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The round turn with two half hitches is a great knot to temporarily attach your rope to just about anything. If you want to see a full tutorial you can see it at the following link. https://youtu.be/M_W3nlil1Ko The round turn and two half hitches is a hitch used to secure the end of a rope to a fixed object. The name refers to the components used to form the knot: a round turn wraps the rope around the object (completely encircling it) and the two half hitches secure the end around the standing part. The round turn with two half hitches is a great knot for tying your fenders to your boat for docking. We prefer this option if you are going to be leaving your boat docked for long periods of time. It will hold tight ensuring your boat is protected by the fenders while you are away. There are other fenders knot that are easier to untie, we would only recommend these for short stays or when you a remaining on the boat while docked. If you will be leaving your boat for an extended period of time the Round Turn with two Half Hitches is the best option. If you want to learn some other skills for docking your boat why not check out our video which compares the Cleat Hitch V OXO for tying your mooring lines to fixed cleats. https://youtu.be/LepMcTJuFfI We hope you enjoyed todays Know Knots demonstration where we showed you how to tie a Round Turn with two Half Hitches, a great knot for securing your fenders for docking.
We got increasingly frustrated by our small petrol (gas) outboards that we use very infrequently on our dinghies and Chat 18 catamaran. Never quite knowing whether they would start, or how long they would run. Usually because the small jets would clog up, a problem aggravated by the ethanol fuel now used in the UK, USA and elsewhere. So earlier this year we bit the bullet and bought a used Torqeedo 1103 electric outboard. It was on ebay, from "one careful lady owner" - actually the advert said "only used on a fresh water trout farm" which we hoped was much the same thing. And we have been very pleased with it this summer, using it on Sagitta's tender, sometimes for long distances, yet never seeing the charge drop below 80% So we then tried using it on our Chat 18. And immediately discovered two problems, probably common to other small daysailing boats. First, the battery was much larger than the integral petrol fuel tank. So, when tilted up on the swingdown bracket, the Torqeedo hit the tillerbar. That meant we had to use the transom mount, which in turn meant the leg had to be angled back in use to clear the immersed rudder blade. Very inefficient and too close to the surface. And second, when tilted up and turned sideways the tiller control arm would detach - something that doesn't happen with a petrol outboard. So we had to remove it, and then reattach it whenever we wanted to motor. Fortunately Torqeedo has realised that many people have these problems and so supply reasonably priced, extra long cables, not just for the battery but also for the tiller arm. Accordingly we bought a 1.5m (5ft) battery cable and a 5m (16ft) tiller cable. This video shows the results of the first motor, one calm winter evening. I still have to re-route the cables through the back of the cockpit and more permanently mount the tiller arm. The deeper propellor is more efficient and there is no aeration when cornering or in waves. Top speed was very close to 5 knots, about hull speed on an 18ft boat. In reverse speed was about 3 knots. Although it's more awkward to lift the outboard leg without the battery in place it does now fit comfortably below the tillerbar when raised for sailing. So we're very happy so far! For once there is audio on this short video. But even if you turn the volume to high you won't hear the outboard - another bonus! More on the Chat 18 here https://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs-2/2-catamarans-under-25ft/475-chat-18-daysailing-catamaran And Torqeedo here https://nestawayboats.com/