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Know How
TRUST THE TRUCKER’S HITCH FOR CANOE CAR-TOPPING Hitch It
IF YOU START CANOE TRIPS with a sore neck from looking up at the wiggling canoe on your roof racks and worrying that it is making a bid for freedom, then you need to learn the trucker’s hitch. First, we need to cover some knot-tying
terminology. The free end of the rope is the end we are using to tie the knot. For an over- hand loop you pass the free end over itself to make a loop. A bight is a bend in the rope so it is doubled. Begin by making sure you have a set of
sturdy roof racks set as far apart on your roof as possible. You’ll also need two three-metre lengths of rope (avoid the braided, yellow polypropylene cheap stuff). Tie one end of the rope to the rack using a bowline (you re- member, the rabbit goes up the hole, around the tree and back down the hole). Throw the free end of the rope over the canoe. Apolo- gize if in doing so you have put out your partner’s eye.
STEP 1 Make a small overhand loop about a foot above the gunwale.
STEP 2 Take a bight of a few inches in the free end and push it up through this loop.
STEP 3 Pass the free end under your roof rack and back up through your bight.
STEP 4 Pull down on the free end. The bight will act as a pulley as the tightening rope slides through it. In this way you gain a mechani- cal advantage to tighten the rope. Pass the rope under the roof rack and tie a half hitch around all three lengths of rope.
Finish the knot with a second half hitch, or however many you need to feel good about passing a truck into a headwind. The trucker’s hitch is so effective and reli-
able that you’ll soon find yourself using it for things like erecting your campfire tarp and a dozen other uses where you need a taut rope.
DOUG SCOTT teaches at New Brunswick Community College in Saint John.
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