Marling Hitches

by Rope Fashions

Marling Hitches

Marling Hitches are used on sail boats to fasten a furled sail to a boom when it is not in use. They are a series of overhand knots that spread the pressure along the length of the sail. They are useful in rope bondage any time that you want to fasten a limb to something, applying gentle pressure along the length of the limb.

Here we are marling our captive's arms to the uprights of a chair. You could use marling hitches to fasten your partner’s arms to a porch railing, or her arms and legs to an X-cross.

Step 1: Marling Hitches do not hold well against pulls along the axis of the limb (they just collapse), so they need to be backed up with something that will resist axial pulling.

Here we use our standard wrist restraints. (See the Wrist and Ankle Restraints tutorial for how to make these.) The wrist restraints are tied to the back legs of the chair, just below the seat, holding her hands in place.

Step 2: We start the marling hitches with a lark’s head around the wrist and the upright of the chair.

Step 3: Now, instead of wrapping the rope in the opposite direction, so it pulls against the loop, we continue in the same direction and wrapping around the arm and the chair. It looks better this way.

Step 4: Bring the rope around and cross it over itself.

Step 5: Now run the top rope under the bottom rope and up the arm, forming an overhand knot.

Step 6: Make sure you cross the top rope over the bottom before going under the bottom. If you don’t, you will have half-hitches, rather than overhand knots, and it won’t hold in place as well. To tell if you are doing it right, make a bunch of marling hitches around a wooden pole, then pull out the pole. If you end up with a series of knots, you did it right. If you end up with just a piece of rope and no knots, you didn’t do it correctly.

Continue making overhand knots up the arm, making sure that your tension is even, and not too tight.

Step 7: When you reach the underarm, and you cannot make any more half-hitches, tie the end of the rope to the top of the chair back.

Now do the same thing on the other side. This will give her arms a nice, completely-confined feeling. And if she is a struggler, it will make it a lot harder for her to loosen the wrist restraints by pulling against them, since she will have almost no arm mobility.

I hope you enjoy marling your partner as much as I do mine.