Sailing Tip of the Week- Don't forget the simple stopper knot

by Grant Headifen on 17 Oct 2010 Whether you’re learning to sail or are an advanced sailor, this tip is basic stuff but excellent to remember if you don’t like going up the mast....and the tip is: Never forget to check all your stopper knots are in place (Also instructions on how to tie one)

The Story:
Recently on our NauticEd flotilla to Tonga I semi embarrassingly re-learned a valuable lesson - the value of a stopper knot.

(A stopper knot of course is a knot at the end of a halyard or jib sheet that will prevent the line from pulling through fairleads etc and always keeps your line accessible in its proper place. It’s tied in such a manner that you can get it undone – as opposed to the definition of a knife knot which means you need a knife to undo it. )

Well with all the excitement of Tonga and the flotilla and sailing a really nice 47 foot Catamaran chartered from the Moorings in Vava’U Tonga, I neglected to do the walk around to ensure every appropriate line had a stopper knot at the end.

The result? Not so good. At the end of the first day I pulled down the sail and took the halyard connected to the head of the mainsail and wrapped it under a cleat at the base of the mast. I do this as standard operating procedure so that the sail can not get lifted back up during the night should a big wind come through. Well unfortunately, the halyard was not designed to be long enough to accommodate this extra precaution and the end of the halyard disappeared up into the mast. Oops!

I just stood there looking at it going 'ok that’s not good' and wondering how I was going to keep it a secret. Not possible. My call back to the Moorings Base was heard by the other captains in the flotilla and so I was instantly awarded the first blue duck of the sailing trip.

A blue duck award is a sailing faux pas certificate that is handed out to captains who make such silly mistakes and has become a tradition on our flotillas. It’s a little like a yellow card in soccer but not quite as bad as that.

So fortunately the Moorings Base people were extremely understanding and sent out a chase boat. We all stood around wondering what trick they have up their sleeves to fix this interesting problem.

Hoisting up the mast:
Well no trick really, we winched one of them up the mast who pushed the halyard back down inside the mast, then the other poked a piece of bent wire into the hole in the mast from when the halyard is supposed to come out.

He hooked the wire in behind the halyard. However strangely enough the hole is too small for a doubled over halyard to come out and so the top o’ the mast guy had to slowly pull up the halyard until the bottom o’ the mast guy could see the end. Then with the wire still hooked behind the halyard, he pulled it out the hole in the mast.

It was a pretty intricate operation and one that would certainly be impossible in rough seas. Just imagine that, hoisting someone up the mast in a storm and intricately retrieving the halyard all because you didn’t check for a stopper knot! I’m hoping this blog report will help you not have to do that.

Moral of the story? Check your stopper knots and if you don't trust the crew you could sew a small stitch to lock in a stopper knot into essential lines. When you do this however make sure that it’s not a line where you will need to get the knot out quickly in an emergency situation.

Here's how to tie the simple Stopper - or Figure-of-8 - Knot:

In the bitter end, form a loop by twisting a bight of the rope.

Then pass the bitter end round the standing end, i.e., take the longest journey not the shortest, and through the loop to make the figure of eight.

Uses: The Figure 8 provides a quick and convenient stopper knot to prevent a line sliding out of sight, e.g., up inside the mast. Its virtue is that, even after it has been jammed tightly against a block, it doesn't bind; it can be undone easily. This virtue is also, occasionally, a vice. The figure of eight can fall undone and then has to be retied, which mean that you always need to be checking whether all the stopper knots are in place.

For more online lessons in sailing, check out the excellent www.nauticed.com!Nauticed_website