Now I’m not a shipwright and I’m certainly not an an academic, so my knowledge of dhows is anecdotal, coming only from talking with the craftsmen and sailors (in broken Swahili/English) and spending a few days, joyously racing on the lateen rigged flying machines.

But Freddie Mercury is not why I came to Zanzibar. Early childhood memories of holidays at Lamu on the Kenyan coast are filled with images of powerful Dhows plying their trade along the East African coast.