Mike Hendra, Publicity

Introduction

ke Hendra and I am the latest victim of Rodger the Anaconda, our enthusiastic shorts wearing Commodore. I was silly enough to write an article or two for the Mainsheet and with the current editor rather sadly indisposed I was ingested into the job by Rodger. So to introduce myself here are some of my thoughts.

What goes round comes round

I lived in South Africa for sixteen years from 1965 to 1980 whilst on a break from a journey from Poole to Australia that started in 1964. In 1985 my wife and I went back on holiday hiring a campervan to travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town via the Kruger National Park and Zululand. On the way back through the Eastern Cape I suddenly remembered the beautiful winery and restaurant at Boschendal and decided we would stop for lunch on the way past. My daughter in law assured me that under no circumstance would we get in so the diversion would be a waste of time. Nevertheless, I would stop and ask.

We arrived about 11:45 and as I walked in the staff (all very dark brown Africans dressed in dazzling white) were setting up for lunch. I asked them about making lunch arrangements and the maitre-d directed me to the reception.

I was not untidy but we had been on the road for two weeks so I was not in my topper and tails. I asked the receptionist if there was any room for five at lunch. The woman gave me a warm smile and said “I know you, one night we were trying to land our boat in Three Anchor Bay and you were one of the crew who helped us. Of course we have space.” I only vaguely remember that incident but did not remember the woman at all but she remembered me and we got our table.

My daughter-in-law was livid!

Boating Terminology

For the uninitiated, (sometimes including my lovely lady) boating terminology can be somewhat confusing, so clarity is important when trying to achieve understanding. I sailed once with a man who was a well experienced sailor but every second word was associated in some way with sex which did nothing to aid the sailing of the boat. He also screamed abuse including calling crew members names, if things were not done quickly enough. What he taught me were three things:

1. No part of a sail boat (or any other kind of boat for that matter) bears any resemblance to the male or female form. No part of a boat is named after any body part or bodily function so no such expressions are relevant to sailing or form any useful part in the language of skippering or crewing a yacht.

2. Shouting and or swearing at the crew neither improved their speed or efficiency.

3. He was a lousy skipper and I never wanted to sail with him again.

Knots

For me there are two really useful knots (and several other useful ones) but two will get you through most boating requirements, one is the clove hitch and the other the bowline. I have found this site http://www.animatedknots.com/bowli ne/ which has a very clear way of giving instruction so please try it.

I have a friend who wanted to tie the bowline behind his back, here is the trick but try it in front first. With the rope straight in front of you with your right hand holding the tail which should be pointing towards your body. Extend your left arm with your palm upwards along the rope away from you taking hold of the rope about 500 mm from the end. Form an anti-clockwise loop in the rope with your right hand and cross about 100mm of the tail over the part just past your left hand. The tail should be on top of the long or standing part of the rope. Take the cross over in your right hand holding it with your thumb under the standing part and your index finger on top of the tail. Now twist your hand clockwise forming a loop round the tail. Keeping the loop, take the tail round the back of the standing rope and thread it down through the loop and tighten.

I hope you manage with my instruction. I tried it out on Jean and no matter how I rewrote it she still managed to get it wrong. Not sure if it’s me or her!

Disclaimer

Any article that bears my signature will be mine and although from time to time I may repeat the views of others, I will have agreed with what is being said. However, I do understand that others may not agree with me. The Mainsheet is to inform to educate, to share and to entertain so why not try your hand at the art and make a contribution.

Mike Hendra