Sheepshank

The sheepshank is probably one of the most under appreciated knots. It's fatal flaw is directly responsible for its lack of popularity: if the knot looses tension, then while thing comes undone. 

People usually tie a knot and expect it to hold until they release the knot, but the sheepshank will not do that. It will hold as long as the line has tension; but as soon as tension is lost, the knot falls apart. 

The sheepshank is used to take slack out of a line or to make a line shorter. As long as the line is pulled tight, it will continue to hold and do its job wonderfully. 

Knowing its flaw is important in deciding when and where to use it. If you shorten a dock line with it, you will be sorry! But is you shorten a line that is always under tension, you will be very pleased.  

I use this knot to take out the slack on my backstay adjuster. When I tighten the backstay, the adjuster line goes slack. A well tied sheepshank will take up the slack and will also release very quickly is I need to ease the backstay in a hurry! 

I must admit, this is the only place I have ever used a sheepshank on any boat, but I still don't think this knot should be cast aside as a worthless or useless knot. 

Reefing Tack Line

​Most mainsail reefing involves a tack hook and clew line to secure the reefed foot of the sail. Reef hooks are very secure and strong and offer little risk of allowing the sail to slip off.

The way they work is you slip the tack cringle over the hook and then haul in on the halyard to secure it. This works well on small light sails, but heavy sail cloth and/or high winds can make it nearly impossible to reach the hook. For this reason, tack straps have become a wonderful solution, aiding the sailor in securing the tack. A webbing strap with a ring hangs down and can easily be hooked onto the rams horn. Once secured, the halyard is hauled in and the sail is raised. This secures the tack in its reefed position.

While tack hooks are a standard, they do have a significant problem: they are hooks!

A flaked mainsail can easily lie under the tack hook, and if raised quickly, it can be pierced by the hook. This will create a puncture in the luff if you stop instantly, or a large tear if you raise the sail before you realize what is going on.

I personally pierced my old sail three times on my old tack hook. The last thing I wanted in my new laminate mainsail were luff punctures, so the hook had to go! This led to my current and very sail friendly tack setup, a tack line.

I used a length of dyneema (regular, not heat set SK75) for my tack line, and another length tied to the reefing tack points on the sail. The length of dyneema is tied to the goose neck on a strong attachment point with a bowline ready to connect to the sail.

On the sail, I tied a very fancy series of knots to the reefing tack points. The first set of knots is an interlocking double fishermans knot. This keeps loops from coming apart when the tack is loaded. The tails are then further knotted into the loops to ensure that these knots will never come undone!

I did not make grommets for these locations because grommets bulk up the loop considerably and I was concerned that they would be overly stressed passing through the tack ring and decided to simply tie a strong knot and keep the bulk of line passing through the ring reduced.

I tie the tack line tail to the loop via a sheet bend with a slip. If you do not include a slip, you will be hard pressed to untie the bend knot after a stormy sail. The slip gives you the ability to pull the knot apart if you are unable to untie it in a timely manner.

The sheet bend has a tendency to slip out, which is why considerable care should be taken to make sure that it becomes fully tightened as the sail is raised. If you see the knot slipping, simply tighten it a bit more and continue raising the sail. It will become incredibly tight as the winch pulls the sail into position and will not come untied under any situation!

Shaking the reef out literally becomes a matter of shaking the knot out, and raising the sail all the way.

This method makes reefing hardware very safe for your sails and provides a very secure method to attach your reefed tack point.

Magnus Hitch

The Magnus Hitch is a handy knot that I use to tie fenders to lifelines and rails. This knot is easy to tie, holds well, and is also easy to untie. The knot is very similar to a rolling hitch but the standing part and the tail exit on the same side of the knot. This knot can also be used to tie a hitch onto another line as it will not twist and distort as much as a rolling hitch would. 

If you need to tie a very secure hitch, the icicle hitch will out hold a magnus hitch, but the magnus hitch is much easier and quicker to tie. 

The reason I prefer the magnus hitch over the rolling hitch for securing fenders is both tails come off in the same direction, making a cleaner appearance on the rail or lifeline. The other advantage is the magnus hitch makes adjusting the length of the fender whip very easy!

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We will go over the very easy steps to tie the Magnus Hitch.

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Simply pass the working end through the ring

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Pass the working end through the ring again, making two round turns on the ring in the same direction. If the knot is going to be loaded and pulled on, the turns would go in the opposite direction of the load; this will keep the knot from slipping on the line it is hitched to.

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Now pass the working end over the standing part.

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Pass the working end under the ring

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Now pull the working end through the loop and tighten the knot.

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The finished knot will have the standing end and working end both exiting parallel to each other. If you need to adjust the length of the fender whip, simply work the length of line through the knot and re-tighten.

Pintrest Heart Knot

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/382735668310926761/

I have been asked to tie the heart knot seen on Pintrest and it didn't come out exactly like the picture. The apex of the heart knot is not pointy at all as it is demonstrated in the picture, but otherwise it looks close enough.

A much easier way to tie a heart shaped knot is to splice the line like if you were making a grommet.

This heart shaped knot even has heartstrings to pull on!

Taking Out Constructional Stretch

After any splice in dyneema, the outer braid will be more open. Upon loading, the fibers will settle back into place and the line will stretch. This is not creep, it is "constructional stretch". It is important to get this constructional stretch out before setting up the stays as it will ensure that the final length is closest to the desired length.

To get constructional stretch out, I like to tie an end to a fixed object and then pull really hard on the line, snapping it tight and letting it go, then snapping it tight again. This will take out most of the stretch. The last bit of stretch can be taken out during tensioning with the deadeyes.

I'm in the process of making new check stays for Wisdom. I connected two off-cuts that were rather long with a very long end to end splice. My next step will be to take the long lines and measure them on the mast to set the eye splices in the desired locations. The problem is the constructional stretch is an unknown factor on these lines. It is very difficult to get the length of the stays perfect with such a large unknown in their length. For this reason, I am going above and beyond with removing the stretch from the stays. 

Pulling hard on the line will remove most of the constructional stretch, but if you want to get all the stretch out of the line, this additional method will be necessary. While this method will remove the stretch and minimize the amount of creep you have to deal with, it is not necessary to do with all your stays. I only did this method on the headstay and the cap shrouds as I didn't want to worry much about them stretching on me once set.

To tension the stays, you first need to attach the stay to a very secure object. I use a silver maple tree that has a very extensive root system as my anchor point. Tie the stay to the tree with a small dyneema line, being sure to do various wraps around the anchor point. The small line is not as strong as the large line you are tensioning, so multiple wraps are needed to share the load.

If you are using a tree, be sure to set a sacrificial board on the backside of the tree. This will spread the load and keep the tree alive. Thousands of pounds pulling into the bark would be very damaging to a tree.

Next attach the other end to something rather strong and heavy. I like to use my pickup truck, it weighs just over 7,000 lbs and has a very sturdy tow-ball on the back of it.

The line is laying on the ground and properly secured to the tree and the truck, now we just need to apply some tension to the line. I put the truck in gear and begin driving down the hill away from the tree at a very slow speed (less than 2mph) until the line gets tight and stops the truck. 

At this point, I put the truck back in park and check the splices.

Even under this amount of tension, the outer braid can be bunched up and not relaxed yet. This is when you can work the line out and push the fibers into their appropriate positions. I let the truck hang on the line for a few hours and then put it in gear and creep forward a few more inches, then let it hang on the line for a few more hours again.

Since these stays need as much creep and stretch removed from them, I let the truck hang on the line for a few days. This will get all the stretch out of the end to end splices and give me a very accurate length to measure my stays with. 

If you noticed, I'm also tensioning the deadeyes at the same time. I know the system has been exposed to enough tension when the thimbles close and their ends come together.

If you need to get the stretch out of your new synthetic stays and don't have access to very large hydraulic equipment, just know that there are always more simplistic ways to achieve your goals.