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Most sailors can tie a bowline with their eyes closed. Same with a square knot. And whipping the end of a piece of rope isn't too hard either. If you asked a group of salty sailors for a show of hands for who could handle these three sailing essentials, you'd probably get nearly everyone with a hand in the air.

But when you ask who can do an eye splice with some three-strand line, the number of hands held high shrinks appreciably. Add in a proper taper of a double-braid line, a Brummel Splice, and a Rolling Hitch, and it's a good bet that the only hands still in the air belong to professional sailors, professional riggers, or the few crazy D.I.Y. guys who do everything for themselves.

For better or worse, most sailors use those splices and knots so infrequently there's just no way to store the information in their memory banks. And while the info is available online, that's often not very much help if you're out of range of a Wi-Fi signal. That's why Sailing World and Green Mountain Digital have produced Sailing World's Knots and Splices App for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which has been released in the App Store.

The app includes step-by-step directions (above), animations (below), and professionally shot and edited video (below, second image) for 19 knots and six splices, more than most sailors will ever need. And it's all stored on your phone. No Wi-Fi or 3G connection required.

You can find the app ($3.99) in the App Store!