TRUCKER’S HITCH: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EYELET

When we need exert a considerable traction, tying a trucker’s hitch on board is a great idea. It is often useful to fix something on the deck (the tender, for example) or, such as the case we’ll show you below, to fix a boom.

The procedure is very simple but many often make a mistake in the heart of the knot, that is the eyelet where the running end, namely the free part of the rope, has to pass through.

The frequent error consists in folding the rope in half and tying a simple knot. In this case, the eyelet will be certainly useful to receive the running end. But, when under tension, the knot will start to haul so taut it will be very difficult, if not impossible to untie.

As an alterative, we can make the eyelet in a different way. Instead of tying a knot with a double rope, we can tie one by putting the running end over the standing part and then inside.

This way, we have a eyelet in which the rope can pass through to create the trucker’s hitch. The eyelet knot will be under tension but it won’t set taut. Finally, we just have to make some loops and close with a half one.

If we want to untie it, we just need pull the running end and free the rope.