A Marlin Spike Hitch is a very useful tool that can be used to tie other knots better. It allows you to pull much harder on a small line and actually create incredible amounts of tension in a line with ease.
This video shows you step by step how to tie a Marlin Spike Hitch.
Having a soft shackle at the end of your line is a great asset. A soft shackle lets you securely attach a line to something without the need for a knot. This means that anyone can connect the line without you needing to check their work for a proper knot.
What could fail with a soft shackle on an eye splice? Easy: someone could drop it overboard!
The best way to make a bullet proof soft shackle is to have it permanently attached to the end of your sheet. Making the soft shackle integral to the sheet itself!
This knot is a favorite for key chains and ornaments, but it has a much more practical purpose.
A Monkey Fist adds a considerable amount of mass at the end of a line, allowing this to be tossed across great distances as it trails a small messenger line. Once this line is transferred, the real mooring warp can be hauled to bring the boat into berth.
The video below shows how to tie a Monkey Fist.
Knots, they offer endless possibilities for the systems you can create in a rope, but tying them can be time consuming.
This knot, the Alpine Butterfly Knot can be tied in 5 seconds and is a great way to put a bight in a line!
When you tie a bowline to another bowline, you risk the two loops sawing on each other and actually chafing through! To prevent this, all you need to do is pass the line a few times through the loop.
This will take any movement out of the system and allow your two lines to hold securely without the fear of chafe.
We do this to tie the bow line of the dinghy to the painter. The painter has a bowline tied in it and we simply tie up to the loop. Having these wraps means that we can sleep easily without worrying about the dinghy sawing through its painter and drifting away quietly into the night.
