Knots and Ropework by Nola Trower
Helmsman Books 1992 ISBN 9781852237059
Crowood 2000 ISBN 9781861263797
Nola Trower is an IGKT member, a keen racing sailor, and a freelance writer and photographer. If you don’t know your Kevlar from Dyneema, HMPE from Spectra or Admiral 2000, her book will update you. If you’re into boats she’ll teach you a knot and whip and seize and splice and care for your ropes and rigging. Then safely moored to her advice – you can start decorative knotting (even macramé). Her writer’s voice is helpful, lucid and often very funny. For example small pliers are; “…usually steel, in shades of oil and rust.” A sheepshank is; “…. A sort of Band-aid for chafed rope.” And baggy-wrinkle looks; “… like imitation hedgehogs climbing up the rigging.” Even the Bunny Rabbit Bowline was worthwhile for her way to untie it; “… push the rabbit’s behind up the tree.” This is no cut-and-paste re-hash of others’ ideas. Nola Trower knows her working knots; the Buntline Hitch through an eye or ring; a slipped Clove Hitch to hang a fender; and the Jury Knot “… around the BOTTOM of a jury mast as a way of keeping it central.” Her splicing chapter, 3-strand and braided ropes, show clearly all you need to know and, if you’ve never tied a double Matthe3w Walker Knot, study her pictures and I don’t think you can fail. This glossy soft-cover 235 cm x 165 cm, 128 page book illustrated throughout by Mrs. Trower, even has a chapter to say how synthetic ropes can look right on classic boats, but that comes after the Ocean Plait mat made around eight baked bean cans.
G.B.