Puzzle

In last week’s Puzzle I invited you to name a “best knot” other than the Bowline. I asked, “… what other knot would you nominate as a usurper? What other knot do you think is the most valuable, versatile, important knot? It need not have the same function as a Bowline, or any function at all. It is the knot that you think would make the world a measurably better place if only more people knew about it, a knot that, in your mind, deserves fame and glory.”

A lot of you took the time to write in your nominees. Some entries were haiku-like in their brevity; others ran to pages of comparative analysis (I’m looking at you, Andrew Schmitz). Likewise the knots ran in complexity from the barely-a-knot round turn to an exceedingly complex knot that we will get to a bit later. But it was clear that everyone who wrote in had given the topic some thought, sometimes a great deal of thought. And this is appropriate, for knots are – or can be – extraordinarily powerful, elegant tools.

For this contest, I also invited you to be a champion for your knot, to convince a panel of judges why your choice had the best chance of usurping the Bowline as the King of Knots. We were looking for global relevance, usefulness, and deserving-to-be-better-known, but we were also looking for passion on the part of the nominators. Some of you didn’t really bother with this part. Others included photographs of long ago sea cruises, told tales of using your knot in dire and happy times, or sought to bowl us over with pithy bullet points. I can tell you that this aspect of the contest made the difference in what would otherwise have been some very close calls. And even with your commentary, it took our judges quite a bit of time, pizza, and beer to come to a consensus. On the other hand, our task was made easier by the fact that many very deserving knots were either mentioned only briefly, or were not submitted at all. Given the enthusiasm of the response we got, I think it would be a good idea to make this an annual event; perhaps next year we will get to review some of the great knots that didn’t make it into the hopper.

So, to lead up to the finale, here are a few of our Honorable Mentions:

All hail Des Pawson, who distilled his multi-thousand-knot vocabulary to a pithy commentary on the Figure-8 “family,” and an even more pithy secondary recommendation for one of my favorites, the Constrictor.

Shout out to Dan Kerns, and to several others with similar Figure-8 sympathies. Dan warmed our little knot-tying hearts by saying, “The next time you tie a Bowline on a sheet or halyard, look at the other end of the line and note the stopper there. If there isn’t a stopper, tie one.”

Special mention to Captain Gaelen, who came within a whisker of winning with his entry, the Directional Figure-8. This knot can go head-to-head with a Bowline in almost every respect, plus it is really easy to learn, holds perfectly in high-modulus rope, can be made anywhere in the length of a rope, and is an ideal Trucker’s Hitch loop. It was edged out only because it can require some effort to untie after a heavy load, and because it isn’t quite as versatile as either the Bowline or the eventual winner.

Kudos to Chris Baschab, fan of the Zeppelin Bend, who included how-to-tie instructions.

Likewise to Joe Scmidbauer, who said that, “…a round turn will and should be your constant companion.” True, Joe.

Thumbs up to to Lee Youngblood, wise in the ways of tying fenders to rails.

High marks to Tane Hardwick, rope access maestro, who made a compelling argument for the Barrel Knot.

A nod to all of you who proffered the Trucker’s Hitch. This was a tempting one, scoring strong in all of our categories, but ultimately we concluded that it isn’t a knot, but a combination of knots, with a dozen or more distinct options at the central location. Maybe a topic for another contest.

There are a couple of other honorees that I’ll get to, but first, it is time to announce our winner, Mike Brough! His nominee, the Capstan Hitch (see Featured Image, at top of page), also known as the Tugboat Hitch and several other names, scored high in all categories. Like the Bowline, it is extraordinarily versatile; unlike the Bowline it is better than mediocre at everything it does; it is a maximally secure, jam-proof belay, it can be used – among many other things – to start a lashing, or to finish one (adding to lashing tension as it does so). It can be tied and untied with a load on, it can be made to a variety of objects, at any orientation, anywhere in the length of a rope, and it is quick in the making, either with a bight or with an end. Further, it belongs to the Pile Hitch family of knots, which includes, among other knots, the Icicle Hitch, the Smith Marlingspike Hitch, and what mountain climbers call the Munter Hitch. You can make use of the Capstan Hitch afloat and ashore (it’s the classic way to anchor one end of a mason’s line), and given how valuable it is, it is amazing that it is so little-known. If you would like to get to know this knot, the best source would be, um me (see below for a link to our online store), but you might also look Here, on Mike’s site.

Congratulations, Mike. Be in touch about your prize, an autographed copy of  Sea Trials, from author Wendy Hinman.

Before I go, I said that there were a couple of other honorable mentions worth mentioning. I didn’t include them above, because (a) they had no chance of winning, and (b) they aren’t really about knot-tying at all. But I would have chosen either of them over any of the others. Here is the first one, slightly edited, from Richard Shearley:

After much hard thought, and more than one rather hoppy IPA, the answer to the puzzle became apparent to me.

Certainly a round turn may have save the day, and perhaps a Bowline on a bollard waxes poetic, and maybe some complicated  slippery hitch may awe the drunken hordes on the jetty, but there is, without any question, only one most-important knot in a good sailor’s inventory, and that is  the very simple bow.

It’s arguable that more boats have been lost due to a lack of diligence in tying this simple knot around a small box than from all other causes of nautical disasters in history.

I and all the other judges missed Richard’s point during our meeting, and it was only in reviewing the entries for this post that I finally got it. We thought he meant the bow knot, as in tying your shoes on, but he was talking about far more profound unions: those between people.

When I was new to knotting, I became obsessed with it, to the exclusion of everything else, including people. This is understandable; knots, in their bewildering array of forms and uses, are worthy of a lifetime of study. But they are only tools, after all, and tools are what we use to make our lives better, and our lives are always better when we love one another. So learn to tie a bow, and tie it “around a small box,” to give to someone you love.

Our final Honorable Mention is very honorable indeed, sufficiently so that I will be giving him his own platform this Friday morning. Look for “In Praise of the Star Knot. Bring a hanky.

To see how I like to tie knots, including many of the ones above, visit our Online Store. “25 Knots” is the DVD, “The Rigger’s Apprentice” is the book. Lots of other fabulous rig-related merchandise there.

As always, I invite you to comb through all of the past articles and puzzles in my Blog. Subscribe below to get notifications of future posts.

Fair leads,

Brion Toss

In last week’s Puzzle we took up the topic of privacy in a hotel bathroom. Here is the setup:

In the illustration above there is a hotel bathroom. The doors on either side open into adjacent rooms, which share the bathroom. In similar situations, hotels (and private residences) have put locks on the doors, so that someone in the bathroom could be assured of privacy, and all they have to do is to unlock the other door before they return to their own room.

Unfortunately, people often forget to unlock the other door. Pounding and shouting ensue. But in this hotel, the management came up with a solution, involving two short pieces of rope, that solved the problem perfectly. What did they do?

This situation is an ancient one, at least as old as bedrooms with shared bathrooms, and the difficulties of the arrangement might well be part of the reason that so few bedrooms nowadays feature shared bathrooms.

But as Henry Petroski notes in his wonderful book, The Evolution of Useful Things, the management of L’Hotel Louis XIV came up with a solution for it:

I specified rope in my version, but the hotel used leather straps. Either way the solution is to hook, shackle, or tie the two pieces together when you are in the bathroom. Because the doors open into the rooms, this prevents either door from being opened. Privacy is assured against entry from both rooms. You have to disconnect the two pieces in order to leave, thus also automatically unlocking the neighbor’s door.

Before we get to the alternate answers, including one major doozy, let’s pause to congratulate our winner…. Greg Bridges! Congratulations, Greg. Be in touch to tell me where to send your copy of The Sailmaker’s Apprentice, a truly significant book, and one I recommend to all sailors. Heck, it is such a beautiful book, I’d recommend it to anyone. Lots of other interesting things going on at the author’s site, The Artful Sailor

Several entrants said you don’t need two pieces – just one long one that you loop over one doorknob or the other. This has a certain appeal, but you would need doorknobs that could securely and easily hold and release a loop that was placed on them. You’d also be dealing with an inconveniently long piece, that would live on the floor.

Other entrants came up with wonderfully complicated solutions, some of which might actually work, assuming the hotel’s bathroom-lock-retrofit budget was unlimited. My favorite was contributed by last week’s winner, Aaron Drake. His solution was terrifyingly impressive, and I am now in search of a bathroom to try it out on. If you are ready for an engineering marvel, see Aaron’s Bathroom Rig.

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Next week’s Puzzle: Anomalous Sheets.

Fair leads,

Brion Toss

In the illustration above there is a hotel bathroom. The doors on either side open into adjacent rooms, which share the bathroom. In similar situations, hotels (and private residences) have put locks on the doors, so that someone in the bathroom could be assured of privacy, and all they have to do is to unlock the other door before they return to their own room.

More

The old-school version of the answer is below. It is also a fuller answer, with commentary, but if you’d like to see the video version, I have uploaded it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdxwhcmDj-8

Now on with actual text.

Last week’s Puzzle set a new high for views, a new high for entries – and a new low for correct answers. This was a tough one, and I commend all of you who worked at trying to figure it out. Note: I say this as one who didn’t have the right answer, either. That’s right, when I put it up, I was certain I knew the answer, but it turns out that I didn’t. More on this in a bit. Meanwhile the challenge was to determine the mechanical advantage of the arrangement below.

Let’s look at the three component purchases. The purchase in the middle has a 4:1 advantage*. That means that for every pound of tension you apply to the end, you get 4 pounds of tension pulling down on the topmost block. Mechanical advantage is “…the ratio of the force that performs the useful work of a machine to the force that is applied to the machine” (Merriam-Webster).

The line that goes through the topmost block produces a 2:1 advantage. This means that if you pull down on either end with one pound of force, you get two pounds of tension on the topmost block.

The purchase on the left is also 4:1. It uses a fiddle block instead of an ordinary double, but the power is the same. This purchase is attached to the line that goes through the topmost block, making a “compound purchase” in which the two advantages are multiplied. 4×2=8, so the compound purchase is 8:1.

Most entrants simply added this 8:1 purchase to the central 4:1 purchase, for a total purchase of 12:1. But remember, you have applied a one-pound downward pull on both ends to get the resulting twelve pounds of tension, so the actual mechanical advantage is 12:2, or 6:1.

That’s right, the combined effect of both purchases produces a lower mechanical advantage than the compound purchase by itself, which sounds crazy. At least it did to me until Bob Downes, BTYR’s resident genius, showed me the details. Basically, the total tension is higher with both systems engaged, but the relative input efficiency drops.

Out of all of the answers we got, only 6 were correct, and out of that group, our randomly-selected winner is … Matt Barnett! Take a bow, Matt, and be in touch with me about where to send your copy of Finding Pax.

I offered bonus points for an approximate range of motion for the assembly, and entrants were far more successful here. As many of you determined, the topmost block had a total range of motion of approximately one foot. Even if we made the rope ends longer, total range would only gain another 6” or so. This rather limits the utility of this arrangement, and it would take real finesse to keep an even load on both ends. Reader Theresa Danks imagined some sailors trying to make this setup work, and concluded that, “If they all quit in disgust at the ridiculous rigging job, there’s no mechanical advantage at all.” Well put.

Note that if you were to let go of the whip tackle and kept pulling on the center tackle, the range of motion would be a little over three feet (whoop de doo), but you’d have to give up a full third of your power to get it, and this would happen at the end of the hoist, where loads are usually highest. Some readers nevertheless attempted to come up with practical applications, suggesting everything from mainsheet to boat hoist to shiftable tackle to backstay adjuster, but far superior arrangements for all of these uses are readily available; this is just a ludicrously bad arrangement for use as anything. Except as a puzzle.

*We do not have space here to describe how a block-and-tackle accomplishes this gain. Another time.

If you didn’t win Kaci’s book, and haven’t read it yet, do yourself a big favor and get a copy. You can contact Kaci at Finding Pax,Or you can order it through all the stores and sites.

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Posting on Friday the 23rd: The Client From Hell