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Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 7:50 pm
by aunt betty
Have taken a few people hunting and fishing and it really disturbs me that I can't seem to teach anyone how I like to tie up my boat. It's called a "cleat hitch". Learn how to do it with gloves on and I'll be very happy.


Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 6:53 am
by Throbbin Rods
I'm with you, Some of the people I hunt and fish with tie knots that look like a boy scout troop practice room. "That knot won't hold my boat..." Unbelievable

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:18 am
by SpinnerMan
What do they do with a cleat? I'm not good with knots, but tying off to a cleat. Come on.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 10:51 am
by aunt betty
What happens is someone ties a real knot with a wet rope, it freezes, then you're sort of fucked.
I don't use water-ski ropes except on the anchor which you'll never see.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:59 am
by Deltaman
Can't help but laugh when I see a knotty mess tied on a boat cleat at the dock :lol:

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 12:43 pm
by aunt betty
Deltaman wrote:Can't help but laugh when I see a knotty mess tied on a boat cleat at the dock :lol:

It's a source of constant amusement at the city-slicker lake I go to.
Last time I was there got to watch a huge pontoon boat slide right off the trailer.
Crowd of onlookers. There were stuck bigtime blocking the entire ramp til I said "push the boat down the ramp into the water and try again".
"

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:18 am
by outboardman
On the anchor you need to use Twisted nylon rope it stretches a bit which helps with the load on the anchor. That polypropylene ski line does not stretch
aunt betty wrote:What happens is someone ties a real knot with a wet rope, it freezes, then you're sort of ****.
I don't use water-ski ropes except on the anchor which you'll never see.


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Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:19 am
by outboardman
Oh and a short piece of chain between the anchor and rope really adds to the holding power
outboardman wrote:On the anchor you need to use Twisted nylon rope it stretches a bit which helps with the load on the anchor. That polypropylene ski line does not stretch
aunt betty wrote:What happens is someone ties a real knot with a wet rope, it freezes, then you're sort of ****.
I don't use water-ski ropes except on the anchor which you'll never see.


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Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:40 am
by aunt betty
Right now today my anchor has a really long skinny black bungee cord and about 100 feet of black parachute cord. (jerk rig)
It's all I use the anchor for.
They came with ski-ropes. My old man's. Too bad they still ain't attached to the Ranger they came off of. 250-horse that sucker would fly. Wheeeeee. 70 on water is scary fast.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:22 pm
by Darren
Big fan of that knot for all cleat work around my boats. Brother-in-law is an Eagle Scout; can't tie off a boat to save his life.

Really lowers my esteem for the Scouting community and what they're really achieving through all those ranks, badges, etc.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:09 pm
by Rick
SpinnerMan wrote:What do they do with a cleat?


Most of the guys helping me out just criss-cross it over the cleat 85 times. Which I'm sure would hold just fine, but bugs me enough that I'll sneak back in the shed to unwrap and hitch it.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 6:37 am
by aunt betty
I always get the guys that thread the rope thru the center of the dock cleat and tie a granny knot. Sad when a guy don't know what a two half hitch or a trot-line hitch is.
Boy scouts taught me the knots but the airborne infantry made me actually use and remember them.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 8:16 am
by Rick
aunt betty wrote:...but the airborne infantry made me actually use and remember them.


I was only airborne "infantry" with the 82nd at Bragg, but never saw a boat cleat.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 8:18 am
by aunt betty
Rick wrote:
aunt betty wrote:...but the airborne infantry made me actually use and remember them.


I was only airborne "infantry" with the 82nd at Bragg, but never saw a boat cleat.
Nah you gotsa have Marine in-laws to get showed that one. They don't use the Pally more one either.
My dad taught me that knot and he was a wing waxer. We had a ski boat. Now that he's gone I get to think of him each time I tie up the boat. His old boat. It's nice and doesn't attract a lot of attention. Does everything an outdoorsman wants.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 5:54 am
by Rick
Dad was scared of water (didn't face that phobia and learn to swim until in his 60s), and the only nautical job of my youth was as a deckhand on the WW Holloway, perhaps best known for being the Great Lakes freighter the Blues Brothers jumped. Lots of bollards and bitts, but no cleats I recall and nothing but heave lines small enough to hitch, anyway. But I'd like to think I'd at least picked up on getting a small boat securely tied off before study for the "general seamanship" portion of the USCG ("6-pack) captain's test required it. Maybe not, as that wasn't yesterday, either.

Anyway, youtube's the bomb for such.

Re: Just learn this knot

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 12:45 pm
by Rick
Gun Dawg wrote:
aunt betty wrote:What happens is someone ties a real knot with a wet rope, it freezes, then you're sort of ****.
I don't use water-ski ropes except on the anchor which you'll never see.


We call them hatchet knots.


Why God made rope wrenches.