Tarbuck Knot

Tarbuck Knot

Aplications : A useful general-purpose slide­and-grip loop, the Tarbuck knot may be grasped in the hand and shifted along, but it will seize up under load. It is used to tension guy-lines, clothes-lines, etc., and can also be used to moor small craft temporarily on a rising or falling tide.


Method :Take two and a half turns with the working end around the standing part, bringing it out through the loop so formed (1-2).Then twist the working end in a figure eight around the standing part and under itself, as shown (3). There is only one right way to tie this knot but many wrong ways. Work the entire knot snug before use. Do not use this knot as a hitch around a rigid rope or rail to resist a lengthwise pull (illustrated in at least one manual). It seems like a good idea, but it should be remembered that the knot relies for its grip on creating a dog's-leg kink in its own standing part (4).This is impossible if the line is tied to a separate and unyielding foundation.



History : This knot was devised around 1952 by climber and skier Ken Tarbuck to cope with post-war nylon climbing ropes. It was an end man's tie-on to a karabiner, intended to absorb sudden loads by slipping until the load was reduced to a safe weight (when the knot would hold). But no sooner had it become widely known through Tarbuck's expert writing and lecturing, than kernmantel (core-sheath) climbing ropes emerged. These absorb shock loading by their elasticity and the Tarbuck knot can ruin such ropes, gripping and stripping the outer sheath. It is therefore no longer recommended for its original specialized purpose.

Heaving Line Knot

Heaving Line Knot

Applications : Throwing lines fly better through the air if the end is weighted, and this is one knot for the job. (See also monkey's fist) Tied in a length of cord it makes a neat, convenient hank to carry in a rucksack or on a belt loop.

Method : Make a bight and wrap the two adjacent parts with the working end (1-2). After tucking the working end, pull all slack through the knot (first one way, then the other) until it emerges where the standing part enters the knot (3-4). For a bulkier version of the same knot, wrap three standing parts (5-7).



History : The heaving line knot and variations on it have been recorded since at least the nineteenth century.

Buntline Hitch

Buntline Hitch

Applications : The buntline hitch was traditionally used to secure a lanyard to a cringle, eyelet, ring or swivel. These days it is also used on tools with small holes in their handles. Note the short end trapped on the inside of the knot (3).This is not recommended in cases where the hitch needs to be undone easily, because it is likely to jam and resist the efforts of fingers to free it. However, where something more secure than the normal two half-hitches is needed, the buntline hitch is useful. When tied in a strip of material, it turns out to be the common knot used for men's neckties (one of life's lesser-known trivial facts).

Method : Make two half-hitches, tying the second inside the first (1-3).



History : The buntline was attached to a sail's footrope, then passed up in front of that sail to a block on the yard, from where it could be used to pull the bottom of the sail up and so spill the wind out of it. As the sail was going to flap about a lot, a very secure knot was needed.

Knute Hitch

Knute Hitch

App;ications : Use the Knute hitch to attach a line to anything with a hole not much larger (for obvious reasons) than twice the diameter of the cordage used. This hitch is often tied to fix lanyards to knives and other tools. Europe's largest sailing school, in Poole Harbour, England, uses it to attach the main halyards to the mainsails on its Wayfarer dinghies, no doubt saving on the cost of shackles lost overboard from wet, cold and inexperienced fingers.

Method : Thread a bight and trap the working end with it (1), finishing off either with a stopper knot or with one of those big plastic beads sold in yacht chandlers (2).



History : US master ringger, writer and broadcaster Brion Toss named this hitch in 1990 but it is probably centuries old

Bowline In The bight

Bowline In The bight

Applications : In these litigious, health-and ­safety conscious times, I do not recommend any ad hoc rope slings and chairs for working aloft or over the side. There are tested and certificated ladders and stages and harnesses for the well prepared. But all sailors sooner or later are faced with some urgent improvisation. This is one such knot, which can be used for lowering an injured person and other emergencies. One leg is put through each loop and the patient (if conscious and capable) holds tight onto the rope at chest level, or is somehow secured to it. It reduces the strength of the line in which it is tied by up to 40%.

Method : As this knot is usually tied in the middle of a rope, it must be made without using either end. The early stages are done with a doubled end (1).The trick is then to pass the bight right over the pre­formed knot (2-3).



History : This knot was illustrated in 1795 by Johann R. in his Allgemeines Worterbuch der Marine. In 1808 it was mentioned as the 'bowline upon the bight' by Darcy Lever, Author of Sheet Anchor.

Ashley's Stopper Knot

Applications : use this chunky hole blocker when the figure eight knot too small.

Method: Tie a simple noose (1-2). tuck the working end as shown (no other way will do), pulling the noose tight to trap it (3). a characteristic of completed knot is a neat trefoil of three overlapping parts on its underside.



History : Clifford W. Ashley, whose monumental work The Ashley Boo of Knots is every knot enthusiasts bible, devised this knot sometime before 1910. He was trying to imitate a lumpy knot he had seen from a distance on the foresail halyard of a passing boat in an oyster fishing fleet (hence his name for it, an oysterman's stopper). later, when he went aboard for a closer look, the knot in question turned out to be merely a wet and swollen figure eight knot. So good is Ashley's own knot, however, that there have recently been moves to honour him by featuring it on an American postage stamp.