Page 25 - The Knot Bible

Top 10 most useful knots

Not everyone has time to learn 20, let alone 200, knots. And it is true that
in day-to-day life most sailors manage perfectly well using only a handful.
Which knots those are, you’ll only find out by practising as many as
possible, but the following is a selection that should cover most
eventualities – even if some come with health warnings.

Figure-eight (page 150) Round turn & two half hitches Bowline (page 112)
It’s not much more than an (page 28) The true sailor’s friend, the bowline
overhand knot with an extra turn, The workhorse of knots. There’s is quick to tie, reliable and easy to
but that extra turn makes the world nothing very pretty or glamorous untie. It’s also extremely versatile,
of difference. Whereas you might about a round turn and two half and the number of variations it has
struggle to undo an overhand knot, hitches, but it will get you out of spawned is evidence of what an
generally speaking, a figure-eight trouble again and again. The round ingenious knot it is. That said, it’s
will untie with relative ease. It is turn spreads the load, so it’s kind on not without its critics, who accuse
ideal for stopping sheets from the rope, and if you want to make the it of being unreliable. They might
slipping through a block or jammer. knot more secure, all you have to do prefer the midshipman’s hitch. Yet
Or, for a more sophisticated (and is throw in another hitch, or seize the this writer has 40 years’ experience
bulkier) alternative, try Ashley’s end to the standing part. If you only of the bowline, without ever being
stopper knot (page 152). ever learn one knot, learn this one. let down.

Clove hitch (page 32)
Probably one of the most useful, and yet least reliable, knots in existence.
The clove hitch can be used on posts, bollards, rings, bags, and almost
anything else you can think of; it can be doubled, tied in the bight and
slipped. As an instant solution for securing a line, it’s almost unbeatable. But
don’t rely on it in the long term. There will almost always be a more reliable
knot to do the job. For tying a mooring line, use a lighterman’s hitch (page
62); for tying fenders, use a round turn and two half hitches (page 28); for
seizing a bag, use a constrictor knot (page 38). Despite all that, the clove
hitch is still a very useful knot to know.

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