Cleat Hitch
Purpose: The cleat hitch is used to tie a line to a cleat securely. It’s essential for docking, as it allows the boater to quickly secure or release a line from a dock cleat.
Why It’s Important: This knot is simple and quick to tie, which is crucial when docking or securing the boat quickly under changing conditions.
Click the image to see an animation (opens a page in a new tab. On an App this will require internet access)
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From Experience: What we have found is that new crew tend to fumble this knot and take too long trying to get it right when this is valuable time at the dock where you really need to get the dockline cleated on fast because there is other things going on regarding the docking procedure. So instead of teaching the cleat hitch knot to a new crewmember, we teach to go around the cleat then do two cross-overs and one or two more times around. There is no confusion and they can not get this wrong – saving you valuable time during the docking maneuver. We call the knot OOXXOO. The knot Nazi’s get upset at this but then again, I’m a lot better at docking than they are. |
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