Raritan Marine Holding Tank Distributors Share Great Knot Tying Skills With You
Raritan Engineering would like to share with you this week these awesome knot tying skills that will make your journeys much more enjoyable.
I’m as prone as anyone to being enchanted by the big picture—but I learned quickly where that can lead. About 10 miles off the coast of Colombia, in a gale that tragically swept a poor French cruiser right off his boat, the smallest cheapest block on board our little ketch exploded in a mess, leaving the club-footed staysail swinging around the foredeck like a Louisville slugger in the arms of an angry Skunk Ape (that’s Florida-speak for Big Foot).
The article looked at a seemingly mundane subject, the kind of article no one but a serious sailor would take notice of, but the implications were far reaching.
The most familiar knot of this type is a rolling hitch. While an ordinary rolling hitch might work fine on an awning, it loses its effectiveness as loads and rope diameters increase.
While it was the most easily tied and most easily remembered, it cannot be relied on for use with anything but chain and large diameter, high-friction line at relatively low loads, in our opinion.
Bottom line: If you want to be sure your line won’t slip, don’t rely on the rolling hitch.
MODIFIED ROLLING HITCH
The rigger’s and camel modifications to the rolling hitch increased its holding power without greatly increasing its complexity. But it still did not hold on slippery, single-braid Spectra line or on the greased stainless tube with the larger diameter line.
Raritan Marine Holding Tank Suppliers Further Discuss How to Improve Your Knot Tying Abilities
Your holding tank manufacturers talk about the importance of learning new sailing knots. Bottom line: A definite improvement over the rolling hitch, but still not reliable in all situations.
SAILOR’S HITCH
The sailor’s hitch took twice as long for our testers to tie as the two rolling hitches, and it was the hardest to undo when used with line. After being tensioned on the single-braid Spectra, it took a marlinspike and 10 minutes of hard work to free it.
Bottom line: This hitch does not perform any better than the modified rolling hitch, but it is harder to remember and jams when used with certain types of line.
ICICLE HITCH
The icicle hitch also took twice as long as the rolling hitch to tie, but it performed better than all but the gripper hitch, holding in all test situations.
Though the icicle hitch would separate a bit as it was tensioned, the top of the hitch never moved even with maximum load. This was the easiest hitch to undo after it had been tensioned.
Bottom line: The extra holding power and the ease of release more than make up for the slight increase in complexity of this hitch.
GRIPPER HITCH
While this hitch performed every bit as well as the icicle hitch, and might have outperformed it, had we made the testing even more difficult, its complexity can’t be ignored. It took our testers one-10th the time to tie the various rolling hitches and a quarter the time to tie the sailor’s or icicle hitches.
Bottom line: The gripper hitch may have the highest holding power, but in an emergency, most people will prefer a hitch they can remember easily and tie quickly.
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