[Tom Line]

Thanks for the pic. Your post brings up a good point. Not only do you have to be wary of mechanical advantage. Putting a knot in a line ('rope' for you non-sailors) will lower the breaking strength by nearly 40%! The 'correct' way once you know your required line lengths would be to use a thimble (not the sewing kind) and have the line spliced, or you can mearly account for the reduction in strength due to the knot and use larger line.