Page 22 - Knots You Need to Know Easy-to-Follow Guide to the 30 Most Useful Knots

CHAPTER 3 :

The Knots to Know

Of all the necessary nautical skills, perhaps none is as mystifying to
the novice as the tying of ropes. An almost infinite number of

configurations can be made in rope, and over the course of nautical
history perhaps 2,000 of these have come into some kind of
functional or decorative use. Yet a practical seaman can get along
comfortably and safely for a lifetime by mastering only the nine
basic knots and the splice shown at right.

In everyday usage most people—sailors included—refer to any
interlacing of one or more pieces of rope as a knot. In its more
precise nautical meaning, however, a knot is formed only when a
rope is turned back and tied on itself—as in the top row on page 20.

The fastening together of two rope ends to extend the length of line
is called, technically, a bend, e.g., the double sheet bend. A
configuration of rope tied around an object—which can be another
rope—is a hitch (page 20). And an interweaving of one set of rope
strands with another, to secure together two ropes or two parts of

the same rope, is a splice.

In choosing the right knot to use, the seaman should be guided
simply by the purpose to be served. For in practice, with the
exception of the splice, the various technical terms have become so
blurred in meaning as to be virtually useless. For example, the so-
called fisherman’s bend is in fact a hitch, since it is used to hitch