Page 38 - The Knot Bible

HITCHES

Rolling hitch
KNOT SCORE
Another variation of the clove hitch, which resists sideways pull and is Strength
much easier to tie than the camel hitch, is the rolling hitch. One of the Security
most common uses of this knot is to tie a small line to a larger one, eg a Diffi culty Tying
Diffi culty Untying
dinghy painter onto a mooring warp, or a burgee halyard to the shrouds.
Usefulness
It’s a handy knot, almost as versatile as the clove hitch and more secure.

1 Take a turn around the pole or 2 Take another turn around the 3 Take another turn in the same
ring. As with the clove hitch, it mooring point, on the same side direction, this time coming up on
doesn’t matter which way you go, of the standing part. the other side of the standing part.
as long as you keep going in the Tuck the working end under itself.
same direction.

KNOT KNOW-HOW 4 Tighten the knot by
pulling the working end
Up until 1841, the rolling hitch was and standing part in
known as the Magnus or Magner’s hitch, opposite directions.
and the two round turns and two half
hitches was called a rolling hitch. The
knots were renamed by RH Dana in his
1841 book A Seaman’s Friend, and have
kept his nomenclature ever since. Who
Magnus or Magner were is unknown, but
it would have been a very rare case of a
knot being named after a person.

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