Knots on Knots on Knots on Knots...

  

What Knot to do

On Wednesday, January 25, 2018, I visited Kānēhūnāmoku Voyaging Academy (KVA) in Kaʻalaea. It is a beautiful education center on everything waʻa related. We hosted a 9th grader group from Hālau Kū Māna that day as well in preparation for their upcoming six-day huakaʻi on the sailing vessel Makaliʻi. I was fortunate enough to stay and volunteer and learn with the students as well as from them since they had all been coming to KVA for weeks. Thanks to my previous semester with Kumu Lei at WCC and the Polynesian Voyaging class, I was familiar with many of the lessons; but I was nowhere near as comfortable with them as these other students. I have much to learn before I do any REAL sailing and I am so grateful to KVA for their graciously accepting me into their ʻOhana and showing me the ropes (literally).

So the first and foremost crucial lesson I repeatedly learn is: Knots is life. Seriously, so many things on the waʻa depend on you knowing how to tie a knot correctly and paʻa, and knowing which knot to tie. There are a lot of knots that are important and used on the waʻa, these seven are a few of the most common and most important ones you need to learn.

Basic Knots 101

The Bowline knot is used for making a loop at the end of a rope. Usually, a load bearing knot since it ties around itself while the loop is hooked on or around something else to be pulled or keeping something from being pulled. The heavier the weight inside the loop, the tighter the knot will get, and vice versa; the harder you pull on the leading strand, the tighter the knot will get.

This is one of the more important knots because it is used to secure lines to each other or to the waʻa. The Bowline is used on the Halyard, Jib sheet, and Jib Stay.

Bowline on a Bight (BOB) is used to make a loop out of any section of the rope. Kumu Bonnie Kahapeʻa, who is the main instructor and all around Boss down at KVA taught us to wrap the rope around our hands like you were making a clove hitch (basically wrap the rope around your hands twice so there is an ʻXʻ. A clove hitch would make you go under that ʻXʻ, but a BOB goes over the ʻXʻ). Then lay the rope between the other two strands wrapped around your hand and take the one closest to your finger and bring it over the other two strands and the take the "new middle" or the first of the two strands you just passed over and bring that strand all the way off your hand and tighten. That should give you a BOB as well.

The Figure 8 knot is a stopper knot. It is put on the end of a rope to stop the line from running out through another knot or Clam Cleat Block. It is commonly found at the end of a sheet line.

The square knot is not to mixed up with a Granny knot. Square knot requires the ropes to tie one over the other and then vice versa, whereas the Granny knot has the rope running in opposite directions instead of back onto itself. The square knot is used for tying two lines of rope together but bowline to bowline is most common because it is more secure.

The Half Hitch and Double Half/Clove Hitch is important in the wa'a because they are for security but they aren't necessarily knots because they are meant to come loose. A hitch is good for tying off loose line quickly and efficiently while also being able to remove or take off just as easily because lines are being tied and removed so frequently between tacks and jibes that a rope may only be coiled and sitting for a minute before being used again. A hitch takes out the hassle of having to untie a figure 8 or bowline each time. Also, the Half Hitch is most commonly found tied around at the end of the running line in a Bowline to give extra security to the line.

The Cleat Hitch is important for docking and keeping the fenders are the right length to the boat. When you dock at a pier of near other boats there are usually rubber stoppers between to keep the hulls from scratching or puncturing on things. Now a Cleat Hitch makes it easy to pull the slack towards or away from the boat without having to redo the whole hitch because the rope could get away from you. This usually comes into play during tide fluctuations and you'll always find this hitch on a dock cleat or to tie off a coil of rope.

Mahalo nui for reading. I am very excited to be sailing with Kānēhūnāmoku and hopefully I'll be able to take pictures next time to capture the experience. Aloha a hui hou.