Had kind of a scary incident on Saturday on the Mississippi. While we were heading back to the launch a heavy downpour hit us. We decided to stop at a public city dock and get something to eat while we waited for the rain to stop. The dock is your basic floating straight line with room for maybe 8 boats. We landed between a wakeboard boat in front of us (upstream) and a larger cuddy behind us. One of my passengers tied the bow line over the top of the wakeboards line on the shared cleat and I tied the stern line the same on the cuddy's cleat. I inspected the bow tie and it was wrong so I untied and showed my friend how to tie it correctly. Point being I knew it was tied correctly. We went to eat and I visually checked on the boat a couple times from the restaurants deck. Everything seemed fine but the downpour continued. When the rain finally stopped all the other boats were gone except mine and it was sticking out 90 degrees because the bow line was not attached to the dock. The current had the stern line under a lot of pressure as the boat was sideways in the current. So either the wake boarding boat did a bad job of retying my bow line or didn't retie it at all. What is the etiquette for sharing the same cleat?
Public Dock Etiquette - Cleats
- Thread starter Scott9000
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WazzuCMGrad
New Member
I would think it should be re-tied and checked by the person removing it (if the line removed isn't theirs). The issue is that some folks just don't actually know how to tie off to cleats, unfortunately.
trit21
Active Member
Some people don't know how to tie a cleat true, but a lot of people don't care of others stuff and I would not doubt they didn't tie it very well at all. In that case I would have untied their line and put mine on the bottom and made sure theirs was tied correctly.
- Oct 6, 2006
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When we have to share a cleat, I always remove the other line first, secure my boat on the bottom then retie his line on top so a.)I don't inconvenience the other guy and b.) so I know both boats are secured properly.
Sous
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Bingo... unless I'm tying up with others in my same party (club events and such), I'll always ensure I'm tied to the cleat and then retie the other line on top of mine.
RollerCoastr
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- Nov 15, 2007
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I'm just joining the party, but that's what I do as well. I've found that it's not just a good idea, but it's often necessary. Many people don't know what to do with the extra line, so they bury the cleat in unnecessary wraps.
I do the same. I would never feel "inconvenienced" by someone else that tied over top of the mine, but we all know that some people would take this personally - as if to say "who is this guy that tied on top of my line - I'll show HIM!". So to avoid that possible scenario, I'll save the possible "hassle" and retie with me underneath. I also feel that they were there first, so they shouldn't have to untie someone else's knot that came after.
If the wakeboard's original tie-up was good, then there's a good chance that he was pissed that someone tied up on top of his - although there really isn't any reason to be "mad" about this. Or, he asked a passenger to switch the lines and didn't bother checking - as you did with your boat. Although I'm not a pessimist... I'm inclined to think the former.
Pessimist as well and my first thought was wow those guys purposely didn't retie me, what did I do wrong? I will always untie both and put myself on the bottom going forward. I still can't believe someone "might" purposely leave a boat untied on the river because they were "mad".... I mean a lake I can see the worst that would happen is the boat float out a bit but the river its gone and probably damaging some boats further down river. scary
BryanOnTheBay
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- Oct 6, 2013
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Another thought. I was always taught to "give the loop." One, that means the person who is putting it on the cleat does not have to tie it. Two, it means that if someone else comes along, or leaves, it is easy to remove and replace (I also subscribe to the KISS principle). Three, it means you can adjust your lines from your boat.
That would have solved two problems, the first being that of your crew no knowing how to to tie a proper cleat, and two, giving the benefit of the doubt, the problem of the other boat not knowing how to tie a proper cleat.
Putting your lines underneath another's is great practice, but is not necessary for boating etiquette.
Bryan
That would have solved two problems, the first being that of your crew no knowing how to to tie a proper cleat, and two, giving the benefit of the doubt, the problem of the other boat not knowing how to tie a proper cleat.
Putting your lines underneath another's is great practice, but is not necessary for boating etiquette.
Bryan
