Yeah, the term makes sense. The use of such a device/line on these boats in that breeze... not so much...

A simple fix would be to take the hobble line through a cleat so they could just blow it off (assuming someone can reach it when the boat is going sideways). Of course, without getting a better look at these boats up close, it's hard to say that they're not already set up this way, but they simply couldn't get it uncleated in time...

Mike