It’s hard to find anything to buy here which is not tourist tat and I was keen to have something unique and meaningful to take home when my time is done. When I am sailing we are often in the same area of the fishing boats and canoes and I watch as they sail past. These rudimentary vessels are usually carved out of a single piece of wood (Mninga) with a sail made out of whatever they can get their hands on, and often with out-riggers.
I had seen Solon on the beach at Msasani near Cape Town Fish Market. He has a good business fixing up boats which seem to me to be beyond repair. His workshop is a corner of the Islamic graveyard near the entrance to the beach.
Here you will usually find small boats in various stages of dilapidation and repair. He works mostly with an axe, using it to careful chip away at the new wood to make it flush with the old.
I had the idea to ask Solomon to make me a scale-model replica of a fishing boat. I bought a piece of mninga which had been cut from an large destroyed dhow. I paid less than £3 for the wood and took it to him with a photo on my phone of the boat I wanted.
I was in no rush for it and so I told him to take his time and make it perfect, not perfectly smooth but perfect in it’s roughness just like a real boat.
I made a few visits to see progress and about a month after I had commissioned the work he called for me to collect it. It looked beautiful. Even the rigging on the sail and knots to hold the outriggers in place were genuine. I was very pleased and after we tested it in the sea I paid him, went home to change into my swimmers and then to the yacht club to play with my toy in the water.
It requires a small stone in it to simulate a fisherman but it floats well and the sail tacks and gybes like a real boat. Why don’t souvenirs like this exist in tat shops? Mine will stay with me long after my skin has returned to pale and my hair has turned from bleached to grey.