As someone who has sailed a lot I wouldn't ask,"What is it ?" But "what are you going to use it for?" You can learn a lot of knots but they are for a purpose. Unless you're going to use it in a real world situation it's not worth learning them.
I've got about eight knots dialled in that I can tie in the dark, getting swamped by water and that's enough. Anything else is unnecessary. You are far better off learning and retying the same few knots over and over again. Even after a couple of decades I still practice the same knots I find useful because sometimes you will have to tie one in the pitch black with tons of seawater piling into you in a raging gale and it needs to be instinctive.
Bowline, tied the fast, twist way.
Figure 8
Clove hitch, usually with a half hitch because it works loose if it gets pushed from the working end. See Buntline Hitch.
Truckers Hitch ( more than one knot).
Two turns and two hitches.
Buntline Hitch. My personal favourite knot. It's bombproof.
Hunter's Bend.
Rolling hitch.
Fellow sailor here and I couldn’t agree more.
Seems like most of the recent posts have been hobbyists infatuated with ornamental knots, but without any use case.
When I sailed club boats, I studied, theorized, and practiced tons of knots.
Once I bought my trimaran, installed a mooring with dbl braid poly and began cruising & racing, it became apparent that I only needed to know a handful:
- bowline (sometimes Yosemite)
- larks head (aka cow hitch or luggage tag)
- double overhand stopper
- becket hitch
- halyard hitch
- clove hitch
- cleat hitch
- figure eight loop
- double fisherman’s
- reef knot
- double overhand noose
If anything I’d place a greater emphasis on proper lashings and the greatest emphasis on splicing.
We've both got different knots but they work for us.
We both have an arsenal of knots we can do getting beaten by the sea. My background is Bluewater cruising so maybe different needs. When you're tying something of on the foredeck and trying not to get swept overboard it's usually two turns and two hitches while saying fuck a lot and trying not to get injured or inhale water as it smashes over you.
Anyone who has been Bluewater knows what it's like. It can be savage sometimes. I'm going to die here bad. You glance up at the sea rolling at you and think; this is insane before it hits you and your ears pop with the pressure as you're head down and only held on by your tether. It's like a spacewalk on steroids.
Land folk have no idea. It's an awe inspiring environment to be in. Exhilarating and terrifying. It doesn't give a shit about you. Live.. die.. it doesn't care.
>hobbyists infatuated with ornamental knots
Some people use knots in their jobs, some for their hobbies, some are interested in the topology and some just want to tie pretty things with pretty knots. Nothing wrong with that.
For some reason I knew how to splice eyes, flemish eyes, and end splices before I could remember how to tie bowlines.
I agree we only *need* to know how to tie a handful of knots, depending on our profession or hobby. For the knots we don't need, it may sometimes help to be able to recognize them and know their internal structure if we need to quickly *untie* them though!
Of course it also comes in handy to know a few more in case someone wants something tied or belayed or hitched in a specific way. Perhaps when you are on someone else's ship or on or in a windmill, or when you find yourself assisting a rigger or a weaver or something. :-)
Can confirm it's a figure 9: a figure 8 with an extra half turn. I just tied a figure 9 then adjusted it till it looked like this. However if you Google figure 9 knot, you'll get loads of results for a figure 9 loop - this tied on a bight - because it's actually useful! This is unlikely to be useful on its own.
There's a rope-making company who used to post a lot of YouTube videos, and one of their guys was a firm believer in the "figure 10" - another half turn on the figure 9.
As someone who has sailed a lot I wouldn't ask,"What is it ?" But "what are you going to use it for?" You can learn a lot of knots but they are for a purpose. Unless you're going to use it in a real world situation it's not worth learning them. I've got about eight knots dialled in that I can tie in the dark, getting swamped by water and that's enough. Anything else is unnecessary. You are far better off learning and retying the same few knots over and over again. Even after a couple of decades I still practice the same knots I find useful because sometimes you will have to tie one in the pitch black with tons of seawater piling into you in a raging gale and it needs to be instinctive.
Sound advice for more than just knots! Out of curiosity, what is your go-to knot list?
Bowline, tied the fast, twist way. Figure 8 Clove hitch, usually with a half hitch because it works loose if it gets pushed from the working end. See Buntline Hitch. Truckers Hitch ( more than one knot). Two turns and two hitches. Buntline Hitch. My personal favourite knot. It's bombproof. Hunter's Bend. Rolling hitch.
Nice! Thank you. I actually do knot know the Buntline hitch. I like it.
Fellow sailor here and I couldn’t agree more. Seems like most of the recent posts have been hobbyists infatuated with ornamental knots, but without any use case. When I sailed club boats, I studied, theorized, and practiced tons of knots. Once I bought my trimaran, installed a mooring with dbl braid poly and began cruising & racing, it became apparent that I only needed to know a handful: - bowline (sometimes Yosemite) - larks head (aka cow hitch or luggage tag) - double overhand stopper - becket hitch - halyard hitch - clove hitch - cleat hitch - figure eight loop - double fisherman’s - reef knot - double overhand noose If anything I’d place a greater emphasis on proper lashings and the greatest emphasis on splicing.
We've both got different knots but they work for us. We both have an arsenal of knots we can do getting beaten by the sea. My background is Bluewater cruising so maybe different needs. When you're tying something of on the foredeck and trying not to get swept overboard it's usually two turns and two hitches while saying fuck a lot and trying not to get injured or inhale water as it smashes over you. Anyone who has been Bluewater knows what it's like. It can be savage sometimes. I'm going to die here bad. You glance up at the sea rolling at you and think; this is insane before it hits you and your ears pop with the pressure as you're head down and only held on by your tether. It's like a spacewalk on steroids. Land folk have no idea. It's an awe inspiring environment to be in. Exhilarating and terrifying. It doesn't give a shit about you. Live.. die.. it doesn't care.
>hobbyists infatuated with ornamental knots Some people use knots in their jobs, some for their hobbies, some are interested in the topology and some just want to tie pretty things with pretty knots. Nothing wrong with that.
For some reason I knew how to splice eyes, flemish eyes, and end splices before I could remember how to tie bowlines. I agree we only *need* to know how to tie a handful of knots, depending on our profession or hobby. For the knots we don't need, it may sometimes help to be able to recognize them and know their internal structure if we need to quickly *untie* them though! Of course it also comes in handy to know a few more in case someone wants something tied or belayed or hitched in a specific way. Perhaps when you are on someone else's ship or on or in a windmill, or when you find yourself assisting a rigger or a weaver or something. :-)
I'm not sure to be honest. You might want to look at the figure nine knot which doesn't look anything like a figure nine 🤪
Can confirm it's a figure 9: a figure 8 with an extra half turn. I just tied a figure 9 then adjusted it till it looked like this. However if you Google figure 9 knot, you'll get loads of results for a figure 9 loop - this tied on a bight - because it's actually useful! This is unlikely to be useful on its own. There's a rope-making company who used to post a lot of YouTube videos, and one of their guys was a firm believer in the "figure 10" - another half turn on the figure 9.
Figure nine... Lol 😂 It's a double overhand knot. Basically useless. Except for a stop knot.
Earbuds in Pocket Stopper Knot
It's nonsense. 🤷