Whipping is a basic skill, simply and easily learned, but mastering it makes you look like a real seaman. So whip those lines and leave the cows in the pasture.

Cows? What cows? The picturesque language of sailors includes the term "cow tail," a reference to ropes whose ends have become frayed or unraveled until they look like a bovine's back end. This is usually considered a sign of poor seamanship and costs you points among the serious boaters.

Store-bought rope is usually cut with a hot-knife that seals the end by melting it. That keeps it from cow-tailing; if you need to cut it, a cigarette lighter will melt the cut ends together. Rigger Brian Toss calls it a "butane back splice." But this quick fix ends up ugly and usually creates a hard lump or even a sharp edge at the end of the rope.

To avoid this and display your fine seamanship, put whippings on the ends of all your lines by simply wrapping marline, whipping twine or even very small seine twine – known as small stuff – tightly around the rope near the end. Properly done, the problem is dealt with. Permanently.

In fact, a good way to cut a rope is to put on your whippings first. Put two whippings where you want to cut the rope, about an inch apart from each other. Then lay your knife across the rope between them and drive it through with a hammer. That will make a neat, straight cut and with the whippings, it won't fray.

WHIPPING 101

There are two kinds of rope you will encounter: three-strand twisted (called laid line) and braided.

The quickest and easiest method is the Common Whipping. This simply consists of whipping twine wrapped tightly around the rope near the end, with the ends of the twine tucked under the wraps. Here's how: take the end of your whipping twine and make a long bight (a U shape) along the rope near its end. This bight should be a bit longer than the length of the whipping you are going to make (say, an inch and a half).

Starting about an inch from the end of the twine, wrap the rest of the twine tightly around the rope, working toward the loop end of the bight. If you are putting a whipping on laid line (three-strand twist) make sure that you wrap it against the lay, opposite the direction that the rope is twisted.

Make the wraps tight and close together. None of the rope should be visible through between the wraps. To get good, tight wraps, don't cut off a length of twine from the spool. Instead, drop the spool onto the deck and put your foot on it. By holding the twine down with your foot, you can pull up hard on each wrap to make it very tight.

Wrap twine until it is "square," that is, the whipping is as long as the rope is wide, or even slightly longer. Hold what you have and trim the twine a short distance from the last wrap. Put the cut end of the twine through the loop sticking out from under the wraps and pull on the end sticking out where you started wrapping. This will pull the cut end under the wraps. Just bury the end -- don't pull the loop all the way out from under the wraps. Trim off the end that you pulled close to the whipping and you are done.

GENE BJERKE

Tightly applied, this whipping will hold well, though if the line flogs occasionally and the whipping isn't tight, it may eventually come off.

PALM AND NEEDLE

Palm-and-needle whipping is the most secure. As the name implies, this whipping is actually sewn onto the rope. It was originally developed for laid line, but it can be put onto braid as well (though some experience with putting it on laid line first would be helpful).GENE BJERKE

You'll need a sailmaker's palm, the glove-like leather tool used for stitching heavy materials, and a sail needle sized to accommodate the whipping twine. These items are cheap and readily available and should be in any serious mariner's tool kit anyway.

This illustration will use a piece of laid line. You will start the whipping near the end of the rope and wrap toward the end. Pull off about a half a fathom (three feet) or so of whipping twine and thread the end into the sail needle. Use the twine single; do not double it. Thrust the needle through the middle of one strand of the rope, from groove to groove, against the lay. Pull all but a short piece of the end of the twine through the strand. Lay this end up the rope to be held down by the wrappings.

Wrap the twine tightly around the rope, against the lay, toward the end. Here again, you can put your foot on the needle to help make tight wraps (just don't pull so hard you pull the twine out of the needle). When the wrappings are "square" begin your frapping turns. A frapping turn is what binds things together tightly.

Thrust the needle through a strand just as you did at the beginning. Follow the groove between the strands down the rope and thrust the needle through the next strand at the other end of the wraps. Pull the twine tight, it should follow the groove across the wraps. Follow the next groove to the other end of the wraps. Repeat this process, following the grooves up and down the wraps, for six passes. You should then have two frapping turns for each groove in the rope.

The whipping is almost done. Here is one simple and secure way to finish them off. After you push the needle through the strand to finish the last frapping turn, work it under the next frapping turn backwards (back toward where you just came from). Pass the needle under this piece of twine to make a half-hitch, which you pull down to the end of the whipping. Then, starting close to the end of the whipping, push the needle through the rope to bury the end. If you want to bury it a long ways, angle the needle down the rope. Trim the twine close where it emerges from the rope and the finish will be invisible.

WHIPPING, WEST COUNTRY-STYLE

Lacking a palm and needle, a good, strong whipping for laid or braided line is the West Country (or West County) Whipping.

It is quick, easy to put on and requires no tools. A decorative method, it has a bonus: if one or two strands get cut the whipping will still hold.

GENE BJERKE

This whipping is basically a series of overhand knots laid up the end of the rope. Take about a half a fathom of whipping twine and make a loose overhand knot in the middle. Slip this over the end of the rope to where you want to start your whipping and pull it tight. Now, flipping the rope back and forth, put in overhand knots on alternating sides of the rope. Make them close together so that you cannot see the rope between the knots. Once the whipping is "square," you simply finish it off with a tightly tied reef knot and trim the ends.

Quick and simple, and if you pull the overhand knots tight as you make them, the whipping will hold well.