Hilary Hemsley - Co-owner of "African Queen" - Charter Fishing
CHARTER fishing may seem like an unusual occupation for a woman but Hilary Hemsley is in her element taking eager anglers out to sea.
At the turn of the new Millennium, Hilary and her husband Alan threw in the towel on their secure jobs and home in Oxfordshire to take command of the classic Second World War vessel ‘African Queen’.
It was Alan’s dream of chartering his own boat that led the couple to ‘up sticks’ and take the plunge with ‘African Queen’ which is now their home as well as their workplace.
And they have never looked back.
Life aboard does have its drawbacks but Hilary says she wouldn’t want to live any other way.
‘We don’t live with airs and graces,’ she said. ‘You don’t get much chance to dress up, I don’t wear nice shoes and dresses because they are not conducive to boats.
‘I don’t think a lot of couples could live and work in each other’s pockets but we are good mates as well as a couple and that is so important.
‘We’ve both got a wicked sense of humour. There is an awful lot of laughter on the boat and I sometimes wonder what the other boats are thinking, especially the times we have music blaring out. Our trips are good humoured’.
The extreme stormy weather that battered the South Coast earlier this year resulted in the worse start of the fishing season the couple have ever experienced.
But when the weather is good, ‘African Queen’ heads for the open sea as often as she can.
‘Going out is all down to the sea conditions,’ Hilary said. ‘It’s supposed to be an enjoyable experience. It doesn’t worry us if it’s wet because we dress for it. Our biggest problem is the wind.
‘The conditions have to be good to go out because we often travel offshore for wreck fishing. A boat like ours isn’t the fastest in the world and it takes a couple of hours to go 25 miles. It has to be really good conditions for us to go out in the winter.
‘But we are out every day when the weather is fine and our longest consecutive run was 39 days.
‘We had to book half a day off to do the laundry because we had run out of clothes,’ Hilary laughed.
‘You just keep going and it’s not until you stop that you hit a brick wall. It’s when you get a natural break that you just collapse in a heap’.
At the age of 59 many people are dreaming of retirement, but that’s the last thing on Hilary’s mind.
The physical opposite of the brawny male anglers fishing off ‘African Queen’, Hilary is as slender as a reed. But watching her pull a 30 ton boat onto the pontoon against the wind and tide proves that looks can be deceiving.
‘Because I’m a woman a lot of men want to jump in to help,’ she said. ‘I don’t say I’m as strong as a man, I know I’m not but I did do a lot of athletics, weight lifting and circuit training when I was younger’.
Every now and then though Hilary does get to enjoy some female company. ‘A female stag party comes back every year to fish, watch football and have a few pints – basically everything the men do,’ she said.
Hilary and Alan each have their own roles to play on African Queen. Often as not Alan concentrates on driving the boat while Hilary is out on deck interacting with the anglers.
‘If it’s very busy I take the front and he takes the back,’ she said.
Taking out young families is one of pleasures of the job for Hilary. With her infectious laughter always ready to bubble up to the surface, Hilary turns fishing into a fun experience for youngsters – especially those who have never have been fishing before.
On-board entertainment includes spotting diving gannets and scoring their plunging efforts out of 10.
Education also plays a part with children using feathers with crushed barbs to catch mackerel so the fish can be returned untouched, as they can be damaged if shaken off the hook.
Other fish that take feathers are whiting, gurnard and even John Dory, Hilary said, adding: ‘It gives the children another idea of what’s actually down there and hopefully teaches them to respect what they are catching.
‘Throwing fish that they don’t want to eat back also teaches them there’s no point in killing for the sake of it because we have got to look after future stocks’.
‘African Queen’ also caters for many serious anglers and another of Hilary’s jobs is to keep tabs on what they catch. ‘Everyone knows the system and they call me over.
‘By the end of the day we know what we have caught and the percentage we have returned to the water. I do it just to keep an eye on the stocks and the quality of the fish.
‘The more you know about marine life, the more you can protect it.
‘We do get involved in some sort of survey every now and then, when we have to record everything caught and returned and estimate the weight of each fish. Alan says that’s my job’.
Hilary and Alan also impart of bit of local history to their anglers, pointing out where the chains used to be strung across the entrance to the River Dart to stop unwanted visitors from entering the port. And they hand out recipes for the fish caught.
The pair like to fish broadside, which involves turning the engines off and drifting down with the tide side on to the waves. ‘It’s great for knowing how good your stowage is,’ Hilary said. ‘At the start of the year we always get caught out.
‘Stowage is always a problem and I’m determined to cut down on unnecessary stuff but it doesn’t always work out that way.
‘We used to be able to sleep 10 then it went down to eight and now it’s down to six because Alan’s nicked my little fore-berth for a workshop so all his tools are on hand if we need them
This year, the couple invested in a local holiday chalet so their two children and four grandchildren have somewhere to stay when they come and visit.
Add to this their passion for fishing and love of life aboard, it seems the pair and their distinctive Dickens Class II boat are well and truly settled in the port.
Hilary said: ‘We used to take a BBC wildlife producer out in the boat and he would fish for about an hour and then spend the rest of the day taking photographs. He had been all over the world and seen some absolutely amazing places but he considered Start Bay to be the most stunning place in the world.
‘I agree. You really can’t beat it’.•
For more information visit www.theafricanqueen.co.uk
Tel. 07885 246061
First Published July 2013 By The Dart