Know your Knots or not?

[LuzSD]

Recently received this link from our Marina News letter, it is one of the best I have seen because you can stop it midway through. Here is a chart as well as a link to the animated site. Enjoy!
http://www.animatedknots.com/indexboating.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

 

[gpd955]

Grog's also has an iPhone application with animation and step-by-step instructions. My son uses it when he's sitting around in the cockpit.

 

[kpgraci]

My favorite to tie is the sheetbend. I'm just fascinated with the simplicity and effectiveness of it. I can't seem to retain the buntline hitch in memory for more than a few days, even though it's just like tying a neck tie, which I have no trouble with.

 

[LuzSD]

ah, the sheet bend is really cool, I will work on getting that one in my repertoire.... but I can see where the buntline hitch would be tough, that last tuck does not seem right.

I work on my bowline, and get it right time after time, and then suddenly I lose it. I am left handed so every knot someone tries to show me becomes a frustration for both of us. but I keep on trying and trying and trying.........

 

[kpgraci]

I'm also left-handed, but I do a lot of things right-handed and though I never thought about it, I guess I tie bends like a righty.

Do you use the rabbit and tree method for the bowline? Learned that when I was a kid and still use it, makes it simple.

 

[kenn]

Alot of that stuck with me from Boy Scouts. But never hurts to take a refresher. Thanks for the links.

 

[pfschmid]

I've been to that sight. They also have the program available on cd or a download for your IPhone or IPad. My favorite knot is the monkey's fist. I believe they originally used on the big ships to heave lines. They were tied around a round rock or a small cannon ball to give the knot some additional weight. It's a nice decorative knot to use on a bell or on a pull chain fixture. I suppose it would make a good stopper knot at the end of a line. It's fairly difficult to tie but it looks nice when you're done.
That is a very helpful site thanks for posting it.

 

[Ross]

There are about a dozen knots that you should know and use regularly. The lovely sheet bend is also called a weavers knot. The buntline hitch is just a single turn and a clove hitch around the standing part. Very dependable but will jamb. A round turn and two half hitches is also very secure but easily untied. An anchor bend should be known. Also the stopper knots to keep a line from going adrift.

 

[Merlin Clark]

I've been to that sight. They also have the program available on cd or a download for your IPhone or IPad. My favorite knot is the monkey's fist. I believe they originally used on the big ships to heave lines. They were tied around a round rock or a small cannon ball to give the knot some additional weight. It's a nice decorative knot to use on a bell or on a pull chain fixture. I suppose it would make a good stopper knot at the end of a line. It's fairly difficult to tie but it looks nice when you're done.
That is a very helpful site thanks for posting it.

Shipboard line handlers still use them on light cotton clothesline as messenger lines. Toss the messenger line to the dockside line handlers and they use this to haul the larger hawser across the open water. The hawser is put on a winch and the ship is brought up to the dock on it's own or a tug pushes it over (sideways) to the dock.
An experienced line handler could throw a line 100 feet easy with the monkey fist and light line.
At least that's the way we did things in the "tin can" Navy a couple of decades ago.

 

[Scott McDonald]

Here's something that might help with the hitches. Just remember many of the hitches are simple varitions of the clove hitch. Take a look at the rolling hitch. It's a clove hitch tied around the standing part of the line with an extra turn on the first wrap. That's what gives it the extra "cinch" and keeps it from sliding down the line. Next, look at the round turn and two half hitches. The two half hitches form a clove hitch going up the standing part of the line (away from the knot). Finally, look at the buntline hitch. It forms a clove hitch on the standing part, but this time it's moving down the standing part of the line (towards the knot).

If you can keep the structure of these knots in mind, they are easy to remember and easy to tie. Furthermore, it's easy to tell when they are tied correctly.