HOW TO TIE A SHEEPSHANK (THE JAWS KNOT)

Need to pass basic seamanship? Then you’ve got to know your sheepshank from your Shawshank. Ross from @thedailyjaws takes you through the steps to tying your very own sheepshank.

A shank is a type of knot that is used to shorten a rope or take up slack, such as the sheepshank. The sheepshank knot is not stable. It will fall apart under too much load or too little load. The knot has several features which allow a rope to be shortened:

It provides two loops, one at each end of the knot which can be used to pass another rope through

The knot remains somewhat secure under tension; the coarser the rope the more secure it is (see Disadvantages, below).

The knot falls apart easily when tension is removed