Hand-crocheting a bow fender—updated

(This post has been updated. If you’re a keen crocheter read the first part and you’ll be in stitches at me trying to do a magic circle without the circle! I explain in Part 2.)

Part 1

The bow is the front bit of a boat (the stern’s the other end) so it’s the bit that tends to bump against the pontoon or whatever kind of dock you’re mooring to (parking).

Front of small yacht with mooring ropes, anchor chain, electricity cable and a big white & blue fender strung between 2 cleats on the pontoon.

Along the sides (gunwales) sailors hang fenders, which used to be made of hemp rope—because it’s strong, flexible and resists mildew—but nowadays are usually long chunky plastic floats.

3 different fenders at different heights above the water hanging off the guardrails.

Although many moorings have bow fenders fitted, it’s wise to have your own and the traditional bow protector is shaped like a curved sausage with elongated ends. Hence the name “bow pudding”. The bow is also where the anchor is, usually, stowed in a locker surrounded by the curved front rail known as the “pulpit” (the one at the stern’s the “pushpit”) and it goes over the bow with some kind of wheel or channel so the chain can run smoothly. So the bow fender can’t be there too, otherwise it would get in the way. The solution is to hang it below, with long ropes leading back to cleats on deck.

I’d had the idea to hand crochet a circular bow protector (more like a pie than a sausage) and I’d looked online to see if anyone had already done that and left tips—but all I could find was the sausage variety and the construction of that seems very fiddly. So I selected a length of rope, left about a metre then cross-looped the working end around my left arm twice, put my right hand under the outer loop, grabbed the inner one and pulled it through to form my first chain stitch.

8 bundles of rope on the floor of the cockpit with the one I started with in the foreground.

Cross-looping the working end of the rope around my arm twice.

My first chain stitch.

Then I chained 5 by just hold the first stitch in my left hand, putting my right hand through it, grabbing some of the working end of the rope and pulling it back through to form another loop. Then I joined the 6th stitch to the 1st by the same procedure except this time putting my hand through both before grabbing the working end—to form a slip stitch.

6 chain stitches in rope.

This should have pulled it all into a neat circle but instead it just joined them up. I think there’s something I forgot to do. Or maybe the rope wasn’t flexible enough. No matter.

The chain of 6 stitches linked.

I laid this developing crochet project across my knees and carried on round these 6 stitches putting a single crochet in each: instead of just pulling the working end through a stitch, I first pulled it through to form a new loop then went through that too and grabbed the working end again and pulled it through both loops.

Chain of 6 with single crochet stitches in each.

I carried on doing this but, to be honest, it can be difficult even with wool to work out which stitch is which and with this rope it was worse so I ended up going round and round but instead of creating a flat circle I found I was making a kind of rope bag.

Rope bag developing.

Rope bag complete.

Well, with handles in the right place, it would be just the thing to carry melons! But I needed a bow protector so I took it there to see how it would fit—and whether it would work!

Flattened rope bag with long spirals of rope on either side laid on the pontoon.

I think I’d subconsciously created a sporran! If you’re observant you may have noticed that this cream rope with blue flecks isn’t the one I started with: that was tan with red & black flecks. The reason is that this one’s longer and I needed that length to attach the protector to the bow.

Bow protector in place attached to pulpit, hanging over fender strung between pontoon cleats.

Does it fit and does it work? The answer to both is YES! I went out on my first solo sail yesterday and tried the technique of keeping the throttle forward to keep her bow on the pontoon so I could tie up the stern before the bow then switching off the engine. I wouldn’t say it went perfectly smoothly but instead of a bash there was a squelch. In fairness, that could’ve been the fender but I’m sure the bow protector helped.

Next step in this R&D is to do it again, using a similar rope, and see if I can work out how to get the initial magic circle right. My idea is to develop a large flat circle with enough rope left over from the start and the working end to run from the bottom to the pulpit then back to tie onto 2 top loops. That also would keep the bow clear of more coiled rope.

Part 2

Refreshing my memory about making a magic circle with this wee YouTube video (by Bella Coco) I realised I’d forgotten the circle—the basis of the magic! So I started again. Just watch the video as she explains it better than me. Hot tip: keep the start of the rope inside the circle when you work your stitches as it’s this that you pull to make the circular shape. Since I’ve explained the next steps I’ll just post the new pics—the only differences are that I did a round of single crochet from the beginning then 2 single crochet in each stitch, and I kept pressing the work down.

At the end I decided to use bowlines to secure it and I realised I didn’t need to put in extra loops at the top as there were already so many! So I just took one in the middle and two at the top. I don’t know the length of rope I used but here it is in 14.5 loops with my size 9 flip flops to give you an idea.

Rope in loops on floor of cockpit with author’s feet in flip-flops.

Leaving a good length of rope at the start. As much as you need for a bowline and to and from the deck.

Making 1st chain stitch

Making the magic circle with 6 single crochets.

Expanding the work with 2 single crochets in each stitch. Keep pressing it flat!

Checking the length of the start and working ends of the rope and continuing until they match.

Fitting the bow protector. I used the little red rope to hold it up while I tied and adjusted the bowlines.

Bow protector in place. I used little holes on metal struts on the gunwales to avoid the ropes rubbing against the spring lines and for a clearer deck.

Photos (c) the Author and may be used with a link to this post.

Sexism at Scottish Universities?

Anecdotal evidence led me to suspect gender bias in hiring practice at a Scottish university – and I wondered if that was:

1. a suspicion supported by statistical evidence
2. a finding generalisable to other Scottish universities

Let me immediately say that I wasn’t great at Maths in School and I’m honest with my doctoral and master’s students that stats isn’t my strong point – but I did do the required Ph.D. courses in both qualitative and quantitative data analysis and (to my surprise) I really enjoyed both.

METHODOLOGY

Remembering my lecturer’s admonition to “keep a moral distance from the data”, I determined to stick to what seemed to be a fair methodology first, before peeking at the results. In other words, I wanted to avoid the kind of cherry-picking that goes on with article after article bangs on about fewer women than men in (some) Science Technology Engineering Maths courses and totally ignores Education or Nursing (and just about everything else) where they dominate.

So I decided to use 1 website only: www.jobs.ac.uk and only to focus on Scotland’s 2 Russell Group universities: Edinburgh & Glasgow, simply as a convenient and fair way to work with a smaller number. Incidentally missing out my alma mater. Furthermore (a favourite word for international students) I would limit the results by only analysing data from academic jobs advertised as “Lecturer” (not “Tutor”, “Professor”, “Chair”, “Head”, “Associate”, “Reader”, “Technician”, etc.) and only those on the website on 8th August 2022. If I found over 30 of these, for each university, I would exclude all adverts dated before 1st August 2022.

So much for search criteria. What about evidence? What’s my definition of sexism in this situation? Simple: I would note all adverts in this selection which included a phrase identical or similar to “women/ men/ female candidates/ male candidates are especially encouraged to apply” and cross-reference that to the ratio of male/ female academic staff in the department – as shown by the official website of that university on 8th August 2022.

(If you suspect me of manically doing this every day until I got the desired result, try it for yourself!)

RESULTS

Edinburgh

First I put “Lecturer” in the Search field and “Edinburgh, UK” in Location and limited results to “within 10 miles”. 27 jobs were returned, 7 of them at institutions other than the University of Edinburgh. I entered the dates and job titles of the other 20:

Date posted	University of Edinburgh
2nd Aug	Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Accounting
2nd Aug	Lecturer in Romanticism
27th July	Lecturer in Dyslexia
28th July	Lecturer in Epidemiology
27th July	Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Sign Language Linguistics
25th July	Lecturer in Environmental History
25th July	Lecturer in Environmental History
13th July	Lecturer in Landscape and Wellbeing
26th July	Lecturer in Graphic Design
18th July	Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
19th July	Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
15th July	Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery
14th July	Senior Lecturer in Neurology/Neurosurgery
25th July	Lecturer in Financial Law and Regulation
20th July	Lecturer in South Asian Art History
27th July	Lecturer in Soft Robotics / Physical Computing
12th July	Lecturer in Interior, Architectural and Spatial Design
26th July	Lecturer in Small Animal Surgery (Orthopaedics and Soft Tissue, with Orthopaedic bias)
25th July	Teaching Fellow in Iron Age and Theoretical Archaeology*
27th July	Lectureship/Readership in Technology Enhanced Mathematics Education

20 Lecturer job titles at University of Edinburgh & dates posted

*”Lecturer” in job description

Of these, only 3 had any mention that could be construed as encouraging a particular gender to apply:

Date posted	University of Edinburgh	Gender encouraged to apply
25th July	Lecturer in Environmental History	As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community, regardless of age, gender, race and ethnicity, disability, nationality and citizenship status, religion, sexual orientation or transgender status.  Our School is committed to Athena SWAN principles. All appointments will be made on merit.
25th July	Lecturer in Financial Law and Regulation	The School of Law strives to be a diverse and inclusive community.  We particularly welcome applications from candidates belonging to groups that have been traditionally under-represented in the subject.
12th July	Lecturer in Interior, Architectural and Spatial Design	The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education.

3 jobs advert dates & titles at University of Edinburgh with mention of encouragement to apply (emphasis mine)

“Athena SWAN” refers to the Scientific Women’s Academic Network.

Glasgow

The same search, but with “Glasgow, UK” in Location, yielded 29 results. Of these, 10 were excluded as relating to institutions other than the University of Glasgow. I entered the dates and job titles of the other 19 – all of which contained wording that could be construed as encouraging a particular sex to apply:

Date posted	University of Glasgow	Gender encouraged to apply
5th Aug	Lecturer – School of Computing Science	We strongly endorse the principles of Athena SWAN, including a supportive and flexible working environment, with commitment from all levels of the organisation in promoting gender equity.*
26th July	Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Reader in Statistics and Data Analytics	We offer an inclusive environment that particularly encourages applications from those within under-represented groups in our discipline […]   (ATHENA SWAN)
25th July	Senior Lecturer/Lecturer in Marketing (Research & Teaching Track)	The Adam Smith Business School is triple accredited and is a research-informed and professionally-focused business school. The School has achieved the Athena SWAN Bronze award and actively encourages an inclusive culture promoting gender equality and welcomes applications from underrepresented groups.   (ATHENA SWAN)
13th July	Lecturer in Race and Education	(ATHENA SWAN)
13th July	Lecturer in Curriculum and Assessment	(ATHENA SWAN)
27th July	Senior Lecturer/Lecturer in Human Resource Management (Research & Teaching Track)	The Adam Smith Business School is triple accredited and is a research-informed and professionally-focused business school. The School has achieved the Athena SWAN Bronze award and actively encourages an inclusive culture promoting gender equality and welcomes applications from underrepresented groups.   (ATHENA SWAN)
5th Aug	Lecturer (LTS) in Medieval History	(ATHENA SWAN)
5th Aug	Lecturer (LTS) in Medieval History	(ATHENA SWAN)
29th July	Lecturer (Research & Teaching Track)	(ATHENA SWAN)
29th July	Lecturer in Early Medieval History	(ATHENA SWAN)
22nd July	Lecturer in Music [LTS Track]	We also strongly endorse the principles of Athena SWAN, including a supportive and flexible working environment, with commitment from all levels of the organisation to promoting [inclusion, diversity and] gender equity. Applications are particularly welcome from women, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups.
27th July	Lecturer (Learning, Teaching & Scholarship)	(ATHENA SWAN)
2nd Aug	Lecturer in International Relations (LTS Track)	We value diversity and especially encourage applications from women, disabled and ethnic minority candidates.   (ATHENA SWAN)
26th July	Lecturer (Small Animal Hospital Rotations)	(ATHENA SWAN)
8th July	Lecturer in Contemporary Economic History (LTS)	We value diversity and especially encourage applications from women, disabled and ethnic minority candidates.   (ATHENA SWAN)
2nd Aug	Multiple Lecturer Positions in Statistics & Data Analytics	We offer an inclusive environment that particularly encourages applications from those within under-represented groups in our discipline […]   (ATHENA SWAN)** (ATHENA SWAN)
2nd Aug	Lecturer (LTS Track) in Screen Production & Practice	We also strongly endorse the principles of Athena SWAN, including a supportive and flexible working environment, with commitment from all levels of the organisation to promoting [inclusion, diversity and] gender equity. Applications are particularly welcome from women, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups.
13th July	Lecturer in Teacher Education (Primary with specialism focus in Technologies	(ATHENA SWAN)

19 job advert dates & titles at University of Glasgow with mention of encouragement to apply (emphasis mine, link original)

The ambiguity about the effect of Athena SWAN charter, articulated HERE by Dr Suzanne Madgwick, Research Fellow at Newcastle University, is felt even by those whom it benefits:

Yes, there is evidence to suggest that women are sometimes a little more risk averse, less likely to put themselves forward for promotion, but this is by no means exclusive. If we have a mechanism in place to champion and support the different needs of all people, each and every time they need it, is this not equality without the need to keep using the word “women”? I can’t help thinking that there is a good dose of hypocrisy in all the ‘positive actions’ and events which are seen to be just for women. In the short term it’s generating friction and in the long term it certainly doesn’t seem like the best strategy when preaching fair play.

Not Athena SWAN again! The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (2015)

Perhaps because of this perception, the Charter is now not supposed to have women as its only focus:

The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Charter is now being used across the globe to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.

Athena Swan Charter (2020)

Given that supposed change, let’s ignore for now all the (slightly) ambiguous encouragement of women to apply for academic jobs in Russel Group universities in Scotland (3/20 or 15% in the University of Edinburgh selection of job adverts and 19/19 or 100% in those of the University of Glasgow) and focus only on the 4, all from the University of Glasgow, out of the 39 selections from both institutions (just over 10%) that explicitly do this:

Date posted	University of Glasgow	Gender encouraged to apply
22nd July	Lecturer in Music [LTS Track]	Applications are particularly welcome from women, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups.
2nd Aug	Lecturer in International Relations (LTS Track)	We value diversity and especially encourage applications from women, disabled and ethnic minority candidates.
8th July	Lecturer in Contemporary Economic History (LTS)	We value diversity and especially encourage applications from women, disabled and ethnic minority candidates.
2nd Aug	Lecturer (LTS Track) in Screen Production & Practice	Applications are particularly welcome from women, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups.

4 job advert dates & titles at University of Glasgow with mention of encouragement to women to apply (emphasis in bold/italics mine)

Let’s look at the ratio of male/ female academic staff in the relevant department. The first has this information:

For further information on the College of Arts, School of Culture and Creative Arts please visit https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cca/

With a link to “Music” and “Staff A-Z” where there are 14 names under Research and Teaching (the other category is Professional, Administrative and Support). Of the 4 Professors, 3 names are male and 1 female; of the 10 Doctors, 8 are male and 2 female. So with a M:F ratio of 11:3 (just over 21% are female) there is justification to describe women as under-represented in this department.

The second advert has this:

For further information on the College of Social Sciences, School of Social & Political Sciences, please visit https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/

With a link to “Politics and International Relations” and “Staff A-Z” where there are 60 names under Research and Teaching. Of the 11 Professors, 5 names I recognised as male and 4 female with 2 I couldn’t identify by name but with female photographs (on this website or another linking her to this position). So that’s 5 male and 6 female professors. Of the 45 Doctors, 30 I recognised as male, with 2 I couldn’t identify by name but with male photographs (on this website or another linking him to this position). So that’s 32 male and 13 female doctors. Of the other 4 staff in this category, 1 is Mr, 2 Ms and 1 Miss. So that’s 1 male and 3 female staff members without academic titles. Overall, that makes 38 male and 22 female staff so, as 22/60 (just under 37%) are female, there is justification to describe women as under-represented in this department.

The third advert has the same link as the second but the link to follow this time is Economic and Social History. There isn’t a link to staff so I had to go back and search for this subject and ended up on the departmental staff page:

https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/?filter=economicsocialhistory

There are 23 staff names listed under Research and Teaching. Of the 6 Professors, all have male names. Out of the 14 Doctors, I recognised 6 as male and another 1 was identified as male on another website linking him to this position. So that’s 7 male and 7 female doctors out of 14. Other staff are 2 Misters and 1 Miss. Overall that’s 15 male and 8 female staff under this category, which makes 8/23 (just under 35%) female staff in this department – therefore it is justified to describe women as under-represented here.

The last advert has the same link as the first but the link to follow then, this time, isn’t clear as the job refers to the College rather than a specific Department. However the contact person is listed as Theatre, Film and Television Studies – which comprises two different links:

https://www.gla.ac.uk/subjects/theatre/

https://www.gla.ac.uk/subjects/filmtelevision/

Clicking on Our Staff in the first department, I see 5 Professors, out of which 2 have male names and 3 female. Out of the 7 Doctors, it’s 4 male and 3 female, and there’s no-one else so overall that’s 6/12 female staff which is 50%. Women are not under-represented here.

In the second department, out of the 6 Professors, 3 are male and 3 female; out of the 11 Doctors, 5 appear to be male (by names of photographs on the website) and 6 female. Overall that’s 9/17 (just under 53%) female staff in this category. So women are not under-represented here either.

Lumping these two creative departments together, as the job advert does, that’s 6+8=14 male; 6+9=15 female, so that’s 15/29 (just under 52%) female staff.

As a final computation of all 4 jobs that explicitly mention women being encouraged to apply, the academic staff ratios for these University for Glasgow Departments are:

Dept.	Male	Female	Staff	Female percentage
Music	11	3	14	just over 21%
Politics & Int. Rels	38	22	60	just under 37%
Econ. & Soc. Hist.	15	8	23	just under 35%
Theatre, Film & TV	14	15	29	just under 52%

4 University of Glasgow Departments with male/ female ratios

FINDINGS

One possible finding of this hasty survey is that out of 39 selections of academic job adverts only 1 of them could be said to show explicit sexism (under my stated criteria) by encouraging the numerically – and academically – dominant gender to apply for a position. That must be qualified by the fact that the dominance is only 2% and, if it’s a woman who’s creating the vacancy, then another woman would simply keep the status quo.

Another possible finding is that 4 out of the 39 adverts explicitly encourage women to apply, and 22/ 39 (just over 56%) if we include the implicit encouragement, remembering that most of those are from one institution.

As I only looked at the explicit adverts’ staff ratios, it’s not clear whether the overall figure of around 56% (or 100% for the University of Glasgow) female-specific encouragement is justified. Just as a random outlier, let’s look at a department that we may expect to be female dominated (but maybe not as much as English Lit. or Nursing) – Education:

https://www.gla.ac.uk/subjects/education/staff/

Applying the same criteria, we have 26 Professors, 12 are male and 14 female; of the 74 Doctors, 23 are male and 51 female; of the other academic staff there are 16 Misters, 13 Ms, 9 Mrs, 3 Miss, 1 Fr, so 17 male and 25 female. Overall that makes 52 male and 90 female academic staff members. That makes 90/142 = just over 63% female.

There are 3 jobs currently being advertised for the School of Education of the University of Glasgow. All of them have the same Athena SWAN script. Not one of them, in this clearly female-dominated Department, encourages men to apply.

Looking back at the two points I began with, I haven’t provided any statistical evidence for gender bias in hiring practice at Scottish universities – but I have done (to a limited extent) for such bias in advertising academic jobs. I haven’t checked if all 19 degree providers in Scotland have endorsed this formerly gender-specific Charter but I strongly suspect that they have.

As a man, I rejoice in the equality of my female colleagues but – if we are to truly move past institutionalised sexism – we have to realise that simply swapping the slogan “jobs for the boys” for “jobs for the girls” isn’t going to change the dynamic of dominance rather than co-operation. With masculinity conveniently demonised as toxic (forever forgetting the wisdom of feminists such as Dorothy Dinnerstein) and confused wee boys being explicitly told that they can avoid becoming a man, then it’s time to take stock of the current situation.

Despite media portrayals, we’re not all mad, bad or sad. If we really believe in ending “the war of the sexes” then we have to be honest about recruitment.

Cartoon image of White man with black hair, white top and black trousers sitting on a black chair with his head on a black laptop resting on a mauve table with a white cup on top; teal background.

Thanks to Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan for releasing his image Exhausted Employee into the Public Domain.