Now with the boating season right around the corner, I figured I should write an article about knots, since its a vital part of boating, which many novices don't know too much about. The basic 3 knots any boater should know in my opinion are the bowline, round turn with two half hitches and obviously the cleat hitch.
The bowline is a popular knot among boaters primarily due to its its wide range of uses and the strength of this knot, its virtually slip-proof. The bowline can be used to fasten a mooring line to a ring, which I use it to do that on my boat or to tie it to a post. You can also use the bowline to attach two ropes together. Now the only shortcoming with this knot is that the rope cannot be tied or untied when there is a load on the standing end, so it shouldn't be used on a line, which may have to be released under load. In order to to tie this knot you have to form a loop a short distance from the end of the rope, pass the end of the rope through the loop (as if making a half hitch), and then around the standing end and back through the loop to finish the knot.
Bowline finished with a half hitch
Next up is the round turn with two half hitches. I use this knot on the end of my bowline attached to the ring as a fail safe. This is another excellent finishing knot used for tying up to docks and rings. It is composed of two parts the round turn and then two half hitches as the name suggests. The beauty of this knot is the round turn takes all the strain while you finish tying the rest of this knot. The two half hitches actually form a clove hitch another great knot! This knot is extremely strong. To tie this knot pass the end around the post two times, then go around the standing end once to make the first hitch and pull it tight, then do this again forming the second hitch and pull it tight to finish the knot!
Round turn with two half hitches
The final knot is something we will all use to secure our boats to a cleat. This is a fairly common knot and is great for tying up quickly to the gas dock while filling up and a good for tying up to your own slip among a few other lines attached to the boat. Pass the rope round the far horn of the cleat continue around the cleat then forming figure eights and finish the knot off with a half hitch to hold it in place. Some people like to do the last two loops in half hitches, while other half hitch every loop but there is no need to do that.
Cleat hitch
So there it is, the basic knots to get you out on the water safely and keep your boat securely tied to the dock. If you learn these three knots they'll help get you started with boating and are excellent knots used by many seasoned sailors. Know there are plenty of other knots sailors keep in their arsenal of knots but these are your everyday knots that your guaranteed to see on any given day on the water.
Until next time smooth sailing!
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