Knots and Might (K)nots

I run a family owned rigging business and I'm the only one in the family that can tie a knot.  There, I've said it and I feel better now that it's out there.  It's been a struggle but we still love each other and I think we'll see this through.  Sometimes it's hard to acknowledge that what may come somewhat easily for one does not necessarily come easy for others although I am reminded of this every time my teenage son and I try to play music together and it's all I can do to keep up.
My own love affair with cordage started off simply enough.  As a child the family always had a sailboat.  First a Victoria 25 followed by a Morgan Tigercub.  The boats really predate my first childhood memories so there were just always there and although they were enjoyed they were taken for granted.  Life intervened, my parents divorced, and eventually the sailing just sort of went away and frankly I didn't even notice what I'd lost on the water.
That all changed thanks to a best of Jimmy Buffet album and a stack of early 80's Cruising Worlds I discovered in my fathers house as a preteen.  Those summer months were filled with pictures of far off lands, dreams, and Buffet on a loop.  The problem was that the boat was long gone.  Sailing wasn't an option but the lure of it was strong and I discovered I could live my fantasy, at least in part, though the traditional craft of the sailor - Marlinespike Seamanship.  I soaked up any bit of fancywork I could find, starting with my trusty boy scout manual, and moving on to others as I could find them (notably Harvey Garret Smith's books).  Just before my thirteenth year I moved to Corpus Christi and fantasy turned to reality.  I joined the Sea Scouts and shortly after that started racing J boats.  In my late teens I became a full time volunteer at the Columbus ships.  Fancywork took a backseat to actual time on the water and to this day I don't remember half of what I could do then although I now know much more of the practical side of the craft such as splicing, serving, and applied knots.
Through dealing with my family and their knot-less handicap I have discovered that my background is far from universal.  To the contrary, their experience seems more on the normal side of the spectrum.  Daily I'm invited aboard boats owned and skippered by people I have enormous respect for, many of whom are better sailors than I will ever be.  However, knot tiers they are not - defaulting instead to the dreaded "might knot".  It might hold it might not.  You might be able to untie it, you might not.  The adage, "if you can't tie a knot tie a lot" has become the standard aboard many an otherwise shipshape craft.
I've read books that begin by trying to do away with the language of knot tying in an attempt to simplify what at times seems esoteric.  I firmly believe this is wrong.  A "knot" falls in to different categories and knowing what each is will allow you to know which one to apply to a given task.  Ropes are really only called upon to do a couple of different tasks and each task has it's own term.  If you know one example from each category then you will be able to handle pretty much any situation you might be called upon to do.

Hitch - To tie a line to something fixed is to hitch the line to it.  Examples include using a cleat, tying a fender to a lifeline, securing a dockline to a piling, etc.  There are a million hitches, each with their own fancy name and purpose.  The midshipman, the timber, the constrictor, the larkshead, the bollard, and the prussic are all handy and worth knowing but are frankly not necessary for the modern sailor.  What is is the ubiquitous clove hitch.  This one, sometimes combined with a half hitch, is the right tool for the all of the jobs mentioned above.  A correctly tied clove hitch has it's beginning and ending running parallel to eachother with a cross riding over it.  Note the examples below.

Bend - To tie a line to another line is to bend them together.  Examples are lengthening a line with another such as a springline that's just a bit too short or using one line to pull another such a tying your spinnaker lines together when moving your setup from one side of the boat to the other.  As above, there are countless examples, most of which are trying to gain a bit more security.  Although not the most secure by a long shot the easiest and most frequently tied is the Sheet Bend.  This basic form is simply a half hitch tied on the bight (loop) of another line and you'll see it again below on the queen of all knots.

Knot - To tie a knot is to tie a line to itself, either to create a loop or to create a stopper that will prevent it from being pulled through something.  The most famous of these, and in fact the most useful thing you can do with a piece of line is the bowline.  You'll note that this is the same structure as the sheet bend just tied with a single line instead of two.  Although a knot, the bowline can generally be used in place of a hitch or bend.  I trust my life and my sons life to a well tied bowline on a nearly daily basis.  If you know only one knot - this is the one to know.  That said, if you learn it they you've already learned the one bend you need meaning there's just one hitch and one stopper you need and you've rounded out your knot inventory to suit nearly 100% of your needs.

Last is the stopper and for this I'll fall to the figure eight.  Granted it's not quite as secure as some others but it's the easiest to tie, untie and the most just generally useful.  Take the time to learn these four simple knots (two of which are the same) and you can be secure in the knowledge that you know enough to take out the right tool for the task at hand.