Sailing Knots
An essential part of a sailor's education is learning how to tie sailing knots. There are around a dozen kinds of sailing knots but they are not all used with the same frequency. The essential one is the bowline, but the requirements on a boat could determine you to learn the clove hitch and the “the round turn and two half hitches” to give just a few examples. Practice is the way to remember how to tie sailing knots, and it is not uncommon for people to forget some of their knots particularly if they don't perform them on a regular basis.
When does one need sailing knots? Nautical knots mainly serve for the berthing of a larger boat, for the docking of the yacht or the basic management of the sails. Sailing knots are the ones responsible for the safety and reliability of the actions performed on a boat. Moreover, making the knot is only half of the skill required from a sailor, the easiness to untie it is the other side of the issue. Thus, the practical function and the reliability of sailing knots are measured in the good task performance and the ability to untie quickly.
Sailing knots are among the main topics that trainers deal with in sailing courses. Even if you prefer self-teaching, there are hundreds of sites on the Internet that will show you how to make sailing knots. Most pictures are animated and they explain boaters the best ways to tie and use these knots. The practical application for some sailing knots could often be new to the users, and it is generally admitted that a sailor has a preference for certain types that he/she keeps using.
In naval “slang” the terms “standing end” and “bitter end” evoke the different parts of sailing knots, with the former suggesting the strain and the latter referring to the loose end one holds. Thus, most explanations you find about how to tie sailing knots use these expressions abundantly. Hence, in case you are a beginner, it is good to first get familiar with the basic naval vocabulary before moving to more advanced learning levels.
Lexicons of sailing knots terminologies are also important and highly useful for the clear understanding of the instructions. The type of rope influences in its turn the function and the properties of the sailing knots, and you should know something about ropes too before launching on a boat adventure. In a nutshell, the basics of sailing start with ropes and knots!