CHAPTER 5 Securing to a post, a bollard or a winch barrel
Once again, the main issue is that the rope should be totally secure but that it must run under control when needed. It’s very easy to get this one wrong — for example, by securing to a post with a clove hitch. Once the load is on, a clove hitch may slip or it might lock solid, leaving you either adrift without a paddle or looking for the ship’s hacksaw. The same goes for a bowline, or any other knot that cannot be eased away when loaded, unless of course the other end can be reached and has been properly made up. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable to secure a dock line ashore with a bowline, so long as the bight is made fast sensibly aboard the boat. If you have a Samson post on the foredeck for example, or are obliged to make up your springs onto cockpit winches, you will need a method that cannot lock and that won’t fail either. At a pinch, you could use a round turn and two half hitches, but even these have been known to jam up under the sort of extreme loads that come on when a boat is left unattended on a falling tide and ends up hanging from her securing points. The answer is the ‘tugboat hitch’, sometimes called the ‘bollard hitch’.
• Now do the same thing once more, this time from the other side, again making sure to resist any temptation to turn the bight over into a locking hitch.
• This will usually be plenty, but if in doubt, lay on another bight.
Be careful when releasing this if the rope is loaded. You may be surprised at how much pull there is. That’s why you took so many turns in the first place.
The jammer
The tugboat hitch
This infinitely valuable hitch is made on a post or winch barrel as follows: • Lead the rope fair onto the post, then take as many turns as is convenient, (at least two).
• The turns will actually hold the load. The remainder of the hitch is to make sure they don’t come off and to supply a bit of friction to ensure they work as they should.
• Take a bight of the working end, pass it under the standing part and bring it back over the top of the post. Do not attempt to turn it or knot it in any way. Just lay it over.
The jammer is in almost universal use in modern sailing craft. It stops off the bight of a line that may be under any load within its specification, so it can take the strain between the pull and the winch, releasing the winch for other duties. It is therefore common to see a multi-function winch backed up by a bank of jammers. A jammer can be kept in the closed position as a line is winched through it, leaving the operator with nothing to do but walk away. However, two points must be borne in mind when releasing ropes that are jammed off. • It’s all or nothing with a jammer. If you are able to flip it open and loads are high, the rope will whip out of control if no steps are taken to contain its enthusiasm.
• Because of its cam action, a highly loaded jammer is often unwilling to open and release its rope. If this happens, forcing it will only mash the sheath of the rope. The answer is to winch the rope into the jammer by a few millimetres before throwing the jammer off. This not only allows the rope to be unjammed, it also leaves it under the control of the turns around the winch barrel.
MANUAL OF SEAMANSHIP | 49
Ropes and ropework
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