Cleat Hitching -- Forms, style, etiquette?!

[Dan Lehman]

Recently I decided to take my D40 along to document the state of the practice
of random cleat hitching in a small, small-craft marina in Wildwood South Jersey.
(This is the southern part of "New" Jersey, where those stereotypical denigrations
of the state have absolutely no traction -- farmlands (the Garden State), pine barrens,
coast lines (albeit choked in places w/grandiose marketing dreams). My commute
takes me through Clifford Ashley's old waypoint of Bridgeton & Port Norris/Bivalve
(a bit of a deliberate devation -- much crabbing, few oysters).)

I posted 16 photos on the Int.Guild of Knot Tyers [sic] Practical Knots forum,
at
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=1440.0

Some of these are wonders to behold !

Besides raising the obvious question Why don't folks know (... better)?,
the frequent sharing of a cleat (new-fangled, S-shaped ones, here) raises
the question of etiquette in doing that. Is it expected? (Well, I think that
the circumstances frequently give no good option.) And in the case where
the underlying line must be removed, is the remover expected to re-tie the
overlying hitch as it was done (might be hard to remember/figure), or ... ?!

Of the entire set of hitches I saw that brief visit (35?), maybe just a couple
could be matched to book-wise instructions; many are more nearly works
of art -- or comedy. (Actually, had I thought them art, I'd have used more
megapixels in photographing them -- but in fact stayed at 1.5mp.)

Then there is this S-shaped cleat: it gives different aspects to different
approaches -- i.e., from its left vs. right (seems better from its right, viewed
from the dock, boatwards).

Also, am I right in suspecting that one loses friction as the line-/cleat-size
ratio diminishes (relatively small line for cleat)? -- take extra fig.8 wraps,
or maybe put in a full round turn to start?!

--dl*
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