There are two kinds of knots that we should concern ourselves
with.
This refers to the gradation of speed on the water.
A Nautical Mile is 1/60th of a line of Longitude and works out to
slightly over a Statute Mile. A Knot, is then, 1 Nautical Mile
per hour.
Besides scouts, sailors have long prided themselves over the
various shennenigans they allow their lines to get into ( and all
obviously for a particular purpose).
There are precious few to begin with...
This is mainly a stopper knot, mainly used at the end of
mainsheets so that they don't run off the mainsheet blocks, into
the ocean and generally leave us stranded. On the other hand,
they are used in place of a normal, simple, landlubber's knot
because they are easy to undo after having been greatly
tensioned.
A knot with various and multiple uses.. used to provide a loop
of rope on which to pull ( as in control lines), securing lines
(tow rope), rescue and to make nifty party gifts for all and
sundry.
The action of this knot acts 90 degrees to the point of
contact and works best with constant tension.. in other words, if
you tied this to your mast, it would work best perpendicular to
it, and you'd have to keep pulling to keep it tight.
Used to shorten rope, it also requires that both ends are tensioned to maintain its shape. home