Lines and Knots for Your Boat

1. Lines and Knots for Your Boat by Nancy Free

2. 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 2

3. 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. 3

4. Three Types of Rope Materials • Natural Fibers • Synthetics • Wires (stainless and galvanized) 4

5. 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 5

6. Synthetic Fibers • Advantages • MUCH stronger than natural fibers, wet or dry • Don’t shrink when wet like natural fibers • Resist rot, mildew, acids, and alkalis • Disadvantages • Slippery, don’t hold knots and splices as well • May be damaged by heat and UV light 7

7. Synthetic FibersNylon • Advantages • Strongest commonly used fiber • Won’t 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 8

8. 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 nylon;not good for lines subject toshock. 9

9. 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 10

10. 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 11

11. 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. 12

12. 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 13

13. 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. 14

14. 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. 15

15. 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 16

16. Overhand Knot • Simplest, easiest knot to tie. • It’s 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. 17

17. 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 18

18. 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. (It’s a knot.) • Dangerous if used to tie unlike lines; capsizes under strain 19

19. Sheet Bend, Becket Bend, Weaver’s 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 20

20. Clove Hitch • Use it to tie • a line to a rail or piling temporarily • fenders to a railing • Easy to untie (esp. if it’s slipped.) • Tends to come undone unless under constant tension 21

21. Round Turn & Two Half Hitches • Use to tie a line to an object“A round turn an two half hitches will hold most anything.” • More permanent and secure than a clove hitch, harder to untie 22

22. 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 23

23. 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 24

24. Bowline“King of Knots” • Forms a non-slip loop that’s easily untied • Called the “king of knots” because of its many uses (Suggestions?) 25

25. 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) 23

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. Knot Rodeo • Find a sign for a knot that you don’t 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 can’t learn from looking at pictures. • Practice, practice, practice is the only way to learn. 29