A Perfect Cleat Hitch

hello sailors I'm captain Tom turkey from the Maryland School of sailing in seamanship and I'd like to tell you a few things about the cleat hitch the cleat hitch is one of the two most important knots for sailors and boaters between the cleat hitch and the bowline the cleat hitch is used to attach a line to a cleat and to be able to detach it quickly if need be but let me show you the basic cleat hitch then we'll talk about some details I'll take this line and we're going to go to this cleat right here and put a cleat hitch on it so we're coming around the base we're coming across under the horn we're doing a flip of the line and this is our this is our basic cleat hitch now you'll see in looking at this that here's a locking hitch right here because this line comes under this part of the line you pull it tight and this line part of the line goes across these two lines so that puts enough tension and friction into this line so it won't slip on this cleat so let's talk about some basics of how you form the cleat hitch because you have to be able to tie the cleat hitch when this line comes into the cleat from various directions now I want to show you a few details for tying the cleat hitch let's take the example where this line is coming in to the cleat hitch from your right side when you do the first turn around the cleat you have to go to this side not to this side this is the opposite side from where the line is coming in line is coming in for your right you're going to the horn towards your left so this is the correct side not this side but this side then you do a complete round turn the round turn means you've made two turns which makes a complete round turn then you cross over and under this horn then you come back and cross over again now you have to put a locking hitch on and to make the locking hitch you have to flip a loop and you flip the loop away from the side of the entering line here's the entering line and when you put this locking hitch on you are flipping away from the entering line not towards the entering line you flip away from the entering line now when you look at this cleat hitch you see two lines crossing and then they're being covered by this line which is part of the locking hitch and therefore these lines tighten up and friction on each other and the more you pull on the cleat hitch from the line is coming in from your right the tighter it gets now let me show you what happens if the initial turn is put to the wrong side of the cleat instead of going to the opposite horn when they initially come into the cleat they come in to the near horn like this and the problem with this is that when this line crosses here and then you complete the cleat hitch it looks the same but the problem is that this line can actually lock up after the cleat hitch is put under load for a while and you might have a very difficult time removing the cleat hitch the line actually locks on itself right at this corner let's see what happens with this with a larger line on a docking cleat for the dock line coming in incorrectly under the first form on this one is cleat and then it wraps around has to be tugged to get it under crossover complete the cleat hitch now watch will we try to take this out the dock line actually jams on itself on to the horn of the cleat it takes quite a tug to get it unlocked now if the cleat hitch is correctly made you can see that there is no chance for the line to lock on itself here's another error that I see people making if instead of flipping away from the the line coming in if instead of doing that you flip towards the line coming in here's what you end up with and get this picture in your mind because it's completely different than what we saw a few minutes ago on the correctly tied cleat hitch this won't lock at all this won't stay in it will come out very easily so remember you're flipping away from the entering line when you do this locking hitch away from it and then the next hour that I see people making is the winning come into the cleat correctly to the side then they neglect to make a complete round turn what they do instead is come immediately across in this manner and complete the locking hitch again it looks right but the problem is that without the complete round turn on the base of the cleat the cleat hitch will not develop enough friction to allow the line to tighten up on itself under under heavy load conditions and I have seen cleat hitches pull through and off the cleat under heavy load conditions now the next thing I'd like to show you is the line coming into the cleat from different directions because it does not always come from this direction from your right side and from in back of you okay and there are times when it will come from this direction from your left side okay so but remember the basic rules you go initially for the initial turn you go under the horn on the side opposite to the side that the line is coming into the cleat so it's coming in from my left here I want to go under the horn on the right in that case I still make a complete round turn cross over and under the horn and again I turn away from the entering line here's the entering line I turned away from that entering line when I flipped the locking hitch now let's take an example of this line coming into the cleat from another direction let's bring it in again from your left side but on the side away from you here's a line coming into the cleat and remember you go to the horn on the opposite side - coming in from the left you go under the horn on the right not this side but this side now all these patterns come out the same but it depends where you're standing relative to the cleat so I'm showing it to you coming in from these different directions but the method is still the same if you remember the rules so you go under the horn on the opposite side from the sides of the line is coming into the cleat you make a complete round turn again you cross over and under that horn and then you flip away from the side of the entering line same procedures same result I still have these two lines being crossed by the locking hitch now let's take one more arrangement let's take an example where the line is coming in from your right side but on the side away from you so remember you're going under the horn on the opposite side to the side that the line is coming in from it's coming in from the right you're going under the horn on the left this is correct this is incorrect this is correct I do that turn do a complete round turn closed over and under again I'm going to flip away from the entering line we end up with the same picture and the same good cleat hitch so those are the details if you walk down a dock at various times you're liable to see cleat hitch was tied in this manner these follow the principle that if you can't tie a knot tie a lot well hopefully you won't be tying your cleat hitches in this manner so I hope some of these ideas help you when you're going to tie a cleat hitch I see many many cleat hitches tight wrong and just keep a couple of things in mind that as you're coming to tie the cleat hitch from different directions with the line you have to keep these basic principles in mind and you won't go wrong so you take the first turn on the cleat base on the side opposite to the entering line and secondly it take a full turn around the cleat base not a half turn and thirdly when you're putting on the locking hitch you flip it away from the entering line and if you keep these concepts in mind you'll type perfectly hitches every time and thank you for participating

Channel: Maryland School of Sailing

Views: 2,437,559

Rating: 4.8543124 out of 5

Keywords: docking, cleat, cleat hitch, sailing

Id: KaF9lFn0Inw

Length: 10min 47sec (647 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2015