Page 198 - Derek E. Avery - The new encyclopedia of knots

figure 141.1

figure 141.2

The knot is made in the centre of a rope by taking a turn around your left
hand, from the top, and around your right hand. With your left hand
positioned below your right hand, hold the rope in your right fingers
above your left hand and in your left fingers below your right hand
(figure 141.1), and pull your hands apart taking the turns with them
(figure 141.2). This forms the finished knot, around the centre of two
bights.

Topping lift: the running rigging from the mast to the outer end of a

beam, usually set in pairs, one on each side of the sail. These relieve the sail
from the weight of the beam.

Transom knot: an excellent way of fixing together two crossed pieces of
wood or garden canes.

Lay the standing part along the length of one of the pieces of wood and
hold it there with your thumb. Now take the end up along the piece of
wood, crossing over the cross piece of wood. Continue by taking a turn
around the back of the first piece, back down diagonally across the

standing part, to take another turn around the back of the first piece of
wood, but this time below the cross piece. Bring the end forward under
the turn just completed, and under the first turn, to lie along the first