David,

Another most-excellent edition, David.  I particularly liked Bjorn's
Introduction to Photoshop for Underwater Photographers and the piece on
dive boats.

But I have to confess disappointment that the ongoing feature on knots
didn't mention the Zeppellin Bend - the subject of a rant of mine on
this forum a few months ago. I say this only half tongue-in-cheek.  The
fact that this knot will not slip when tied in shock cord makes it a
very useful knot for divers to know.

A standard knot which is particularly useful to divers (and which the
knot piece also doesn't mention) is the anchor bend, also known as a
fisherman's bend.  Tied in small stuff and finished with a whipping to
secure the loose end to the standing part, it is probably the best way
of securing a small lanyard to a fixed point or ring.  I've got at
least five on my gear right now:

1) Attaching my reef hook line to the reef hook;
2) Attaching a big O-ring to the end of the safety line on my SMB -
SEE:
http://www.tabula-international.com/LND/SMB/SMBImg/Spool_3C.jpg
3-5) Attaching lanyards for my dye pack, signalling mirror and back-up
whistle to a fixed point ring on the inside of my surface survival
pack.

There are two more attaching the lanyards on my strobe diffusers to
clips which attach to the strobe arms.

As a general boat knot, the anchor bend is also - as its name indicates
- the best way to secure a line to an anchor - such as a kedge anchor -
or to the last link of an anchor chain.  One often sees bowlines used
for this, but a bowline - though secure - will often slide on the ring
of the anchor or and in time the line will chafe through.  A properly
tied anchor bend won't do this, so it's the best choice for this and
many other situations on a boat (including tieing on fenders to rails
or rings, etc.)

I'm sure I've seen the sheepshank described in every knot article I've
read since I was a boy scout, but I've never actually seen anyone tie
one in my life - has anyone?  And though the square (reef knot) has its
uses, it's so often mis-used that most of us would be better if we'd
never learned it.  For my money, the only knots that anyone who dives
(or spends time on boats) really needs to know are:

1) Bowline
2) Constrictor (possibly the most useful knot in the world after the
bowline!)
3) Clove hitch
4) Anchor Bend/Fisherman's Bend
5) Zeppelin Bend (mainly for shock cord, but it's very secure and good
for other uses as well.  If I were attaching two or more lines together
to make an extended tow line to tow another boat, this is what I'd
use.)
6) Figure-of-Eight - only really useful on sailboats with lots of lines
and blocks)

Robert Delfs

On Sun, 3 Nov 2002 15:54:48 +1100, David Strike wrote:

>The November/December edition of NEKTON - a free bi-monthly, ....


Robert Delfs
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