I have been chastised by other sailboaters for the way I attach my dock lines to the cleats on the boat. I always run the loop through the cleat then around the horns. I have been told that only power boaters do that. The "proper" way of placing a dock line on a sailboat cleat is to just drape it over the horn......of course tie it to the dock cleat using a hitch and Flemish the tail.

The problem with the sailboat method is that I have had loops come off the horn on the boat at really bad times with the resulting "oh shit" moment causing stress for all concerned.

Is there a proper way?