MacGregorSailors.com

Can you leave the trucker's knot loop on the main halyard
when you lower the main? I have yet to try it as I raise
and lower the sails in a chinese fire drill frantic operation.
(is that Asian or Oriental fire drill now)

I pictured myself with one hand above knot, main halyard in
teeth and leg locked around mast while trying to untie before
boat desides its not done sailing for the day and heads down
wind.

Rob H.

We leave the knot tied in. It works pretty good. It still takes some fumbling around when raising the sail though. You have to wait until the main is almost all the way up before the know gets back in reach. Then you have to thread the roap back through it and crank it down. This is all fine and dandy as long as you are not bouncing around in the swell...

First off, if you pass a "bight" of the end of the halyard thru the last part of the knot after coming up from the cleat, like a shoe tie, you can pull the halyard's free end with one hand to loosen it. Don't over-complicate the knot with extra hitches, and leave it alone after pulling the single bight tightly. Although the knot looks too simple to hold, the single bight will be held tighter the more tension, and come apart easily without any "picking" of the knot apart after.
Then, depending on how tight the upper standing loop part of the knot was cinched, and how much tension was placed on the halyard, the "trucker's knot" can be pulled out from the free end of the line, after the halyard is loosened and pulled out of the loop in the "knot".
--- That first upper loop part of the knot is not really a true knot in the sense that it will just fall apart when pulled unless it is pulled from the loose end AND the loop at the same time, unless it has something thru its loop. If it is not evident from this description, just tie a trucker's knot in any line and before you feed the line thru its loop again, just pull the loose end first. The line slips thru - and knot disappears, just like a hangman's noose can be pulled straight apart if there is nothing in the loop.
So if you did have to untie it, (which you don't as described in the previous post ) it only takes one hand, and only pulled HARD from the bottom loose line.