Home / Seamanship / Mooring and anchoring / Making fast on a cleat, in four moves
The cleat, in four moves
Making fast on a cleat takes five seconds and is still regularly done wrong. The difference between right and wrong does not show in a flat calm, it shows at night in force six.
The round turn first
A full turn around the base of the cleat before anything is crossed. That turn takes the load and bleeds it off through friction. Everything after it only holds what the round turn has already held.
Then two or three figure eights
Crossed over the two horns, no more than three. Winding on the whole line does not make the belay safer, only harder to release when it has to go quickly.
The locking hitch last
The final turn with the bight tucked under itself so it jams on its own. Under a snatching load that is the difference between staying put and slowly working free.
The mistake of starting with the lock
Starting straight in with the locking hitch puts the whole load on a single jamming point. The line binds there, cannot be freed under tension, and the force goes into the cleat and its bolts unchecked.
What this has to do with insurance
When a cleat lets go, the damage rarely stops at the cleat. It takes a piece of deck with it, and that is a laminate repair. So it is worth looking underneath: a cleat belongs bolted through with a backing plate, not merely screwed into the deck.
