When you get your first radio sailing yacht, inevitably when you look around the rigging, you are going to wonder how owners very neatly finish off their lines with a very abrupt knot

If your mainsail is secured to the mast via fine rope eyes, take a look at how they are finished. Let yourself wonder, “how do they do that?”

I borrowed an IOM to try and get started, and had to ask the Fleet Captain how it was done. He used two basic bits of kit.

1/ Put an overhand knot to finish the line/lines. It’s easy to slide an overhand knot along and get it in exactly the right place.

2/ Use Superglue over the knot head to LOCK it down. Wet your fingers first – you don’t want to end up glued to your IOM or Marblehead, like one of those ‘Stop Oil’ protestors. Let it set.

I bought from WH Smith, this pack of three mini tubes of superglue. I reckon if you buy a single larger tube, one day you’ll be desperate to use it and it’ll have set like a rock or just gone off.

3/ The next challenge is to remove the tails on the other side of the overhand knot.

If you cut with a scissors or knife, it just won’t be perfect. It might even wriggle out of the knot over time, or leave a fraying end line.

So try one of these ‘thread zappers’ in the photo above. I don’t know what kind of handicraft uses these. It’s basically a battery powered hot knife on a small scale. You just place the hot tip on the thread/s close up to the waste side of the knot. Press the button and it melts the cord off with an immaculate finish.

Very cheap on Amazon. I carry one in my toolbox all the time now.