Not strong enough for docking a bigger boat??

[Ken E.]

I live on a 83', 80 ton boat. I solo more often than with passengers. I'm also 70 years old. I have severe arthritis in my hands. But neither age or arthritis stops me. Most yachtsmen don't take the time to really learn boat handling. They approach it as if driving a car with wheels.

The boat gets into dock position, the lines secure it. In more difficult conditions the use of spring lines help get the boat in position.
I usually dock with 1 spring line from mid bow to a dock cleat past midships. I have the spring fastened and ready to drop on a cleat before approaching the dock. I leave one engine in gear pushing against the spring and set my other lines. Not much different that how I docked ships.
If people would take a day or several days and learn their boat, docking would not be difficult. There are many professional books available that describe the forces affecting boat movement and how to control it.
In the hundreds and maybe thousands of dockings I have done, single and twin, current or slack, windy or not, I never had a thruster to use.

Excellent advise from Lepke. If you only know one spring line rig, this is it. Simple, easy, and more powerful than any thruster.

 

[dimer2]

To assist in docking solo.

So far I’ve been able to get Badger to the dock, step off, tie the midship line to the bull rail, and get the bow & stern lines tied before either starts drifting too much.

AusCan gave some strategies a few posts ago for extra windy days

Everyone does this different but I am not getting off my boat before I have a line secured (normally the midship as you do).

 

[MurrayM]

Everyone does this different but I am not getting off my boat before I have a line secured (normally the midship as you do).

Does your area use dock cleats, or bull rails?

 

[dimer2]

I have seldom docked with bull rails and can see where that would make things more difficult but I simply would not be able to hold my boat in any kind of breeze or current,

 

[MurrayM]

I have seldom docked with bull rails and can see where that would make things more difficult but I simply would not be able to hold my boat in any kind of breeze or current,

Yup, yours is more acreage than boat compared to ours!

 

[ghost]

As for bull rails when I’m single handing, that leaves me only about two options. First, the bullrail usually breaks at intervals. If possible, I’ll loop a line right at a break midships and spring as normal. This requires a little finesse as your hanging the line over and lassoing or using a boat hook. More often, it means the only safe way I can reach is from the swimstep. It’s the only location where I can safely reach the dock without leaning over from the deck which with bullrails, is not remotely safe. Bring the stern right to the dock. Get a SHORT line from the inside stern cleat, once around the bullrail and back to the boat is quickest. Then power onto the short line to bring the bow in.

Used to quickly get off, lines in hand and tie off from the dock. In a hurry, I did not get my first line as secure as I thought as I was in speed mode and it was windy. The stern line, and my easy step back on board, came loose and the boat was drifting away fast. I had little hope I was not going to arrest 50k pounds by myself in a breeze. Got a quick loop around the bullrail with the bow line and was able to keep the boat at the dock, but only barely. Had to climb back on over the anchor. Now I have a firm rule. I don’t leave the boat until a line is tied, not even for a brief moment lines in hand. Never.

 

[Sabre602]

Wifey B: For those of you who forgot the lines, what was your significant other doing? Shouldn't you be checking behind each other? Also do any of you use checklists which include the lines?

SabreWife was at her station, rear cockpit port side, casting off the stern line. I was at the rear control station in the cockpit, a leftover from Kingfisher's days as a commercial fishing boat. Great visibility when backing, but I can't see the bow from there. Daughter was assigned to cast off the bow line (port side); it was her first ever time aboard and I don't think she even noticed that there was also a starboard bow line.

I've always had a mental checklist, but it has never included casting off all lines! That was always in the "no-brainer" category!

 

[markpierce]

Never docked having bull rails, but why do marinas have bull rails in the first place? Seem marginally useful compared to cleats. Further, find cleats more useful than rings too.

 

[markpierce]

Perhaps, most importantly disconnect electrical lines. Once forgot to disconnect, but caught my boo boo in time.

 

[ranger58sb]

I've never docked where a line needed to go around a piling. I wouldn't have the first clue. floating docks are all that you find here and double-loaded slips are common. Often transients are put in empty double-slips. You get used to what you are used to.

Indeed.

Around here, floating docks are less common.

Piles can be a challenge for wifey if they're really tall, but they're usually easy, in either a 4-way or side tie. Nobody gets off the boat...

Whereas floating docks with cleats can be a challenge getting that first line on. I'd imagine bull rails (which I've never seen) would be more challenging... without a dock hand to assist, I mean.

I've off-loaded crew a couple times to deal with it by ourselves, but I don't like doing it... especially when wifey is the only "crew". OTOH, she's better at it in those cases than many dock hands... of the sort who just stand there and stare at the line we just gave them...

Maybe if you are docking in situations where you are up against pilings. The rub rail on my boat does no good on floating docks. Also, even if you did some up against a piling here, you don't want the rub rail to get chewed up by all the barnacles and muscles that are attached to the piling.

As such, we always set fenders before coming into the dock and then adjust if we need to (normally don't need to). If we are going into one side of a double-wide slip, we put fenders on the opposite side as well to protect the boat next to us.

We don't usually set full fenders for typical docks with piling here; rub rails do fine. We don't find much marine growth up at typical rub rail level, but then our tidal range is usually quite small in the grand scheme of things.

The exception is our stern. Sometimes short finger piers can mate up with the hull sides instead of the rub rail -- that's sometimes dependent on tides, etc. -- so we usually hang a stern fender just in case.

But then for floating docks, we hang the fenders down at dock level. We did fender up both sides at the "double load" marina we stayed at. Could have done that better on our first time in; would benefit from practice to get the fender height properly mated up with boat boats.

-Chris

 

[caltexflanc]

Pilings are easy when you have dock lines made up with BIG eyes, 24" or more. So are cleats on the dock, for that matter.

Bull rails are nice because they offer the maximum flexibility, especially on long face docks allows all shapes and sizes to tie up end to easier. We chartered a boat in the PNW where the guy had a welded T made out of a sort of rebar at the end of a long line. Worked well to get that first temporary spring on. You could either snag one of the mounting blocks with a little rodeo finesse, or scoot the thing under with a long boat hook. I was very hesitant to put much power on it though if it was just the "T" holding the boat to the dock. I saw another guy once up in the Delta using a small Danforth type anchor with good results. Best of all, of course, is to have the wind/current pushing the boat into the dock making it safe for someone to get on the dock.

 

[bayview]

I agree, never get off the boat until it is securely tied.

 

[MurrayM]

...We chartered a boat in the PNW where the guy had a welded T made out of a sort of rebar at the end of a long line. Worked well to get that first temporary spring on. You could either snag one of the mounting blocks with a little rodeo finesse, or scoot the thing under with a long boat hook...

Also heard of people using ninja style stainless steel grappling hooks. Much like the old saying, "Approach a dock as fast as you want to hit it" you wouldn't want to hit the throttle too hard in case the hook became disengaged with the bull rail

*Note to self* A line with little stretch might be a good idea!

 

[FootballFan]

We wind up with a mixture of floating docks and fixed piers.


On floating docks, fenders go out before docking. On fixed piers, fenders go out after docking, part of finalizing the tie up.


When we have bow pilings in play, I stop the boat part way into the slip. Then move to each side. Wife can easily place the bow line on with a very loose tie back to the boat. Move over do the other side. Then finish backing in the slip.


Then we adjust the bow lines to what is needed.

 

[psneeld]

for pilings lately, I put the eye of a long line on the boat cleat and use a boat hook to lift the line over top of the piling while holding the loose end.

once the line has fallen to about where I want it, I snug it up and cleat it off.

makes get- a-way easy and its a doubled line for strength, unless it gets cut or chafes through.

 

[caltexflanc]

for pilings lately, I put the eye of a long line on the boat cleat and use a boat hook to lift the line over top of the piling while holding the loose end.

once the line has fallen to about where I want it, I snug it up and cleat it off.

makes get- a-way easy and its a doubled line for strength, unless it gets cut or chafes through.

Curious how it doesn't eventually end up in the water due to tides and boat movement. Typically you need some sort of a clove hitch to prevent that on a piling freestanding in the water (as opposed to one attached to a dock), or have the piling itself equipped with a hook or cleat of some kind.

 

[ssobol]

for pilings lately, I put the eye of a long line on the boat cleat and use a boat hook to lift the line over top of the piling while holding the loose end.

once the line has fallen to about where I want it, I snug it up and cleat it off.

makes get- a-way easy and its a doubled line for strength, unless it gets cut or chafes through.

It may look like a double line, but it is still a single line and only that strong. It only takes a failure at a single point to lose the line completely.

 

[Bay Pelican]

The original tile referred to strength needed to dock a boat. While I agree that the boat should be put into the slip under power, one issue is the strength needed to handle the dock lines and the fenders.

A friend of ours had a 70 footer. They used 1" lines. With the frequent situation of the wife handling the lines and fenders and the husband at the helm the wife was having a heck of a time throwing the lines. Also the fenders were nearly as big as she was and she had a hard time moving them around. They sold the 70 footer and bought a 48 footer.

 

[psneeld]

But until that failure, which I pointed out, both legs are taking strain. A single line that is knoted is weaker and so only as strong as a knotted single with the same possibility of single point failure.

If there is tension on the line, even just its own weight, most nights they stay up, if not, no big deal if it slips some. Of course this is for places with several feet of tides, not fathoms. But usually along the ICW, where the tides are mild is where you get pilings, whete tides are larger, more floating docks and fingers.

For longer than one or two night stays, then yes, some way of keeping them in place is a good idea.

Has worked pretty well over the last 4 years of trips to from Florida.