Lines and Knots for Your Boat

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Lines and Knots for Your Boat

• by
• Nancy Free

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Marlinespike Seamanship

• Art of handling and working with rope
• This includes
• Knowledge of rope materials and construction
• How to care for your lines
• Difference between knots, bends, and hitches
• Basic knots to know and their uses
• Hands on knot practice

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Lines vs. Ropes

• Rope is what you buy at the store on a spool.
• Lines are pieces of rope cut to length and put in
  service.
• Exceptions are bell ropes. bolt and foot ropes on
  sails.
• Some lines have special names - painters on small
  boats, lead lines, anchor rodes.

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Three Types of Rope Materials

• Natural Fibers
• Synthetics
• Wires (stainless and galvanized)

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Rope MaterialsNatural Fibers

• Natural fibers includeManila (strongest),
  cotton, sisal, hemp, jute, and flax
• Manila and cotton are the only ones commonly used
  today.
• Natural fibers have disadvantages.
• are weaker than synthetics
• shrink when wet
• are subject to rot
• Used mainly on tall ships

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Synthetic Fibers

• Advantages
• MUCH stronger than natural fibers, wet or dry
• Dont shrink when wet like natural fibers
• Resist rot, mildew, acids, and alkalis
• Disadvantages
• Slippery, dont hold knots and splices as well
• May be damaged by heat and UV light

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Synthetic FibersNylon

• Advantages
• Strongest commonly used fiber
• Wont rot
• Most elastic of all fibers good for lines
  subject to shock (examples?)
• Disadvantages
• Very elastic bad for lines that need to be taut
  (examples?)
• Dangerous if it breaks under strain
• Slippery, unravels easily

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Synthetic FibersPolyester (Dacron)

• Advantages
• Much less elastic than nylonuseful for lines
  that must be taut
• Nearly as strong as nylon
• More pliable than nylon
• Disadvantages
• Chafes easily under strain
• Much less elastic than nylonnot good for lines
  subject toshock.

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Synthetic FibersPolyolefin (polyethylene,
polypropylene)

• Advantages
• They float (examples of use?)
• Cheapest fibers
• Disadvantages
• Degrade and weaken in sunlight
• Weakest synthetics
• Stiff and slippery knots may come undone
• Rough and hard on the hands

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Other Types of Rope Materials

• Wire rope (usually stainless steel)
• Used for standing or permanent rigging on
  sailboats, davits
• Maximum strength and little stretch
• Tends to be stiff and inflexible
• May snag and cut hands
• Shock Cord
• Rubber strands covered with synthetic fiber
• Used to tie down loads
• Webbing (woven nylon)
• Strong, holds knots well
• Used for tie downs, sail stops

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Rope ConstructionLaid Rope

• Most rope is right laid. Coil with the lay to
  avoid kinks.
• To construct laid rope
• Fibers are twisted into yarns.
• Yarns are twisted in the opposite direction into
  strands.
• Strands are twisted in the original direction to
  form rope.

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Rope ConstructionBraided Rope

• Made of interwoven strands
• Smoother and easier on the hands than laid rope
• Can be single or double braided
• Double braided has an inner core and is stronger
  than laid rope of same size.
• More expensive than laid rope

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Care of Lines

• Keep all lines, synthetic or natural
• Dry and well ventilated to prevent mildew
• Free of kinks
• Free of dirt, oil, acid wash after wetting with
  sea water
• Run bow lines through a chock. Use chafing gear
  on lines subject to wear.
• Inspect lines for wear every season.
• Whip lines to keep them from coming unlaid.

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Care of Lines

• Coil up lines when stowing them.
• Fake (or flake) down lines that have to run out
  fast without kinks.
• Flemish a line lying on a flat surface to give it
  a neat, flat look.

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Types of Knots

• Anything you tie in a line is a knot (general
  sense of knot).
• A knot, in the strict sense, is tied in a single
  line.
• Square knot
• A bend is a knot that ties two lines together.
• Sheet bend
• A hitch is a knot that ties a line to an object.
• Clove hitch
• Rolling hitch

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Overhand Knot

• Simplest, easiest knot to tie.
• Its a not knot.
• Limited use as a stopper knot or to keep a line
  from fraying.
• Weakens line strength by 50.
• May be useful as the start of more complex knots.

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Figure Eight Knot

• Used by sailors as a stopper knot to keep the end
  of a line from running through a block or pulley
• Bulkier and better as a stopper knot than an
  overhand knot

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Square Knot (Reef Knot)

• Used for
• reefing or furling sails
• tying bags, packages, and shoes
• Tie it only in single line or two similar lines.
  (Its a knot.)
• Dangerous if used to tie unlike lines capsizes
  under strain

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Sheet Bend, Becket Bend, Weavers Knot

• Use it to tie
• two dissimilar lines together
• a small line to a becket (loop in a line)
• Make the sheet bend double or triple for security
• Make it slippery for ease in untying

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Clove Hitch

• Use it to tie
• a line to a rail or piling temporarily
• fenders to a railing
• Easy to untie (esp. if its slipped.)
• Tends to come undone unless under constant tension

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Round Turn Two Half Hitches

• Use to tie a line to an objectA round turn an
  two half hitches will hold most anything.
• More permanent and secure than a clove hitch,
  harder to untie

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Anchor Bend

• Most secure hitch to attach a line to an object
  such as a ring or post
• Use to attach a line to an anchor or a fishhook
• Similar to a round turn and two half hitches

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Rolling Hitch

• Used to
• tie a smaller line to the standing part of
  another a line under a load
• make an adjustable loop by tying the working end
  to the standing part of the same line
• tie a flag to a flag halyard

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BowlineKing of Knots

• Forms a non-slip loop thats easily untied
• Called the king of knots because of its many
  uses (Suggestions?)

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Cleat Hitch

• Secures a line to a horn cleat
• To tie it -
• Take only one full turn around the base of the
  cleat.
• Make one figure eight turn around both horns.
• To make it more secure, finish with an under hand
  loop (weather hitch)

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Lead Lines

• A line with a lead weight used to measure water
  depth To use it
• Mark the line at intervals.
• Coil the line and throw the lead out in front of
  the boat.
• When the line stands vertical, note the marker
  just above the water.

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Dipping the Eye

• Technique to use when tying to a piling where
  another boat is tied.
• Avoids putting your line on top of the one
  already there.
• Dip the eye by bringing the loop of your line
  through the eye of the first line and then over
  the post.

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Knot Rodeo

• Find a sign for a knot that you dont already
  know.
• Go to the station for that knot and watch the
  demo and ask questions.
• Get as much hands-on time as time permits. You
  cant learn from looking at pictures.
• Practice, practice, practice is the only way to
  learn.