Learning to tie lashings and seizings will allow you to join things together quickly and cheaply, using a strong bond that will not rust or corrode the way that metal fastenings can. Together, they are extremely useful skills to have aboard any boat.

GENE BJERKELashings hold objects together, while seizings fasten lines. Whether you want to fix a broken dodger or bimini, secure a pole, strap something to the deck or simply rig a canopy to protect you from the sun, learning to properly lash and seize will get the job done.

The idea is to hold things tightly together by using small line. In our modern world with many kinds of mechanical fasteners, using string is often viewed as a temporary fix until something stronger can be applied. Yet lashings and seizings need be neither weak nor temporary.

Lashings held together the marvelous boats that the Polynesians used to populate the vast Pacific and voyage among its widespread islands. Without metal fasteners, even the planks were lashed. The great cathedrals of Europe were built using wooden scaffolds held together with lashings. While an individual piece of marline or other light line may not be very strong, the strength of the lashing is multiplied by the number of wraps. That adds up quickly to a strong connection indeed.

CREATE A LASHING

For illustration, we will lash two pieces of wood together, one crossing the other at a right angle, though you can easily modify the idea for other situations.

Start your lashing with a clove hitch on one of the objects. To tie a clove hitch around an object, take a turn around the object. Then cross over the turn and take another turn, this time slipping the running end under the last turn. Pull the running part and the standing part to tighten. (For more on tying a clove hitch and other knots, see links below.)

You should see two turns around the object with both the running part and the standing part in between. Then wrap the line around the objects to pull them together. Lay each wrap of the line next to the previous wrap—don’t just pile them on top of each other. You can finish off with another clove hitch.

Make your turns as tight as you can. If you want to tighten the finished lashing further, you can work a wedge under it. Alternately, you can wrap frapping turns around the joint as shown. Pull them tight and finish off with a reef knot, which is like the knot you use to tie your shoes, but without the bow. The basic rule is: right over left and then left over right. Done correctly, the ends should be parallel with the turns around the joint.

CREATE A SEIZING

A seizing is a type of lashing used to hold two pieces of line tightly together. What you are creating is two pieces of line with the ends laid next to each other, tightly wrapped with reinforcing knots to bind them together. A seizing can help if you do not want to go through the complicated process of creating an eye splice in double-braided line, or if you have a piece of braid that cannot be spliced. A seizing will create an eye that is almost as strong.

To create a seizing, assemble your lines, marline and marlinespike, then follow the photos and be patient.

Begin by making two “pullers.” Cut off two pieces of the line you will use to make the seizing (we’ll assume it is marline) about six to eight inches long, double each one, and knot the ends. Next, cut off about six feet of marline and make a small eye in one end (the quickest way is simply to tie a bowline in it).

Wrap the eye just formed around the two pieces of line to be seized and put the other end of the marline through it to form a running eye. Tighten that around the lines so that the eye is placed over where the lines lie together. If you are seizing laid line, make sure that the succeeding wraps are taken against the lay. Before you pull the running eye tight, insert one of the pullers through the eye from the bottom to the top and fold it out of the way for now.

Now wrap the marline tightly around the lines, laying each successive wrap next to its neighbor. Make these wraps as tight as you can. Using a marlinespike will allow you to pull extremely tightly without the marline cutting into your hand. Make 10 to 12 wraps and finish by passing the working part under the last wrap in a sort of hitch. Pulling this tight will keep the wraps from loosening.

FINISHING UP

This is the strong part of the seizing. Theoretically you could stop here. However, unless the seizing is temporary, it needs protection from chafe and weather. To create that protection, continue wrapping, this time but back up toward where you started. Pull these wraps tight, but not as tight as the initial wraps (if you pull them too tight, they will squeeze down between the existing wraps). The second layer you are creating protects the tight wraps under it.