Essential knots?

[jackdale]

My list

figure 8
double overhand
reef knot
clove hitch
cow hitch / lark's head
rolling hitch
cleat hitch
round turn and 2 half hitches
trucker's hitch
double sheet bend
bowline (I know 5 ways to tie it, but I only teach 2)

I use them all, but prefer the double overhand to the figure 8

I also prefer flaking to coiling.

[dacap06]

Originally Posted by SVAuspicious

These threads often end up with people adding one knot to the next until some poor sap thinks s/he has to learn a hundred knots. I suggest anyone that wants to make a contribution list all the knots thought essential.

Mine:

1. Bowline
2. Clove hitch
3. Square knot/reef knot
4. Rolling hitch
5. Half hitch

I know a few others (like an anchor hitch), but I'm okay with those five and looking up anything else for special applications.

I think SVAuspicious mostly has it, but I'll add one and pick a nit.

6. Figure of 8 knot. This stopper saved kept my jib sheets within reach when I was teaching a beginning sailor to handle the sheets during a gybe.

The nit: I'd call #1 the bowline/sheetbend since from a topology point of view they are really the same knot. The former forms a loop because you tie it around something (or just make a loop) at the end of a line while the latter is used to bend on a second line of different size to your first line.

Regards,

Tom

[TerralTheSeeker]

Originally Posted by nolatom

Agree on bowline, figure-8, clove hitch, rolling hitch, cleat hitch, two half-hitches/fisherman's bend.

I just started my adventures on a Catalina 22 as part of a sailing club in Pensacola after having wrapped up my basic keelboat, and I've got knots getting all confused in my head while I'm prepping to depart and when I return to the dock.

The few I've used thus far are, of course, the bowline for the jib, the figure-8 for keeping the jib sheets and halyards from slipping out, a "full turn & two half-hitches" as they call it for the fenders and securing the tiller on port & starboard stanchion, cleat hitch, and they have me using square knots to tie down the flaked main.

There may be more knots I need to learn, but so far after four straight days out on Pensacola Bay, these are all I've needed, and thank goodness cuz I'm having a hard enough time just keeping the boat on a straight line and doing gybes without getting clanged in the head by the boom.

[mbetter]

Use slipped square knots for tying down your flaked main, in case you need to get it back up real quick if your motor dies.

[Capt.aaron]

Need to know not only the knot and or hitch but when to use it, or not, and why. bowline for a heavy load that won't need to be untied while under said load. Round turn (I take 2) and two half hitches for a heavy load that may need to be untied while under a load. That is a great start for any body. A standing eye (never a truckers hitch), rolling hitch come after one is proficiant in the first 2. reef knot, sheet bend, etc. all come in time.

[jackdale]

Aaron - why never a trucker's hitch?

[Capt.aaron]

Originally Posted by jackdale

Aaron - why never a trucker's hitch?

What I know to be a truckers hitch, is: take a bend in the line, wrap around and pull through. this enables you to have some purchase to pull tight the line when lashing. put a load of body weight on it and it is very difficult to un-do with out a spike ( or impossible). A standing eye, you make a loop, not a bend, and take three wraps around the loop, pulling the after part of the eye through itself. A considerable load can be applied and the eye can be removed with ease, much like a bowline. Could be my understanding of what we are calling a truckers hitch is different.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Capt.aaron

What I know to be a truckers hitch, is: take a bend in the line, wrap around and pull through. this enables you to have some purchase to pull tight the line when lashing. put a load of body weight on it and it is very difficult to un-do with out a spike ( or impossible). A standing eye, you make a loop, not a bend, and take three wraps around the loop, pulling the after part of the eye through itself. A considerable load can be applied and the eye can be removed with ease, much like a bowline. Could be my understanding of what we are calling a truckers hitch is different.

There are a few called trucker's hitches. This is what I use.



I finish with around turn and two half hitches.

This loop in this one is will need a marlin spike to undo. I do not use this.

[Capt.aaron]

I wish I had access to the tech. to display a standing eye. I can, and have applied 100's of pounds of force to them and untied with one hand. I use it all the time. As long as you can tie it quick in the dark and get the eye out easily with two fingers it's a worthy knot and not a tangle.

[TerralTheSeeker]

Originally Posted by mbetter

Use slipped square knots for tying down your flaked main, in case you need to get it back up real quick if your motor dies.

I'll get mister instructor dude to show me that one and put it to use.

T