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When a knot is not a knot |  | | |
The tying of knots is a skill with which most people who sail boats are - or should be - well acquainted. Knotting is an ancient device that people of this planet must have been developing way back in history for joining together plant fibres and animal sinews. These would have been the prototype of the varieties of knots and bends and hitches we now employ.
Knots, the correct ones, are essential for the safety of crew and vessel, yet there are those who have a blockage when it comes to learning this ancient art - a kind of 'knottage dyslexia.' As a boy sailor in the Royal Navy we were lined up in serried ranks with lengths of rope ands shown the moves step by step, which we repeated over and over until we could do them in the dark, behind our backs, or even without a piece of rope.
The average boatist of course does not get this kind of intensity, and when attempting to teach others I found some were just plain cack-handed. It became second nature to me to begin a knot with my right hand and always follow through the same way. Left handed people naturally wanted a different approach and they usually did well when adapted. But still, there was always someone who just could not get it. The answer of course is repetition, practice and keep on practicing.
Knots were devised for a particular function, particularly in the days of the great wind ships when the whole vessel was controlled by rope and cordage, and the knots were for reasons such as quick release, for joining ropes of different thicknesses, and for securing without chafe. How many yachtsmen for example secure their headsail SHEETS with a SHEET BEND? Not many from my observation… but then, each to his own.
I see many instances of sheets being fastened to the clew with a bowline, individually. Imagine the chafe there, not to mention the tension tightening the knot up to screaming point. They break their nails and teeth gnawing at them in their endeavours to untie them.
A simpler method would be to make up a grommet to be shackled onto the clew thimble (with a flat shackle). Your headsail sheet would not be two separate lines but one. This line would be middled and the centre point passed through the grommet and secured with a sheet bend. It is more efficient to use a double sheet bend as this spreads the load more effectively along the grommet and strengthens the knot.
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The security of a knot ought not to be, as many people seem to think, in the number of turns in its composition, but in the efficacy of the nip. A 'bend' or 'hitch' must be so formed that the part of the rope under strain nips some portion of the knot, either against itself or the object to which it is attached.
By studying knots one can actually see the simplicity, strength and efficiency of these methods of fastening ropes. Some of the names are fascinating in themselves, reminiscent of the old ways of the sea, the salty ships and sailors; Blackwall Hitch, Midshipmans Hitch, Turks Head and Mathew Walker.
Finally, let us not forget. On the end of all halyards and sheets should be a figure of eight knot!
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Harry was a correspondent for Yachting Life for approx. three years, as well as being Deputy Editor of the Irish Sea Yachting & Boating magazine. He has also contributed to PBO, Yachting Monthly and Sea Breezes.
He has thirty-five years sailing experience, most of which were spent cruising the Irish Sea in his Macwester Seaforth, a thirty six foot ketch. He currently lives in the Isle of Man, and owns and maintains a Mirror Offshore, 19'6', his sixth boat.
Email: hcrossley@manx.net
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