Page 193 - Adlard Coles "The Knot Bible"

Figure-eight fl ake
KNOT SCORE
If you need to run a line out quickly with minimum risk of it getting tangled, Strength

forget all your fancy coils and use a flake instead. The most common use of Security

flaking is for anchor warps and mooring lines, when a tangled line can cause Diffi culty Tying
Diffi culty Untying
disaster, particularly in heavy weather. And, if your anchor chain is prone to
Usefulness
jamming, it might pay to flake that on deck too before you drop anchor.

1 Starting from the standing end of 2 Form a figure-eight, and lay it 3 Keep forming overlapping

the line, form a couple of turns on over the previous turns so it partly figure-eights, stacking them in the
the deck. overlaps them. direction the line will be released.

4 To release the line, pull the end KNOT KNOW-HOW
at right angles to the turns.
The fi gure-eight flake is just one of many

flakes available to the eager line handler.

A long flake is a series of turns laid
side by side on the deck, and released
longitudinally. The French flake is the

same, but released at right angles to the
turns. A Flemish down is the same as the

French flake, but with overlapping turns.
A Flemish flake is not a flake at all – it’s

a cheese (page 194)!

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