The Top 10 Sailing Knots

Every Sailor Should Know these 10 Sailing Knots. Plus even more contenders below.

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Every sailor eventually builds a small, trusted set of knots and uses them for almost everything on board. This guide covers the ten sailing knots you are most likely to reach for, starting with the most important of all: the bowline. And then we add some honourable mentions for good measure.

1. Bowline

Why it’s called that: The name predates the knot itself. On square-rigged ships, a “bowline” was the rope that hauled the edge of a square sail forward to the bow, holding it taut when sailing close to the wind. The knot used to secure that rope eventually took its name.

A bit of history: The bowline is one of the oldest documented knots, with archaeological evidence of similar loop knots in fishing nets dating back thousands of years. It appears in print as early as 1691, in John Smith’s “A Sea Grammar,” under the name “Boling knot.” It is often nicknamed the king of knots for its combination of strength, reliability and ease of release.

Pros:

• Forms a fixed loop that will not tighten under load
• Easy to untie even after heavy strain
• Retains roughly two thirds of the rope’s strength

Cons:

• Can work loose when there is no load on it
• Not fully secure in slippery modern ropes such as Dyneema unless backed up

How to tie it:

• Make a small loop in the standing part of the rope (the “hole”)
• Pass the working end up through the loop (the “rabbit comes out of the hole”)
• Take it around the standing part (round the tree)
• Feed it back down through the loop (back down the hole)
• Tighten by pulling the standing part and the loop apart

Alternative: The Eskimo bowline holds up better under repeated shock loading and side-loading, since the working end wraps around the loop itself rather than the standing part.

2. Clove Hitch

Why it’s called that: The name likely comes from the old English “cleave,” meaning to grip or hold fast, which describes what the knot does around a post or rail.

A bit of history: The clove hitch has been tied on ratlines and rigging since at least the sixteenth century, and is shown in paintings and sculpture from that period. William Falconer formally recorded the name in his 1769 “Universal Dictionary of the Marine.” It is also known as a builder’s knot or ratline hitch outside sailing.

Pros:

• Extremely quick to tie and adjust
• Useful for temporary fastening to a rail, piling or fender

Cons:

• Can slip along the object it is tied to, especially under a varying load
• Not secure enough to be trusted on its own for anything critical

How to tie it:

• Take a turn around the post
• Cross over the standing part to form an X
• Take a second turn around the post
• Tuck the working end under the last turn
• Pull both ends to snug it down

Alternative: The round turn and two half hitches gives a similar quick attachment with far less chance of slipping along the post.

3. Reef Knot (Square Knot)

Why it’s called that: Sailors used it to tie the reef points when reducing sail area in strong wind, gathering and binding the reefed canvas. That job, reefing, gave the knot its English name. In the US it is more commonly called the square knot. Fair enough. But it’s not square, just saying 🤪

A bit of history: The reef knot is ancient, with recorded use going back over 4,000 years. Richard Henry Dana Jr. gave “square knot” as an alternative name for it in his 1841 maritime handbook “The Seaman’s Friend.”

Pros:

• Simple and fast to tie
• Good for binding a sail cover, bagging a line, or tying two ends of the same rope around an object

Cons:

• Not a reliable bend for joining two separate ropes under load, since it can slip or capsize into a girth-like grief knot
• Tied with ropes of different diameter, it fails easily

How to tie it:

• Cross the left end over the right and tuck it under
• Cross the resulting left end over the right again and tuck it under
• Pull both working ends to tighten
• Check the finished knot looks symmetrical and flat, not lopsided (a lopsided result is a granny knot, which slips)

Alternative: For joining two ropes together, use a sheet bend instead, especially if the lines are different thicknesses.

4. Sheet Bend

Why it’s called that: A “sheet” is the line that controls the angle of a sail to the wind, and a “bend” is a knot that joins two ropes. It was used to bend one sheet onto another, or onto a sail’s clew.

A bit of history: The sheet bend is structurally close to the bowline and appears in David Steel’s 1794 “Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship.” It is also called the weaver’s knot, from its long use in textile mills to rejoin broken threads on a loom, and it is knot number one in Clifford Ashley’s 1944 “The Ashley Book of Knots.”

Pros:

• Joins two ropes of different diameters cleanly
• Quick to tie and untie, non-jamming

Cons:

• Can shake loose when the load comes off
• Needs both working ends to finish on the same side of the knot to stay reliable

How to tie it:

• Form a bight in the thicker rope
• Pass the thinner rope up through the bight
• Wrap it around the back of the bight
• Tuck it under itself, on the same side both tails exit
• Pull all four parts to set the knot

Alternative: For ropes of very different thickness, or for extra security, tie a double sheet bend, adding a second wrap of the thinner line before tucking.

5. Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

Why it’s called that: It is built exactly as described: a full round turn around a post or ring, followed by two half hitches around the standing part.

A bit of history: This knot has been a working hitch on ships for centuries, valued for how well the initial round turn spreads the load and takes the friction off the smaller hitches that follow. At the turn of the 19th century the name “rolling hitch” was used for this knot, before Richard Henry Dana Jr. separated the two names in 1841.

Pros:

• The round turn absorbs most of the strain, so the hitches stay easy to untie
• Very secure for mooring lines, fenders, or attaching a line to a ring

Cons:

• Slower to tie than a clove hitch
• Not adjustable once loaded, it needs to be untied and retied to change length

How to tie it:

• Pass the working end fully around the post or through the ring twice (the round turn)
• Bring it across the standing part and tuck it under to form a half hitch
• Repeat to form a second half hitch below the first
• Snug both hitches down against the round turn

Alternative: The anchor bend does the same job with the first half hitch tucked under the round turn itself, which resists jamming less and holds up well for permanent attachments such as an anchor rode to a chain.

6. Cleat Hitch

Why it’s called that: It is simply the standard method of making a line fast to a cleat, the horn-shaped fitting found on docks and decks throughout sailing.

A bit of history: The cleat itself has been used on ships for centuries to belay lines under load without tying a knot in the traditional sense, and the figure-eight wrapping method recorded in Ashley’s Book of Knots remains the standard taught today.

Pros:

• Fast to tie and adjust under load
• Holds securely while still allowing quick release in an emergency

Cons:

• Wrapped incorrectly it can jam or slip
• Needs a cleat of the right size, too small a cleat will not hold a heavily loaded line

How to tie it:

• Take a full turn around the base of the cleat, starting away from the direction of pull
• Cross over the top to form a figure eight around the horns
• Repeat the figure eight once or twice more depending on load
• Finish with a locking half hitch, turning the last loop over before pulling it snug

Alternative: A round turn and two half hitches works well on a rail or ring where no cleat is fitted.

7. Figure-Eight Knot

Why it’s called that: Laid out flat, the finished knot traces the shape of the numeral eight.

A bit of history: Also called the Flemish knot, it appears in print as “figure-of-eight knot” in Lever’s 1808 “Sheet Anchor,” a rigging manual of the period. It was already a standard stopper on running rigging by then, tied into the end of any line that should not run out through a block or fairlead.

Pros:

• Bulkier and easier to grab and untie than a plain overhand knot
• Does not jam as badly under load

Cons:

• Uses up a fair length of line
• On its own it is not a load-bearing knot, only a stopper

How to tie it:

• Make a loop near the end of the rope
• Bring the working end behind the standing part
• Feed it back down through the loop
• Pull both ends to tighten into the figure-eight shape

Alternative: A stevedore knot gives an even bulkier stopper, useful where a standard figure eight risks pulling through a larger block or fairlead.

8. Rolling Hitch

Why it’s called that: It grips well enough that the rope will not roll or slide along whatever it is tied to, when the pull runs lengthwise rather than at a right angle.

A bit of history: Confusingly, this knot was called the “Magnus hitch” or “Magner’s hitch” until 1841, while the name “rolling hitch” originally referred to what is now the round turn and two half hitches. Richard Henry Dana Jr. swapped the names to their modern usage in “The Seaman’s Friend,” and later authors, including Ashley, kept his version.

Pros:

• Grips a rope, rail or spar firmly along its length
• Handy for taking the load off a jammed winch or block by rigging a rolling hitch as a temporary stopper

Cons:

• Only resists pull in one direction
• Will not hold at all on slick modern lines such as Dyneema or polypropylene

How to tie it:

• Take two turns around the object, with each turn crossing over the previous one on the side the pull will come from
• Add a third turn on the opposite side, crossing over the standing part
• Tuck the working end under the last turn
• Pull the standing part to test that it grips before loading it fully

Alternative: A rolling hitch does not hold on very slippery rope, so a Prusik-style friction hitch is a better choice for high-modulus lines.

9. Anchor Bend or Hitch (Fisherman’s Bend)

Why it’s called that: It is the accepted knot for attaching an anchor rode or chain to the ring of an anchor, hence the name. “Bend” here is used in its older sense, simply meaning to tie fast, rather than the modern sense of joining two ropes.

A bit of history: The anchor bend is closely related to the round turn and two half hitches, differing in that the first half hitch is tucked under the round turn rather than over it. This makes it markedly more resistant to slipping under a sustained, working load, which is exactly what an anchor rode needs.

Pros:

• Very secure under long, steady loads
• Unlikely to work loose while anchored

Cons:

• Can jam tight after heavy loading, making it awkward to undo
• Slower to tie than a clove hitch or cleat hitch

How to tie it:

• Pass the working end twice through the ring or shackle to form a round turn
• Bring it across the round turn and tuck it under, forming a half hitch that passes under the turn itself
• Add a second half hitch around the standing part below the first
• For extra security, seize the working end to the standing part with light line or tape

Alternative: A round turn and two half hitches is faster to tie and easier to undo where the load will not be sustained for long.

10. Highwayman’s Hitch

Why it’s called that: The name was popularised in 1947 by knot historian Cyrus L. Day, who attributed it to the eighteenth century English highwayman Dick Turpin, on the theory that a robber on horseback needed a hitch he could release in an instant. Knot historian Geoffrey Budworth has since noted there is no real evidence highwaymen ever used it. Day’s own book recommended it as a quick-release mooring hitch for solo sailors, which is where it earns its keep today.

A bit of history: Whatever its origin, the hitch has become a favourite for single-handed sailors who need to cast off from a dock cleat or ring without leaving the cockpit or untying a knot by hand. It is built from three interlocking bights and releases with a single pull on the working end.

Pros:

• Releases instantly with one pull, even under light tension
• Can be tied anywhere along the rope, not just at the end

Cons:

• Not fully trustworthy in rough conditions or with stiff, slippery line
• Should never be used for a load that must stay secured, such as a person or a critical mooring in a blow

How to tie it:

• Pass a bight of the rope through the ring or around the post
• Form a second bight in the standing part and push it through the first bight
• Form a third bight in the working end and push it through the second
• Load the standing part to lock the hitch, and pull the working end to release it instantly

Alternative: For a quick-release hitch with a stronger reputation for staying put, use a tumble hitch, tied in a similar way but generally considered more secure.

Honourable Mentions

These knots earn their place in a well-rounded repertoire.

Zeppelin Bend

Also called the Rosendahl bend, after US Navy officer Charles Rosendahl, who reportedly favoured it for mooring airships at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. The story is disputed by knot historians, and it may owe more to a 1976 magazine article than to real airship crews. What is certain is that it joins two ropes securely, resists jamming, and stays easy to untie even after a heavy load, which makes it a strong alternative to the sheet bend for joining two lines of similar diameter.

AND it’s got a cool name- the Zepper!

Water Bowline A bowline with a clove hitch built into the standing loop instead of a simple turn. The extra friction stops it from working loose or jamming when the rope is wet, which is why it suits a tender painter or a towline that spends time in the water. Slightly slower to tie and untie than a standard bowline, but worth the extra step whenever the rope will be soaked.

Snuggle Hitch A twentieth century addition to the knot family, devised by Owen K. Nuttall of the International Guild of Knot Tyers and first published in the Guild’s magazine in 1987. It takes the clove hitch and adds one more turn before the tuck, giving noticeably more grip on a spar or rail without adding much tying time. A good option wherever a clove hitch has been slipping.

Ground Hitch Also known as the ground-line hitch, picket-line hitch, or miller’s knot. The name comes from its traditional use by cod fishermen to fasten ganging lines to the weighted ground-line of a trawl net, and it was later adopted by cavalry to tie horses to a picket line. It grips better than a plain clove hitch and resists jamming, though it does not like being swung about once tied.

Stevedore’s Knot A bulkier cousin of the figure-eight stopper, with one extra turn worked into the bight before the end is tucked through. Dock workers, or stevedores, used it to stop line running back out through a block or fitting under heavy cargo loads, which is where the name comes from. Choose it over a plain figure eight whenever the fairlead or hole the rope runs through is larger than usual.

Bowline on a Bight

A double-loop version of the bowline tied in the middle of a rope, with no need for either end to be free. The two parallel loops can take a load together or separately, which has made it a standard choice for improvised bosun’s chairs, rescue seats, and slinging a person or gear safely from a halyard.

Carrick Bend Named after the carrack, a type of medieval trading ship, and formally recorded under this name by the French writer Daniel Lescallier in 1783. It is built for heavy rope and cable too large or stiff to bend easily into a sheet bend, and its woven, symmetrical shape will not jam even after carrying a big load or getting soaked. It is also handsome enough that sailors have long used it decoratively, as a mat or lanyard knot, alongside its working role.