Using Spring Lines to get on and off a dock....

psneeld said:

For me who basically singlehands a lot, especially when working commercial boats, method 1 can be easier to set up and do by myself....

But #2 set up well and with a good deckhand/fender placement will have a higher success ratio with a single engine vessel.

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Or you can cut out the middle man.

When alone and having to get out like this, I bring the line back to me in the pilot house door.

Also being alone too much, I will use the midships cleat as it gives me more options, usually to pull the stern in. But single handing, the other big advantage is that the midships line will not allow the boat to go 90 degrees.

I just found in severe conditions....you will never get coles enough to the dock to work a midship anything without help...so I am geared towards bow and stern springs as I can always get one of them close...obviously on much larger boats getting to the ends is harder.

psneeld said:

I just found in severe conditions....you will never get coles enough to the dock to work a midship anything without help...so I am geared towards bow and stern springs as I can always get one of them close...obviously on much larger boats getting to the ends is harder.

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yes, but for me with the low rail midships and only steps from the pilot house, it is the one place that is really is severe conditions and I am desperate, I can make a large loop midships and even give it a turn and a half on the cleat.

I walk the end of the large loop up to my PH door, thus the loop is probably 20' in diameter. Thus I just have to get some portion of it over something that's bolted down.
If my aim is good and the wind did not toss the line back in my face, , then I jump back in the PH and do whatever I need to do to kill the momentum and probably swing the stern in.

No, it's not for the faint hearted , but usually by this point I am even more desperate to get out of these seas.

See for me, nose the bow up to a cleat where my stern ultimately goes , even 90 degrees to the dock and wind/current forcing me off works....unless the dock is concrete...heck even leave it in gear and run forward and drop a loop over the cleat/piling.

The line should be about the length of the boat, maybe a tad shorter.. Even if the wind/current pushes me all the way off to a taught line....I can still come forward at an angle that the side I want the dock on....the line slowly pulls me in. This type of spring allows the greatest prop thrust with the minimum force on the dock hardware....a stern spring only works if the rudder angle is great enough with prop thrust to overcome the forces.....in my experience most but not all the time.

I have used this method on one boat even in 60 knots of wind single handed....granted it was smaller than my trawler, but out of all the spring line methods, I can't envision one that is going to work better than this..

Unless you can get to and maintain 10 feet off the dock so one can toss a loop to a piling/cleat....and a 10 foot toss in 30 knots of wind to a cleat...then you are a better man than I Gunga Din.

I used to use this technique with the sailboats all the time. One thing I found that helped with a dock clear was to run a dock line from the boat to a cleat on the dock. Loop the line through the hole in the center of the cleat and then make a slip knot in the loop and run the bitter end back to the boat. When you go to leave, give the bitter a yank and the line releases and returns to the boat. There is nothing to hang up on the dock or cleat.

Works really for single handing as well.

Unless there is a lot of pull on the dock line which will compress the trip line and make it difficult to pull through.

OK for mild conditions...I would beware if blowing or good current.

A simple pass around the cleat is fine and it can be flipped off or just drawn back around.....always the end without a loop hopefully.

Instead of sticking the line through the hole in the cleat, why not take 1/2 wrap around the cleat so the Admiral can let it loose when the time is right? The line should start at the "aft" end of the cleat (under the horn that points toward your stern) so when the boat starts moving forward the line won't slip off the cleat.

psneeld said:

Unless there is a lot of pull on the dock line which will compress the trip line and make it difficult to pull through.

OK for mild conditions...I would beware if blowing or good current.

A simple pass around the cleat is fine and it can be flipped off or just drawn back around.....always the end without a loop hopefully.

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GFC said:

Instead of sticking the line through the hole in the cleat, why not take 1/2 wrap around the cleat so the Admiral can let it loose when the time is right? The line should start at the "aft" end of the cleat (under the horn that points toward your stern) so when the boat starts moving forward the line won't slip off the cleat.

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Both good points. I agree that if you have a lot of pressure on the line, it can take a good yank to free it. It is also important to have the right size line for the job. So far, I have never had a problem using this method. I have always been a little concerned about a line having to run around the two horns of a cleat without catching on something if the line is just looped around and then the bitter end released. I have never had that happen, but that has been a concern.

Another thing that I have done is when using a breast line on the bow to kick the stern out (wheel turned towards the dock, engage the engine with the breast line holding the bow) I have looped the bow line over the aft horn only of the dock cleat. Once the stern is out and I start to back away from the dock, the line comes free of the cleat on its own without having the deck hand have to release the line. It helps to have a deck hand watch to ensure that the breast line doesn't loop over the forward horn in the process.

Again, what worked for me on my 40' sailboat may not work on my new boat. Time will tell. At least now I have bow and stern thrusters to use in case the above fails.