Dennis Best (Columbia) is a retired mariner who continues to make nautical rope mats and regale listeners with the stories of his time at sea. As a US Coast Guard Chief Officer, Best operated a thirty-foot surf rescue boat, as well as forty-one, forty-four, and fifty-two-foot boats and earned the title of Surfman, the highest qualification for small boat rescue operations. Best retired in 1994, though he maintains a Merchant Marines Masters License, has sailed his sailboat, the Andante, across the equator twice, and crafts traditional nautical rope mats.
Bio
Dennis Best has spent most of his life on the ocean. As a child, he learned to fish on his father’s small trawler in Winchester Bay. After studying engineering in college, Best joined the US Coast Guard and began operating a thirty-foot surf rescue boat that was specifically designed to roll over in the surf. His work in rescue operations earned him the rank of Chief Officer and the title of Surfman, which is the highest qualification for Coast Guard small boat rescue operations. In his free time, Best took up ocean sailing and began crafting his rope mats, which he uses on his boat to provide skid-proof footing at the helm. Building upon the basics of knot tying he learned in the Coast Guard, Best makes his mats of manila rope and seine (net) twine. Sewing rope mats requires strong fingers, a large needle, and a heavy-duty sailmaker’s palm. The palm is a covering that protects the palm of the hand as it propels the needle through the rope. The knots Best uses for his mats are much more complex than those usually used aboard ship. He combines double becket bend knots and Flemish knots with knots of his own invention to craft his unique and practical mats. A veritable font of maritime knowledge and stories, Best is eager to talk about his time at sea. His favorite story comes from a sailing trip he took with his brother and father from Hawaii to Astoria in 2000. While in deep waters, their boat came upon a pod of sei whales (the third largest baleen species in the world). The whales turned and swam alongside Best’s boat, accompanying the crew for at least two hours.
