Why a Few Good Knots Beat a Bagful of Clever Ones

Walk along any harbour wall on a Saturday morning and you will see it: a small boat straining at a mooring line held by a tangle of half-remembered hitches, or a fender dangling from a loop that worked loose overnight. Rope is cheap; confidence is not. A small boat owner really only needs a handful of knots tied well, and they will cover almost everything you do afloat — mooring alongside a pontoon, picking up a swing mooring, securing an anchor warp, lashing a rod holder to a rail, or tying the tender off at the slipway before you carry the bait down.

Judge every knot by three things:

• Does it hold under a heavy, jerking load? Boats snatch and surge on a rising tide, and a knot that creeps under a steady pull will fail under a sudden one.
• Will it come apart easily afterwards? A knot that jams solid after loading is worse than useless when you are cold, wet and being pushed against a wall.
• Can you tie it by feel? In the dark, with gloves on, leaning over a gunwale, you should not need to look.

The Bowline: Your Go-To Loop

The bowline makes a fixed loop that will not slip or jam, no matter how hard it has been loaded. It is the single most useful knot on a small boat, and it is the one worth practising until your hands do it without instruction.

The old mnemonic still works best: the rabbit comes out of the hole, round the tree, and back down the hole.

• Form a small loop in the standing part, with the working end lying over the top of it.
• Bring the working end up through that loop from underneath.
• Pass it around behind the standing part.
• Bring it back down through the small loop and pull the standing part and working end together to set it.

Leave a tail at least ten times the diameter of the rope, and check it by eye every time. Use a bowline for a painter through a quay ring, a loop over a bollard, a jib sheet, or a bucket line over the side. It releases with a simple flick of the wrist once the load comes off, which is exactly what you want when the tide has turned and you are single-handed.

The Clove Hitch: Quick, Adjustable, Made for a Post

Two turns, the second tucked under the first — that is the whole knot. Its great virtue is speed and adjustability while the line is slack. Slip a fender onto the guard rail, hang a landing net off a stanchion, secure a boat hook, or tie up briefly to a harbour post while you sort out the rest of the mooring.

Be honest about its limitations. On a smooth, tapered post, or on a line that slackens and snatches repeatedly, a clove hitch can work loose and crawl along the post. Give it a stop by adding a half hitch around the standing part, or take the working end back to a cleat. For a fender line, a clove hitch plus a couple of extra turns is perfectly sound. For an overnight mooring on a big spring tide, use something with more bite.

The Round Turn and Two Half Hitches: Kind to a Loaded Line

Nothing takes the strain out of a rope better than a round turn. The turn around the ring or bollard carries the load, and the two half hitches simply hold the end in place. Because the strain is not sitting on the hitches, the knot will not jam, and it will still come apart after a night of the boat surging against it.

• Take two full turns around the ring, post or cleat, keeping the turns neat and side by side.
• Bring the working end around the standing part and tuck it through to make a half hitch.
• Repeat in the same direction for the second half hitch.
• Settle everything down and finish with a generous tail.

This is the knot for an anchor warp, a mooring warp on a strange bollard, a spring line, or lowering a heavy box of gear over the side onto a pontoon. If you only ever learn two knots, learn the bowline and this one.

The Cleat Hitch and the Rolling Hitch: Two Honourable Mentions

Most pontoons and marina berths expect you to know the cleat hitch, and a badly tied cleat is a common sight. Take one full turn around the base of the cleat, then a figure of eight over each horn, finishing with a turn that tucks under the last one. Under a heavy load, start with a round turn before the figure of eight. The line should lead away at a slight angle and the finishing hitch should sit flat, not as a heap of little loops.

The rolling hitch grips along a rope or spar rather than at its end, which makes it the answer for hanging a lamp or a rod rest on a stay, taking the load off a snagged line, or making a snubber for your anchor rode. Two turns one way, then one turn the other, then tuck the end under the crossing turn and set it.

Looking After the Lines and Practising at Home

Good knots deserve good rope. For a boat under about five metres, 10mm to 12mm braid on braid in polyester or nylon is comfortable in the hand and strong well beyond anything a small outboard or a brisk tide will ask of it. Keep lines out of prolonged sun when you can, rinse the salt out in fresh water now and then, and inspect the chafe points — fairleads, gunwales, cleats and the edges of a mooring ring — because that is where lines fail, not in the middle.

Seal the cut ends with a hot knife or a wrap of tape so they do not fray. Coil and stow your warps so they run free when you need them. Then practise: tie a bowline behind your back, tie the round turn in gloves, tie a clove hitch with cold hands on a wet rail. Ten minutes on the pontoon while you wait for the tide will repay you on the one evening when the wind gets up and everything depends on a line you tied in a hurry and tied properly.