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A Gripping Hitch That's a Cinch

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A Gripping Hitch That's a Cinch CORDAGE Rolling hitch Modified rolling hItch Sailor’s hitch A Gripping Hitch that’s a Cinch Testers search for the best knot for holding tensioned line with modern line materials. ailors use a variety of hitches to vention, a variety of other hitches have Sailor’s hitch. This hitch uses extra Shold highly loaded line, chain, or been developed that deal with the rolling turns in the direction of strain as well wire. For instance, to remove a riding hitch’s short-comings. These have the as a jamming turn to begin and end the turn from a winch, another line must advantage of increased holding power, hitch to increase the holding power over be secured to the sheet in front of the but they are more complicated to learn the rolling-hitch variations. winch to take the load of the sail, allow- and remember when they are needed. PS Icicle hitch. Developed by John Smith ing the rest of the sheet to go slack so it decided to test five of these hitches to de- to meet the challenge of holding under a can be freed. The hitch used must grip termine which offers the most holding lengthwise pull toward the thin end of a the line and not slip under load when power with the least complexity. tapered spar, the icicle hitch finishes by the end of the sheet is released and taking both ends of the line through a the hitch comes under tension. On a WHAT WE TESTED jamming hitch to increase holding pow- typical 40-foot sailboat, the hitch must Testers evaluated five different grip- er. It is similar to the Kleimheist knot, hold about 2,000 pounds of load with- ping hitches: but is tied with a bight in the end rather out slipping. Rolling hitch. This is the simplest and than the short loop used for climbing. These “gripping hitches” can also most common of the gripping hitches. Gripper hitch. Recently developed by Leonard Beth by Photos be used to secure a snubber to anchor Every Boy Scout uses this hitch to secure Warren Messer of Red Barn Boats after chain, to hold mooring lines while the tent guy lines to tent pegs. It can be eas- he had difficulty getting an icicle hitch to bitter end is moved between a cleat and ily adjusted by hand but then holds in grip on a piece of stainless-steel tubing, a capstan, to tension flag halyards, to se- place under load. Two turns of the line this complicated hitch uses turns in the cure an inner forestay to the mast when are made in the direction of the tension, direction of the strain and in the oppo- not in use and to attach a bridle line to and then the bitter end doubles back to a site direction to lock the line in place. a drogue rode when towing a drogue or hitch taken on the side of the turns away A few tricks will help all of these hitch- using a parachute anchor. from the strain. The turns and the hitch es to grip better: Use older, thinner line. The simplest and most common of are all made in the same direction. (See This is one of the few applications where the gripping hitches is the rolling hitch. photo above.) old line is preferable to new. New line will Used for millennia aboard sailing ves- Modified rolling hitch. Two modifi- usually have a soft, slippery finish while sels, the rolling hitch was developed for cations to the rolling hitch improve its older line will have a harder, rougher feel use on chain and large-diameter line gripping strength. In the rigger’s hitch, that increases friction. The gripper line with a great deal of friction, like hemp the second turn taken in the direction should be smaller diameter than the line or three-strand. On more modern line, of the strain is jammed over the first. In it is trying to grip. which tends to be much more slippery, the camel’s hitch, three turns are taken For illustrations, photos, and vid- the rolling hitch often slips under load. in the direction of the strain and two eos of how to tie some of these knots, It may also fail to hold on wire or stain- half-hitches are used to finish it off. Our check out www.animatedknots.com less-steel tubing. modified rolling hitch combines all of or www.bethandevans.com (under the Necessity being the mother of in- these improvements to maximize grip. Articles section). 22 AUGUST 2009 WWW.PRACTICAL-SAILOR.COM CORDAGE The “gripping” hitches we test- ed included, from left to right: the rolling hitch, the rolling hitch with modifications, the sailor’s hitch, the icicle hitch, and the gripper hitch. Gripper HOW WE TESTED Icicle hitch hitch WHAT WE FOUND We evaluated each The PS Value Guide summarizes the of the hitches to performance of each of the hitches. determine how complicated they were Spectra-cored double-braid as the to learn and use, how well they held, gripper line, testers tied each of the ROLLING HITCH and how easily they could be untied. five hitches to four different materi- This classic gripping hitch slipped in Ease of use. On most liveaboard als: 9/16-inch Dacron double-braid, all but one of our test situations. After cruising boats, one of these hitches 10-millimeter Spectra single-braid it had been tensioned up, it was always would perhaps be used on a weekly (e.g. bare Spectra), 3/8-inch stain- a bit difficult to untie, though it never basis, not daily as would be the case less wire, and 1¼-inch stainless-steel required a marlinspike. with a bowline or a clove hitch. When tubing. We tensioned each hitch with While it was the most easily tied the hitch is needed, it is often a bit of jib-sheet winches to normal jib-sheet and most easily remembered, it can- an emergency situation, as when the loads and recorded whether it held or not be relied on for use with anything tension must be taken off a sheet to slipped. but chain and large diameter, high- release a riding turn. The user cannot We expected the stainless tube to friction line at relatively low loads, in take the time to run below to check a be the most difficult for the hitches our opinion. diagram. to grip, but most of them held. To in- Bottom line: If you want to be sure So, it’s important that whichever crease the test difficulty, we greased your line won’t slip, don’t rely on the hitch a sailor decides to routinely rely the stainless tubing and tested the rolling hitch. on, it is easy to remember and rela- hitches again with the quarter-inch tively easy to tie. Our testers spent a Spectra-cored double-braid. We then MODIFIED ROLLING HITCH half-day learning each of the hitches changed the gripper line to new half- The rigger’s and camel modifications and getting comfortable doing them inch Dacron line to see whether it to the rolling hitch increased its hold- without instruction. A week later, we would grip on the greased stainless ing power without greatly increasing timed the testers while they tied each steel tubing. its complexity. (See photo page 24.) of the hitches to see how long it took Ease of release. After tensioning But it still did not hold on slippery, and whether they could remember the each hitch on each of the materials, single-braid Spectra line or on the hitch without referring to the instruc- we removed the tension and untied greased stainless tube with the larger tions. While they were able to remem- the hitch to see how easily it could be diameter line. ber all of the hitches, it took them far released after having been loaded. Like the rolling hitch, it took some longer to reproduce the more compli- cated ones. Holding power. Using ¼-inch Testers prefer using a bridle when deploying a Galerider drogue in heavy weather (as opposed to trailing the rode from the quarter), and they have found the icicle hitch (inset photo) to be a good knot for attaching the bridle line to the rode. (Note that the ends of the icicle hitch in the photo are not whipped as they would be for real- world use.) PRACTICAL SAILOR AUGUST 2009 23 CORDAGE VALUE GUIDE GRIPPER KNOTS Gripper line: 1/3-in. Spectra ½-in. Dacron Time double braid tied to: double braid tied to: KNOT NAME to tie (sec.) 9/16-in. Dacron double braid 10-mm Spectra single braid ¼-in. stainless wire 1¼-in. greased stainless tube 1¼-in. greased stainless tube Held Untying ease Held Untying ease Held Untying ease Held Untying ease Held Untying ease ROLLING HITCH 10 Yes Medium No Medium No Easy No Easy No Easy MODIFIED ROLLING HITCH 11 Yes Medium No Medium Yes Easy Yes Easy No Easy SAILOr’S HITCH 25 Yes Medium Yes Hard Yes Easy Yes Easy No Easy ICICLE HITCH 28 Yes Easy Yes Easy Yes Easy Yes Easy Yes Easy GRIPPER HITCH 100 Yes Medium Yes Hard Yes Easy Yes Easy Yes Easy Best Choice time to undo after it had been loaded ICICLE HITCH one-10th the time to tie the various up. It would be a good choice for a quick The icicle hitch also took twice as long as rolling hitches and a quarter the time and easy hitch for moderate loads.
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