Interesting quick release knot video

Looks like a tumble hitch.

I would never leave a boat unattended with it but it is useful when single-handed for quickly releasing the last line from the cockpit when leaving a berth. Better than a long slip line.
 
It doesn't quite seem identical to a tumble hitch (the last loop stays on the near side of the bar instead of going round the back like it does in the other pictures I find online) but it's obviously very similar. Like a highwayman's hitch with just a little extra security.

Still not enough to leave it unattended, though. Like the highwayman's hitch, something to use to temporarily secure the tender that you're sitting in, ready to instantly release after someone drops the last bag into the boat.

Pete
 
Perhaps this is the same knot. I enjoyed the no-nonsense, authoritative delivery of the guy giving the demo. Sounds like an American drill-sergent.

That one is a standard highwayman's hitch. I often use it for temporarily securing a tender just before I leave - start the engine, yank the end of the painter from where I'm sat in the stern, and it drops neatly into the bow.

However authoritative his tone, though, he's wrong when he says "you can put all the strain you want right here". With enough load the second slipped loop will capsize through the knot and it all comes apart. That's why I'd only use it to tie up a tender I was already sitting in, not one I was going to leave unattended even briefly. The cub leader who originally taught me the knot said this was so that the highwayman's highly-trained horse could pull itself free when he whistled for it in an emergency :)

Pete
 
That one is a standard highwayman's hitch. I often use it for temporarily securing a tender just before I leave - start the engine, yank the end of the painter from where I'm sat in the stern, and it drops neatly into the bow.

However authoritative his tone, though, he's wrong when he says "you can put all the strain you want right here". With enough load the second slipped loop will capsize through the knot and it all comes apart. That's why I'd only use it to tie up a tender I was already sitting in, not one I was going to leave unattended even briefly. The cub leader who originally taught me the knot said this was so that the highwayman's highly-trained horse could pull itself free when he whistled for it in an emergency :)

Pete

My use of the knot was to enable me to control my lines while exiting my trot mooring single handed. I was able to "undo" my bow line from the cockpit and retain control of the boat. I think that for this application, with very little strain on the knot, it worked well.
I agree with you Pete that it should not be relied upon where high loads are involved.
Also, although the chap in the video has a slow, resolute and authoritative tone it doesn't necessarily mean that he speaks the irrefutable truth :)
 
One I use occasionally for dinghy release purposes is what I only know as a Greek fisherman's knot.
Make a clove hitch, pass the line around the rail, pass a bight through the clove hitch, tighten, then take the tail back to the dinghy. A sharp pull on the bight pulls it through and collapses the clove hitch and you're away.
 
Make a clove hitch, pass the line around the rail, pass a bight through the clove hitch, tighten, then take the tail back to the dinghy.

Sounds like the end of the line is passed around the rail in making that, though? So you have to pull the whole length of the painter back round again after releasing.

The nice thing about the highwayman's hitch (and similar) is that it's made in the bight of the rope, so as soon as it releases the painter drops clear of the rail with no need to pull the end through.

Pete
 

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