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Best knot to attach a painter to a mooring ball?

10K views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  pdqaltair 
#1 ·
My boat lives on a mooring, and on days when club traffic is really slow, I can usually take a the club's little Sundancer skiff or rowboat out to the ball, hook the dinghy there, do my sailing, and pick up the dink on the way in. Saves me having to waste a bunch of time docking up.

A couple times, however, I've noticed the painter for the dinghy had worked itself alarmingly loose, and I feel that if I'd been out a couple more hours, I'd have found the thing on the shore instead of my ball.

My go-to knot for attaching a painter to a ball has been a round turn and two (or three or four) half hitches, but it seems that the action of wave and wake always works those half hitches out over time. Does anyone have a better knot for really locking that painter down so I can go for a sail without the anxiety of losing the club's boat?
 
#5 ·
I'm certainly no expert, and I love bowlines as much as the next guy. One of the reasons I love them is because, as sturdy and reliable as they are when under load, they're equally easy to untie when NOT under load. That quality would worry me when used to secure something where the load goes from strong to none repeatedly. The other posters mentioned using a bowline with a stopper knot or some other backup.. that'd probably be fine.

I like buntline hitches a lot; they don't release under no-load situations, and get more secure the more the load increases.

Buntline Hitch - How to tie a Buntline Hitch

They can be tough to untie, but not terrible. I've taken to taking a loop through as the final step when tying it, rather than the entire working end; it becomes sort of a "slip buntline" that can be untied with a single pull, but still seems just as secure as a regular buntline. That's what I use on my fenders now.

Just an idea. I'm really new, so don't take my advice without other research and experimentation.

Barry
 
#6 · (Edited)
#7 ·
I have a heavy clip at the end of my painter. Makes for a handy, temporary, quick way to secure the dingy when I'm picking up the mooring or coming alongside.

When I tow the dink I cleat off the painter to a cleat and then clip the end over something, just in case...

If you are at a busy dingy dock, sometimes a clip is better than trusting the next guy to tie your painter up if someone has to move your dinghy.
 
#8 ·
I've recently discovered the "double bowline" and the "water bowline"

Water Bowline Knot | How to tie a Water Bowline Knot | Boating Knots

As the description notes: "Its name suggests it might have been developed for more secure use in water and Ashley's description starts with "If a Bowline is to be towed through water...."

Fair Winds,

Christine
 

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#10 ·
A bowline is a great knot, but way overused. It is not a secure knot, particularly when subject to loading, unloading forces repeatedly. That's why you'll never see a climber using it. Some of the options listed above are great, and if you do choose a bowline, definitely secure it further somehow, but I would avoid it altogether for that purpose.

Another option is to use a double figure eight, like climbers do. It's a little harder to undo, but not that bad. It is much more secure, which is even more important when using polypropylene line, which tends to be slick and not hold knots very well.
 
#14 ·
I'll second the double figure 8, easy to tie and secure as any knot can be. Even after hanging on one in a harness for hours it's still easy to untie. I use it for a lot of things: harness to halyard, crab/prawn trap to buoy line, painter to dink, anything "important" I don't want to lose.
 
#17 ·
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