I’ve seen quite a few people put a couple turns in a rope, feed the end through a loop, pull it tight and call it good. Later, while your canoe is in the water and ready to go they’re fidgeting with tangles of rope or calling for a knife. A canoe is likely your most expensive piece of equipment, it should be treated with care and caution when you’re tying it to your car or mooring it in a swift current. If you ever have to rescue the boat you’re going to want to know how to tie a reliable knot. If you have to rescue your paddling partner you’d better make sure it’s the most reliable and beautiful knot you’ve ever tied.

We’ll start with the bowline. You should remember this one from the Boy Scouts. When you need to tie a loop in the end of a rope this is a good way to do it. Since the bowline can be tied with the ropes working end it’s a good one to use for tying a painter to the front of your canoe.

Bowline

To tie the bowline use the rabbit trick the first couple of times.

Make a loop in the end of the rope. Now, thread the end of the rope through the rabbits hole.

Now your frisky rabbit runs around the tree and then dives back into the hole.

Dress you knot and you have a bowline. You’ll want the working end a bit longer than is illustrated here for security. Bowlines have a tendency to work themselves loose if they aren’t under tension or they are flapping around. For a more secure knot you can use a Figure 8 knot like the one used to tie your climbing harness to the belay.

Figure 8 (Flemish Loop)

If you’re going to leave your painters more permanently attached to the boat you can use a Figure 8 Loop. It’s a simple knot and is more secure than the bowline.

Start with the working end and tie it into a simple figure 8.

You’re going to want it a bit longer than this to reweave it back through itself.

Here we have the figure 8 tied about a foot down from the working end. It’s passed through a ring but this could be your boats grab loop or a climbing harness.

Now, simply follow the rope back around the eight.

Make sure to properly dress the knot. You don’t want the line crossing over itself. It should lay flat and be real pretty like this one. If you want to impress your friends with you knot tying prowess you can refer to this as a Flemish Loop. You can also tie a Flemish Bend to join two ropes togther. It looks the same and is easy to tie. Put a Figure 8 in the end of one rope and feed the other one around the same as above. There are a few more bends, or joining knots, below.

Butterfly Knot

Now you need a loop in the middle of the line to tie something to or use to gain a mechanical advantage when tying your canoe to the roof rack. You could use a simple overhand loop but those are hard to untie, unsightly and weaken the rope more than the butterfly knot. Notice how the line appears to run straight out of the ends of this knot. It looks better and you can slap your buddies hand and show him this one the next time he makes an ugly overhand loop.

I put the ring on so you can keep track of where the end of the bite goes. Twist your bite into what’s referred to as an elbow.

Flip the rope around to it looks like a pretzel. Now you’re aiming for that tiny little hole with your bite. From the flat view above, the bite goes all the way around to the left and back through that hole.

Pull it tight, dress it and you’re ready to go. Once again, the ring is just on there to show where the bite is headed.

Truckers Hitch

There are a couple of different ways to tie a truckers hitch. You’re going to want to show off your newly learned butterfly knot so we’ll use my method here. The truckers hitch gives you a 3:1 mechanical advantage when cinching down a load. It’s a good knot to know if you don’t have any fancy cam straps to tie your canoe to your rig.

Get your butterfly ready then pass the working end through whatever you’re tying to. Feed the working end back through the loop.

Now pull hard on the working end. This will take a lot of slack out of the standing end (the part you tied off with a bowline on the other side of the rack) and help pull it tight. You may find that you’ve pulled all of the slack out of the line and need to move your butterfly up a little. Be carefully with this one. If you pull to hard you can dent your Royalex or crack your gel coat.

It’s finished off with a half-hitch or in this case a slipped half hitch.

You may want to tie it off with a full half hitch instead of the slipped one shown here. It is way cooler to grab the working end and yank it so your canoe is ready to go. If you want to be uber-cool you can tie it so the whole thing comes undone as animated by Grog.

Bends

A bend is a knot used for joining two lengths of rope. We’ll explore some simple ones here but it’s usually better to just buy a longer rope.

Reef Knot (Square Knot)

We’re going to refer to our old friend the square knot as the reef knot because this is a nautical themed site. Wikipedia says, “Although the reef knot is often seen used for tying two ropes together, it is not recommended for this purpose due to potential instability of the knot.” So we can use it for reefing our sails or securing a line around some object but check out some other options further down.

The problem with the reef knot is that it can capsize or spill when one of the free ends is pulled outward. Then you’re knot is effectively undone.

Sheet Bend

The sheet bend is a little bit better way to tie two ropes together. It’s more stable and should be used when joining two ropes of different sizes. It looks like the bowline and is tied in a similar fashion.

If you’re using the sheet bend to tie ropes of differing sizes then the fatter rope should take the place of the yellow line. You can also make it more secure by tying a double sheet bend.

Fisherman’s Knot

Tie and overhand knot in the working end of one rope and pass the other through.

Tie a second overhand knot in the opposite direction around the standing end of the first rope.

Dress the knot and pull it tight. If you forgot to tie the second overhand knot in the wrong direction it wont be this pretty. Start over and try again. The fisherman’s knot is increadibly hard to untie.

Taut-line hitch

This is an adjustable hitch for a line under tension. You can use it on the guy lines for your tarp or, if you tie it right, on your hammock. If you pull all of the tension out then it becomes similar to two half hitches and looks like one of those ugly knots the landlubbers tie.

That’s it for now. If you’re going to tie your canoe do it the right way, you don’t want it flying off of your car or floating away with out you. If anyone wants to see some more knots or has some suggestions let me know. If you want to become a real afficionado then check out Animated Knots by Grog.

Now go grab a length of rope and practice these knots.