Probably all the knots you really need to know?
- Thread starter Yantlet
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Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
Original and best http://www.animatedknots.com/indexboating.php
Bru
Well-Known Member
nigelmercier
RIP
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The problem I have with these animated knots is that they extend the bitter end to show the sequence. This gives you no idea how to start.
Yantlet
Well-Known Member
No argument from me I was just making the statement that those were probably all you needed to know.
Yantlet
Well-Known Member
Watch it in the mirror maybe!
Lakesailor
Well-Known Member
I've managed with a working knowledge of bowline, round turn and two half hitches, clove hitch and a reef knot. If really struggling I can usually remember how to do a rolling hitch.
snowleopard
Well-Known Member
And a few you don't! The sheepshank is a useless knot and the timber hitch not far behind. The overhand knot is only worth knowing about when you have to untie one that has tied itself.
Halcyon Yachts
Well-Known Member
I regularly use the truckers hitch, definitely one I wouldn't be without!
http://www.animatedknots.com/truckers/index.php?Categ=scouting&LogoImage=&Website=
I also agree with snowleopard; but would just add that if you are going to do a sheet bend, then go for the double!
The rolling hitch is an essential knot that too many of us can't tie. It's one of those that can save your life (or at least get you out of a tricky situation) - trouble is we don't need them that often, so it's easy to forget!
Also, IMHO, the bowline is used far too much. A good knot for some things, but not all...
Pete
http://www.animatedknots.com/truckers/index.php?Categ=scouting&LogoImage=&Website=
I also agree with snowleopard; but would just add that if you are going to do a sheet bend, then go for the double!
The rolling hitch is an essential knot that too many of us can't tie. It's one of those that can save your life (or at least get you out of a tricky situation) - trouble is we don't need them that often, so it's easy to forget!
Also, IMHO, the bowline is used far too much. A good knot for some things, but not all...
Pete
jimi
Well-Known Member
Or if abseiling! Its the knot of choice there for the conescenti ;-)
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
The timber hitch is ideal for what it is designed for - to attach a line to a spar with the load along or partially along the spar. It will work on a spar with an irregular or square cross-section, for which a rolling hitch isn't reliable.
According to Ashley, the sheepshank has a rather macabre use in conducting a hanging at the yard-arm; we may sometimes feel tempted to use it for that purpose! I will admit I've rarely needed it for its official use of shortening a rope (though I have used it for that on rare occasions), but the variant used in a lorryman's hitch (which is a sheepshank with only one half-hitch) is very handy.
There is absolutely no point in routinely doubling a sheet-bend - the single sheet-bend is one of the most secure bends there is. The point of doubling it is if there is a large difference in the diameter of the ropes being joined. If you don't think a sheet bend is secure enough, tie a carrick bend if the ropes are the same diameter. The carrick bend is probably the strongest bend there is, but it is cumbersome to tie and uses a lot of rope. Also, it can't be tied in a tight rope as a sheet bend can.
The list of "knots you really need to know" is endless! Mostly we get by with a few "general purpose" knots, but in any particular application, there is almost always a knot designed for the application that is better than the general purpose one - though often only marginally! Some "general purpose" knots are not at all suitable for the tasks they're used for - for example, the misuse of the reef knot is widespread! And then there is the endless variety of "fancy knots" to while away those hours below - a real sailing hobby!
Ashley's Book of Knots is the fundamental reference for traditional knotting; indeed, I understand that it has been brought up to date with knots for modern materials - my copy is the old one. It is also a wonderful store of information about the traditional skills of the sailing seaman, with information about everything under the sun, from practical information about the best way to reeve tackles to esoteric fancy knots that maybe no-one has tied since Ashley invented them!
Bru
Well-Known Member
Eh? The simplest stopper knot of all and dead useful in so many ways. OK, on a loaded line such as a genoa sheet I'd opt for a fig 8 stopper but when rope working a simple overhand is the beast of burden to stop strands unravelling etc
Or more lkely it's improved variations the double overhand and the European Death Knot (the astonshingly simple and ddangerous looking, but actually perfectly safe if tied propery, favoured method of joining two rappel lines)
Halcyon Yachts
Well-Known Member
There's no point in doing lots of things we do ;-)
For the sake of one extra turn you get the added security, and besides its easier on the fingers to untie. Good practice in my book to use them routinely!
Pete
jimi
Well-Known Member
Nope overhand knot for me & most of the people I know (otherwise double fisherman's). BTW rappel is an americanism not used in Europe!!
Sailingsaves
Well-Known Member
+1
Love the truckers' knot _ helped me save a boom from splitting in a race many years ago.
I was taught a different method of starting it off. Do you find the method in the animation easy to release or a bit tight to release (talking about the top bit obviously)? Certainly easier to remember the method you have just showed me.
Rolling hitch everyone should learn as you say. Yachtmaster examiner asked me what to do if someone trapped arm in winch rope. After knife and luffing (which he said I could not do) he was only happy after I said I'd use rolling hitch to pull tension off line and slip person's arm out.
Love the truckers' knot _ helped me save a boom from splitting in a race many years ago.
I was taught a different method of starting it off. Do you find the method in the animation easy to release or a bit tight to release (talking about the top bit obviously)? Certainly easier to remember the method you have just showed me.
Rolling hitch everyone should learn as you say. Yachtmaster examiner asked me what to do if someone trapped arm in winch rope. After knife and luffing (which he said I could not do) he was only happy after I said I'd use rolling hitch to pull tension off line and slip person's arm out.
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
There is no added security, except when the ropes are of very different diameters.
It is HARDER to untie the doubled knot - a sheet bend is a very easy knot to untie; sorry, but I can't think of a way of describing how in words! If you really need easy to untie, of course you can slip the knot (not feasible if doubled, but it's how I routinely tie my sail ties) - but it scarcely makes any difference once you know the trick to untying it. The same trick works on a bowline as well; not surprising as the construction of the knot is the same. Perhaps I can describe it for a bowline and it will make sense for a sheet bend. Basically, if you look at the knot with the loop down and the standing part up, the end of the rope describes an inverted "U", with the standing part making a half-hitch round the "U". To untie it, simply push the "U" towards and perpendicular to the standing part. This will loosen the knot, making it easy to untie. It's far easier to untie than a correctly used reef-knot, and the reef-knot is well known for being designed to be easy to undo.
Doubling the knot merely adds complexity, making it slower to tie the knot, with no advantage except in special cases.
prv
Well-Known Member
Sounds like another "only one right answer" idiot as discussed on another thread! If someone's in the midst of being injured then either of your first suggestions are far better than farting around rigging a relieving line!
Pete
Sailingsaves
Well-Known Member
I rather think he was trying to get me to give him all possible answers. He is a pretty well respected examiner from Shotley.
As someone who has more knives than I can count and when I had a boat there was a knife at each winch and mast, cutting would have been my first option.
As someone who has more knives than I can count and when I had a boat there was a knife at each winch and mast, cutting would have been my first option.
Bru
Well-Known Member
yes sorry, rappelling is indeed an Americanism which crept into use in certain circles in place if the correct and pukka term abseiling
I shall chastise myself vigorously immediately!
BruceDanforth
Well-Known Member
I get hours of fun replacing other people's knots with my left handed ones and coiling all their ropes up for them backwards.
