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   Another
of Utz's many adornments is a set of three seal's teeth, one for each of
his single-handed circumnavigations, which is around his neck more often
than not. The hat, which is one he made for himself and has adorned
with pins from some of the many places he has visited, is a gem in itself
and makes the ideal head-covering for a sailor.
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 The wonderful hatband has, of course, a story attached to it. There
were supposed to be two navigation beacons lit, on one of the islands in
Polynesia that Utz visited, many years ago. There was only one and, in
spite of his best efforts, Frauken went aground. The locals helped
him to get her back on an even keel and the man in charge of keeping the
beacons lit presented him with a wonderful string of tiny shells, woven in
twists of thirteen shells around, still worn
on special occasions, to this day. After the original stringing became too
elderly to survive, Utz re-strung it in an identical manner to the
original and found that each row was thirteen shells around, never more or
less than that!
This self-sufficient and
deft sailor makes, and sells, wonderful canvas-and-rope hats like this one, minus
the embellishments. We felt that they were fairly priced at US$150 each
(although we couldn't actually afford to avail ourselves of the offer!)
because a great deal of work goes into one and one can see that these hats
are likely to outlive their purchasers, however young!
Utz can be found
at the Porthole Bar
and Restaurant, in Admiralty Bay, Bequia, (largest of the islands in
St.Vincent & the Grenadines, in the Caribbean), most days, or aboard 'Frøken'
anchored out in front of the bar, when he is in Bequia, which is pretty
often.
Another of Utz's excellent
creations is reversible trousers, entirely hand stitched, which are also
superb - you may have seen them on our All
Sewn Up page in this issue, if not you may like to take a look. They
are ingenious and practical. In the next issue we'll show you another
of Utz's hatbands, equally special and most unusual...
Also in this issue,
you may also be interested to read about John Van
Opstal, the scrimshaw artist mentioned above and we cover the Scrimshaw
Museum of Peter in Memory Lane.
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