Page 245 - Barbara Merry "The Splicing Handbook"

TWENTY-SEVEN
Quick and Easy Knots

Piecing together rope and placing eyes, or loops, at the end of rope require

splices that offer a high degree of safety, strength, and dependability. The knots
in this chapter, however, serve best in those light-duty situations not requiring
the exceptional strength of a well-constructed splice. It is important to remember
that the working load of a rope can be reduced by as much as half when it is
knotted.
Among the 19 knots in this chapter are the 17 a sailor must master in order to
become a licensed Able-Bodied Seaman in the U.S. Merchant Marine (the
outriders are the Package Knot and the Fisherman’s Knot). In recent years, I’ve
been teaching at the New England Maritime Institute, one of a handful of such
schools that appeared around the country in the wake of the Exxon Valdez
disaster. Consistency and safety are the prime directives. The U.S. Coast Guard

requires each licensed mariner to know these knots by heart.
The first pair of knots belong to the group known as stopper knots because
their function is to stop a rope from slipping through a block, clutch, or other
hardware. The simplest stopper knot is the lowly but useful Overhand Knot. Add
another twist and you get the bulkier and therefore more useful Figure-Eight
Knot.