Perfect Cleat Hitch: The Best Boat Cleat Knot

Do you want to know the best way to tie up your boat to a dock? Then you're going to love this video where we cover how to tie the cleat hitch for your boat cleat (or dock cleat).

If you aren't familiar with the cleat hitch knot, it's known as one of the most reliable and popular boating knots of all time. Best news is that you can use it to tie any cleat (from your boat cleat to dock cleat).

And although a cleat hitch is the most widely used boat cleat knot, a perfect cleat hitch is only achieved with a final "figure 8" to cinch the knot down.

You'd be shocked how many boaters have tied their boat down for the night only to come out in the morning and see that their cleat hitch has slipped (and their boat is no longer tied up to the dock). The reason this happens is because they forgot the final step of the cleat hitch knot.

What's your favorite boat cleat knot? Any other tips that you've found to work well?

Let us know in the comment below.

Safe boating!

[Sifo_Dyas]

"Perfect"? Good Lord. 🙄 This guy doesn't know what he doesn't know—the most dangerous type of person.

[nantucketcatboat]

Good lord this is not a proper cleat hitch. Someone will lose their boat or get injured using this knot. Take it down!

[Andrew-wqqf]

This is the perfect video how not to cleat your boat. It's not even lying flat. He went in the wrong direction.

[bendowning]

Always start with a round turn at base then figure eight. Without the round turn when you try and push the line back under weather hitch in rough weather you'll lose the tip of your finger

[paclantic]

Ben Downing is absolutely correct, always start with a round turn at the base first.

[vinnieRice]

Hilarious! That knot is completely wrong.

[zGollum]

Tie your boat any way you like it, but please don't teach other people!

[UncleHarley]

Nope.... the knot you just demonstrated looks a mess. The thumbnail picture shows it tied properly. We'll call the knot you tied "low tied"

[Heartgator]

The video does not show the know tied properly - THAT cleat knot is loose and can easy pull off of the cleat.

[rogeryoung]

You need to learn to tie a knot before teaching it...

[Nitedawg]

Even if you demonstrated it correctly, you need to video this from the audience point of view not the opposite of that. Film it as if the audience is looking over your shoulder so they can mimic it, not trying to do the reverse of what you are demonstrating. But apparently not this knot though, because it appears to be wrong?

[andrewzimmerman-ji]

He started it wrong and finished it wrong. No wonder he’s called ”Hollywood”

[thebushnells]

Do not learn ANY knots from this guy! If he knew how incorrect this was (and bad seamanship) he would remove this video. Learn from a sailor

[alexgordon]

make sense to point that on final, locking loop - important which way you do that

[JayCarroll]

It's untying itself because you aren't tying it correctly.... Haha:)

[ultraviolet]

Confusing demo. Bitter end or standing part?

[seanatteberry]

Why is there a bunch of Mid-Eastern captions appearing over the video so it can't be viewed correctly?

[nevillecottee]

Licensed sailing schools teach to NEVER put a hitch on a cleat, EVER. See “coastguard boating education” .

[maximslesarev]

If you don’t know how to tie a knot, tie a lot.

[edenmarinetrader]

I think he tied it wrong. Mystery solved.