If you foul your propeller on a rope when going ahead and you can reach the offending line, it’s worth trying to unravel it as follows: Grab the rope and pull steadily. Activate the engine ‘stop’ …
Keep coils turning with the sun
Braidline rope with a braid core can be coiled clockwise or anti-clockwise, but three-strand line is only happy if it is turning ‘with the sun’, or clockwise. This is to do with the construction of …
Making up larger coils
Most of us make up coils for stowing by using some variant of the gasket coil hitch. This makes a neat job by wrapping one end around the whole coil a few times. Sadly, some dock lines and kedge warps …
Pump her in
When a moored boat must be hove in closer to the dock, it’s a lot easier to grab the bight (the middle) of a rope that’s made fast ashore, then heave up on it while a mate on board holds it with a …
Don’t snub her up!
Nothing makes a skipper look so stupid as when a well-meaning person takes a bow line ashore from a moving boat and promptly catches a turn to ‘stop her’. This is guaranteed to spring her bow hard …
Heaving it over
Before you heave a line, re-coil it, however good the original coil looks. Next, if you’re right-handed, hold the whole coil carefully in this hand, divide it into approximately two halves, and take …
