Skills › 🪢 Knots

Tie a boat to a dock cleat

The knot every dock hand expects you to know. Figure-eights around a cleat hold fast but come off in a second.

⏱ 45s

A yellow line made fast on a small cleat with a figure-eight turn across the horns, finished here with a locking hitch so the end tucks under the last turn.
Markus Bärlocher via Wikimedia Commons · source · Public domain
  1. Lead the line around the far horn of the cleat first, never the near one.
  2. Carry it around the base to the other horn, in the same direction.
  3. Cross back over the middle of the cleat to make a figure eight.
  4. Make several more figure-eight turns around the two horns and pull snug.

Tip: Two crossovers is the bare minimum, only for brief use in calm water; add more otherwise. Long-term dock lines are often finished with a locking hitch, but skip it on a line you may need to release fast, like a towline.

Try it now: Practise on two coat hooks or the legs of an upturned chair: one turn round the base, then three figure eights.

Practice in the feed →

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