Why the North Yorkshire Coast Punishes Lazy Ropework

Few stretches of the British coastline ask as much of a mooring line as ours. Between the Tees and Flamborough Head, you are dealing with spring tidal ranges of five metres and more at Whitby and Scarborough, a steady procession of North Sea swell pushing down past Saltwick Nab, and wind that will veer from a soft south-westerly to a brisk north-easterly while you are eating your lunch aboard. Add the reflected chop inside harbour walls and the surge that runs through Scarborough's outer harbour on a big ebb, and you have conditions that will work a badly tied line loose in an afternoon.

The good news is that you do not need a rope locker full of exotica. Three knots, learned properly and tied by feel in the dark, will cover almost everything a coastal sailor does on this coast — from picking up a mooring in Runswick Bay to leaving the boat while you walk up to the chippy in Whitby. Learn them slowly at the kitchen table, then practise them wearing gloves in the rain.

The Bowline: Your Fixed Loop, Your Friend

The bowline gives you a loop that will not tighten under load and will not seize solid, which is exactly what you want for a jib sheet, a halyard shackle or a dinghy painter. It is also the knot you use to put a line around a bollard ashore when nobody has told you what you are tying to.

• Make a small loop in the standing part, roughly a hand's width from the end, with the working end underneath.
• Bring the working end up through the loop from below.
• Take it round behind the standing part.
• Feed it back down through the original loop and pull the whole thing snug.

The old rhyme — the rabbit comes out of the hole, round the tree and back down the hole — still works, and it is worth teaching it to whoever is crewing for you this season. Check it by loading the loop: if it falls apart, you have tied a slip knot instead. And remember that a bowline is easy to shake loose when slack, so it is not the knot for a line that will sit untensioned and flogging on a mooring.

The Cleat Hitch: Fast, Neat, and Easily Ruined

Most pontoon and harbour cleats around Whitby, Scarborough and Bridlington are horn cleats, and the cleat hitch is the knot that belongs on them. It is quick, it comes undone under load, and it looks after the line.

• Take a full turn around the base of the cleat, starting at the horn furthest from the load.
• Lead the line diagonally across the top and take a full turn around the opposite horn — a figure of eight.
• Do the same the other way so you have one figure of eight across the cleat.
• Finish with a single locking turn: form a bight in the line and lay it over the far horn, pulling it tight so it lies neatly.

One locking turn, not three. A stack of half hitches on a cleat will jam hard after a night of surge, and you will be picking at it with a boat hook at six in the morning while the tide pulls you sideways. If the line is leaving the cleat at a steep angle, or the boat is surging, take the line to a second cleat or a bollard instead of relying on the hitch alone.

Round Turn and Two Half Hitches: For Rings, Posts and Pilings

Where the bowline gives you a loop and the cleat hitch gives you speed, the round turn and two half hitches gives you grip. It is the knot for a mooring ring, a harbour ladder post, a piling or a stanchion, and it is what you want on a bow line in a swell.

• Pass the line twice around the ring or post. Those two turns take the load and give you friction, so you are never fighting the boat with your bare hands.
• Bring the working end around the standing part and tuck it through to make a half hitch. Repeat for a second half hitch, both lying the same way.
• Snug the hitches down against the turns and leave a decent tail — a good metre — so there is something to grab if it tightens.

If you are leaving the boat for any length of time in a place with real surge, add a third turn or seize the tail back to the standing part. Rope chafe is what actually kills mooring lines, so wherever a line crosses a fairlead, a harbour wall or the edge of a pontoon, add a protective sleeve or a length of old hose.

Matching the Rope to the Job

Knots only work if the rope suits them. Nylon has plenty of stretch, which makes it forgiving as a mooring warp and unhelpful as a halyard. Polyester is the reliable all-rounder for sheets and control lines. Whatever you buy, keep it clean, rinse the salt out at the end of the season, and inspect the outer braid near the bow and stern for the telltale glazing that means it is about to let go.

Finally, tie to the conditions, not to the forecast you read in the car park. On this coast the swell often arrives well before the wind, and a line that was slack at tea time can be bar-tight by midnight. Give yourself more scope than you think you need, use a second line wherever you can, and check the whole arrangement once the tide has turned. A few minutes with a torch is cheaper than a claim on the insurance.