineer (Conrad Phipps), and 5 deck-hands.
- 16. It was Captain Ponteen’s intention to retire mid-August 1970.
- 17. The Central Foundry Limited of Barbados, a firm of Dock and Foundry Owners, Ship-builders , Marine and General Engineers repaired the MV Christena whenever in Barbados.
- 18. Last dry docking was in May 1970. The boat returned to St. Kitts on Tuesday, May 17.
- 19. The docking fee was $42, 282.79.
- 20. Carried over 300 passengers on its final journey.
- 21. Sank stern first, 12km from St. Kitts and 8.5km from Nevis. Sits in 71 feet of water.
- 22. A cargo boat, M. V Hawthorne Enterprise, within the vicinity of the disaster, allegedly ignored S.O.S calls.
- 23. 57 bodies recovered, 170 missing, 91 survivors (82 men, 9 women).
- 24. Approximately 50 turn-hands, (Nevisian women who sold fruits and vegetables on St. Kitts) died in the accident.
- 25. Three nuns, from the Convent in St. Kitts, died in the accident. Sisters Amelia Comeau, Patricia Dineen and Marie Le Blanc.
- 26. 13 bodies were buried at the Bath Cemetery in Nevis, 39 at Springfield, in St. Kitts, in unmarked graves, others at parish cemeteries in Nevis and St. Kitts.
- 27. American Phillip Miller (capt.) and Winston ‘Sonny Boy’ Skeete (mate) of the Sea Hunter 1, owned by the Cliff Dwellers Hotel, effected many rescues.
- 28. Local fisher boats, and the Customs Launch Revenue Cutter joined the search, rescue and recovery efforts.
- 29. 38 dead bodies mostly women were piled up on the Charlestown pier, before being transported by lorries to the morgue at the Alexandra Hospital.
- 30. St. Kitts & Nevis only living national hero and first prime minister, Dr. Kennedy Simmonds was the only doctor on Nevis at the time of the disaster. He attended to 63 of the 65 patients brought to the Alexandra Hospital.
- 31. Former late Governor General Sir Cuthbert Sebastian and Dr. Kelsick relieved Dr. Simmonds, tending to the final 2 patients, including Dr. Kelsick’s son, Ian.
- 32. The Sea Hunter 1, owned by the Cliff Dwellers Hotel with captain Phillip Miller and mate Winston ‘Sonny Boy’ Skeete effected many rescues.
- 33. US Coast Guard vessels from Puerto Rico and USVI, and later British and French ships joined the search.
- 34. Search and recovery was abandoned after 4 days. A French naval captain suggested that the other bodies would drift towards the Puerto Rican Trench.
- 35. Cost Upper deck $1, lower deck 50 cents
- 36. 57 bodies recovered, 170 missing, 91 survived.
- 37. It is the worst maritime disaster in the history of boating in the English-speaking Caribbean.
- 38. The government of St. Kitts Nevis and Anguilla ordered a Commission of Inquiry, which was carried out by J.D. B Renwick. It started on Oct. 1, 1970 and lasted 1 week.
- 39. A dive-team comprising (among others) Phillip Miller and Arthur Anslyn, formed part of the investigation.
- 40. The cause of the accident was never determined.
- 41. Victor Swanston, of Long Run Gingerland, a butcher and Christena survivor, started a one-man Memorial Service at Market Shop, Gingerland, in 1971. He eventually moved it into Memorial Square, Charlestown.
- 42. Captain Winston ‘Sonny Boy’ Skeete of the M.V Sea Hustler, started a wreath-laying ceremony at the site on August 1, 1998.
- 43. On Sunday, August 6, 2000, Skeete partnered with social worker Hensley Daniel, Daniel’s wife Sonita and Thelma Parris to conduct the first Memorial Service at sea.
- 44. In 2001, the Vance Amory-led Nevis Island Administration built the Christena Memorial on the Samuel Hunkins Drive, and started an annual Memorial Service on Aug. 1. The ceremony is now in its 20thyear.
- 45. In 2011, the Joseph Parry-led Nevis Island Administration built a Memorial at the Bath Cemetery where 13 persons are buried.
- 46. The sister-island St. Kitts has no similar monument.
- 47. The Christena wreck is a popular dive site with scuba divers.
- 48. Historian Dr. Whitman T. Browne, has written three (3) Christena books. The Christena Disaster in Retrospect (1985), The Christena Disaster Revisited (2000), and Th Christena Disaster - Forty Two Years Later (2012).
- 49. Survivor Ossie Tyson has written two Christena books. The first: Ossie’s Odyssey. Another remembering persons who he knew who died will be published at the end of July 2020.
- 50. August 1, 2020 marks 50 years, and a special commemoration is planned.
Nevis to St Kitts Cross Channel Swim.
March 28th 2021.
This flagship open water event was cancelled this year due to the Covid 19 pandemic, but we will be back bigger and better than ever next year, we hope you can join us. www.nevistostkittscrosschannelswim.com
Contact Us
Better yet, see us in person!
Feel free to visit us whilst here in the Federation, we are based on Nevis.
St Kitts & Nevis Swimming Federation
Main Road, Oualie Beach Bay, Nevis 00162, St Kitts & Nevis, W.I.
Tel: - (869) 664 2843 email:- bikenevis@gmail.com
Hours
Open today | 09:00 – 17:00 |
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