What am I looking at?

[Richard5]

Go to You Tube. Look up Sailing the ICW in 2012 by Smacksman1. Describe what you see at 3:53.

See the proper whipping/seizing to the left and above on the doubled line? After that I get lost in the knot. It looks like a semblance of a timber hitch but I am not sure. What spars are crossing?

Sailing the ICW in 2012 - YouTube

[RainDog]

Looks to me like a double butterfly knot. Each loop is holding one of the spars. I think they are both whisker poles.

http://www.simetric.co.uk/twizzle_rig/setting.htm

[AndytheSailor]

Hi,
In modern language it is a pair of spinnaker poles hitched together instead of at the mast. This allows the Twistle rig (think that's how you spell it, anyway, twin headsails) to be balanced while running before the wind. If you look closely you will see that the loop is belayed inside the release pin.

Andy

[Richard5]

Thanks gents. Now out of a drunken stupor it is readily discerned.