If You Can’t Tie A Knot…

If You Can’t Tie a Knot

There’s a saying that goes a little something like this…“If you can’t tie a knot, tie a lot.”  Well that’s great and groovy until you have to untie all of those “a lots” especially when you’re in a hurry.  Taking fifteen minutes to untie a dozen granny knots just to move a fender two feet over when you are coming into a dock is a little less than ideal.

Practice, Practice, Practice

I have no idea why, but knots befuzzle me sometimes.  I have practiced, practiced and practiced various knots only to forget how to tie them when it comes down to the wire.  It’s like I’ve never even tied a clove hitch, or a bowline, or a “insert knot here”.   This is beyond frustrating.  I cannot tell you how many times Shawn has shown me how to tie those knots, yet I still struggle with them sometimes.   I do, however, have the cleat hitch down, thank goodness!

Clove Hitch
Clove Hitch

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have Cole from SV Hooligan spend some time with me teaching me how to tie a bowline knot,  coil a line properly,  pay out a line (e.g. throwing the line from the boat to someone on the dock), and even a fancy schmancy tugboat bowline knot.  Armed with this new knowledge fresh in my mind I set out to master each of them over the next week.  Luckily, I found a piece of pretty purple line hidden away in one of our storage lockers on the boat, and dubbed my practice line.   I spent a couple of hours each day practicing what I learned until I was able to do each of them without thinking about it.  I even got to the point where I can now tie a bowline knot without looking at what I’m doing.  Yessss!

Bowline Knot
Bowline Knot
Quick, Tie a Clove Hitch!

Ah, the good ole clove hitch.   A very simple knot, but boy has it kicked my butt in the past.  I had to put a stop to that nonsense.  That pesky ole clove hitch won’t defeat me!

How did I put a stop to that nonsense you ask?  A “Quick, tie a clove hitch!” drill of course!  How does this little drill work you ask?  For the next several days, I walked around, armed with my pretty purple rope, would suddenly stop what I was doing, and say to myself “Quick, tie a clove hitch!”  I would tie a clove hitch around whatever I was standing next to, whether it be railing, a lifeline, a pole, or the helm.  I can say that little trick worked like a charm.  It’s been a couple of weeks now, and guess what…I can still tie  a clove hitch and a bowline!  Enter back pat here.

Clove Hitch
Clove Hitch

I would like to give a big thank you to my ever patient Captain, and special thank you to Cole for all of your help!!

Also, this is a wonderful website that has tons of various knots with animated instruction.  They also have apps on both Google Play and iTunes.
http://www.animatedknots.com/indexboating.php

Read more helpful tips and tricks in our Articles Section.

 

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