Floating dock and creaking lines

We were docked starboard side-to on a floating dock this past weekend. Bow into the wind, because the nearest power pedestal required it. We had some very strong winds during the night and that led to the bow being pushed hard to port. This put a fair strain on the starboard lines, leading to creaking where they passed through the fairlead on the way to the cleat. This was especially bad at the bow cleat right above the forward stateroom where I was fitfully attempting to sleep.

There was enough force to the wind to likely have pulled any sort of in-line snubber taut.

I did manage to quiet it down some by pouring water on it. This worked until the howling wind managed to dry the line out again. This was happening with both a new and an older braided line. The older line was at the mid-ship cleat and was also creaking badly.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this situation in the future? Besides moving the boat, of course. That would not be practical in that kind of wind or a transient slip situation. Not to mention it being 3am.

I always use 3 in 1 oil to stop my lines from creaking. Just kidding! Don’t do that.

Falcom mooring compensator. I believe that is what they are called. The stretch so the lines don’t draw up tight with a bang.

2 part the lines in question. IOW double up on them.

What was the nature/type of lines?

Double up your lines.

A bit of dishwashing soap.

markpierce said:

What was the nature/type of lines?

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Doesn't matter,if he 2 parts the lines it will solve the problem Mark. Dish soap and water are great but if you want to sleep, 2 part them.

Comodave said:

Falcom mooring compensator. I believe that is what they are called. The stretch so the lines don’t draw up tight with a bang.

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The wind was strong enough that I think it would have pulled the snubber tight, effectively rendering it useless. But I think I still have a snubber like that in storage. I'll drag it out and keep it onboard should I run into the same kind of problem again.

markpierce said:

What was the nature/type of lines?

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Nylon Double-braided. Like these: Blue : Online Rope Store, www.onlineropestore.com

Sailor of Fortune said:

Doesn't matter,if he 2 parts the lines it will solve the problem Mark. Dish soap and water are great but if you want to sleep, 2 part them.

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2 part? I've not heard lines referenced that way.

During one attempt to fix it I did add a second line at the bow. But there's only one cleat up there so the line had to go through the same fairlead, resting against the line already present. The 1st line was leading to a cleat almost directly beside the boat, down near the waterline on the floating dock. The second line I added at 3am led forward to another cleat on the floating dock. Adding it did not change the noise problem, but did at least give me another attachment given the very strong winds.

I suspected dish soap might be a possible fix. Didn't want to go clattering through various cabinets to find it at 3am. Better that than oils or vaseline. These were the lines we use for traveling, so I'd prefer to avoid gunking them up with something hard to clean.

It was the line being pulled tight where it goes through the metal fairlead on the wood deck rail that was making the noise. Where the red arrow points in this picture. The starboard size has red ovals highlighting where the fairlead is located and the cleat on that side. That picture was from another day, but it shows the same line direction and point where the line was making noises.

It sure sounds like a day you might double up the lines, but I wonder if some form of protective cover where it passes through the fairlead might help. They sell here in packs of ?4 as "Gropes"(sorry brand name lacks PC, but there it is).

Three strand is quieter. Braided line seems to make more noise (IMO)

when we use braided line we get a squeak in strong winds but is we change to three strand lines we dont get squeaks

There are rubber chafe guards that might quiet the lines.


Plan B might be heavier dock lines that do not stretch from the wind load.

hmason said:

A bit of dishwashing soap.

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Yes this solves it

My anchor snubber would creek where it came on board with chafe protection sleeves. Changed sleeves to chafepro brand, no more creeking as they stretch.

Maybe an option for you. Can’t explain why, just noticed it, and am thankful.

Use the rubber snubber. Doesn't matter that the thing runs out of travel as long as it is the right size for the line. It will do its job.

Just do not over wrap the line onto it as I have seen many do. Instructions clearly say no more than three complete wraps but I see 4 or maybe 5 and then they will tear. I put on two wraps and that was all I needed.
Done correctly they will have a long life. SOme of mine are pushing 20 yrs.

It will take the shock out of the boat when the lines run out of stretch. I was faced with a similar situation and doubling the lines did not help. Squeek and sudden abrupt pull up was causing trouble.

I was just lucky. The marina I was staying at had two for sale so I bought them. Once installed the shock disappeared and the noise was far less.

Now all my permanent dock lines sport them.

crashley said:

when we use braided line we get a squeak in strong winds but is we change to three strand lines we dont get squeaks

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That is because the 3 strand stretches more than double braid. I suggested using a mooring compensator because they allow stretch. We were at a marina with a long ago boat that had lots of wind. The boats would hammer against the dock lines badly. I put on 4 mooring compensators and the ride was completely different, no more jerking and a lot less noise. People would notice how much differently our boat was riding and soon almost all the boats in the marina had mooring compensators.

I use Brait (brand name) and have no troubles w creaking.
My fwd mooring lines have a anti-chafe heater hose where it passes through the chock.
I would think the spring lines would creak more.
Maybe I have some creaking and don’t notice it.

I have these Falcon snubbers with 3/4” line . They are a little overkill but they work .

would there be a way to tie off from your pulpit ? That way you would have a straight line from your boat to the dock with no chaffe/inflection point.

Only time I've noticed rope sounds was when opposite lines were too tight. Since then I've allowed some slack. We use braided rope.

If my lines start making noise I just dump a bucket of water on them.

I just dream that I'm on a clipper rounding the horn. Creaking, howling wind and wave noises fit right in. So much easier than getting out of the bunk at 3am.

Kind of serious here...

I mean, you are at a dock.

If it is just a creaking noise, I agree that is part of sleeping on a boat. If it is also jerking the boat, then I want it taken care of.

FF said:

There are rubber chafe guards that might quiet the lines.

Plan B might be heavier dock lines that do not stretch from the wind load.

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One was 5/8, the other 3/4". So I don't think that would have helped. One was new, the other came with the boat from the previous owners. So condition/size didn't seem to make much difference in this particular situation.

I suppose there was 'some' amount of stretching involved. The wind was gusting quite a bit, so between a constant 25 kt and 30+ gusts, and wave action, there was a lot of movement to the boat.

crashley said:

when we use braided line we get a squeak in strong winds but is we change to three strand lines we dont get squeaks

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I wondered about this. I'm going to pick up a 50' 3-strand to keep on board for this sort of situation. We generally prefer the double-braided as it's nicer to handle. But I'll trade that for a decent night's sleep next time!

Northern Spy said:

I just dream that I'm on a clipper rounding the horn. Creaking, howling wind and wave noises fit right in. So much easier than getting out of the bunk at 3am.

Kind of serious here...

I mean, you are at a dock.

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Comodave said:

If it is just a creaking noise, I agree that is part of sleeping on a boat. If it is also jerking the boat, then I want it taken care of.

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Yeesh, people, there's expected and then there's problematic noise. There's certainly a lot of noise to be expected in a boat, and we're accustomed to that. But 30+ gusts at a transient slip aren't typical, at least not for us. You may be used to all sorts of things, and bravo for that.

Others, however, might want to discuss how to work around problems like this when they come up. I'm grateful to those that have shared helpful observations. I'll give the 3-strand and the soap a try if/when I'm ever stuck in that situation again.

markpierce said:

Only time I've noticed rope sounds was when opposite lines were too tight. Since then I've allowed some slack. We use braided rope.

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Agreed, and if we'd been in a regular slip I'd have been able to do that. But, as I posted, it was side-to on a floating dock. Letting the line out just allowed the boat to more farther out, the line tightened up again and the noise returned. It wasn't my ideal slip, but as a transient I was left with what was available. And from discussions with other local boaters the floating dock was preferable, most of the time. It just happened that night had high winds with even higher gusts.

Benthic2 said:

would there be a way to tie off from your pulpit ? That way you would have a straight line from your boat to the dock with no chaffe/inflection point.

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Good suggestion. I considered it but there was to much the potential for the line to get caught or rub on the edge of the anchor pulpit. Nor was there a clear way to get a line on the (port) opposite bow cleat to run at a straighter angle. Nor could I run a line from the port bow cleat, out it's fairlead and under the anchor because it'd hit the underside of the anchor. I was really trying to come up with solutions, at 3am in a howling wind but nothing seemed like a viable option.

I briefly entertained running a line from one of the bow cleats, around the windlass and straight out over the wood rail, but I didn't have a line long enough to extend to the only cleat on the floating dock that would have allowed for a shallow enough angle to clear the wood. I'd have needed a 70' line to make that work and I don't have one that long on board. My 50' line wouldn't have made the reach. I didn't need sleep bad enough to start entertaining ideas that would cause me more headaches later (varnishing, parted lines, etc).

About the only thing that would have made it "less worse" would have been if we'd been docked the other way around, with the stern into the wind. That would have left the line noises at the far end of the boat instead of directly over our heads. But the slip's shore power pole wasn't close enough to make that work (even with a 75' cord in the cablemaster). Sometimes transient slips don't have options. We had a great time at the place otherwise, but I'll definitely wrangle for a different slip when we're there again (Hyatt Cambridge, MD).

Looking at the bow picture perhaps if you set up with a large spliced bow eye and the splice portion going over the fair lead the extra layers of the splice would make less rubbing noise?

FF said:

Looking at the bow picture perhaps if you set up with a large spliced bow eye and the splice portion going over the fair lead the extra layers of the splice would make less rubbing noise?

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Since it was a transient slip and passing weather conditions I won't be able to easily repeat it anytime soon. That and the noise was a combination of the line itself compressing and motion against the fairlead. It was hard to tell which.

I did add a second bow line, coming off the same starboard bow cleat. It's line passed along the same edge of the fairlead. It's exit angle only changed when it left there. That is, both lines laid against the aft end of the fairlead. The 1st line then angled down and only slightly forward. The second line had a much shallower forward exit angle to a cleat about 25' ahead of the boat. This took pressure off the first line, but the new line also creaked under the load.

I think this approximates your suggestion of the large splice portion resting at the fairlead. Not exactly, but perhaps close enough?

So I think it was more a matter of the kind of line (double braided) and it's stretching that was causing most the noise, not necessarily the motion across the fairlead itself. I intend to carry a 3-strand instead, should similar conditions present themselves in the future. That and a snubber. If I'd had the snubber with me I'd have tried putting that in my second bow line. That may well have been able to transfer the line stretching to that point, along with the noise.

Thanks everyone, I've learned a bit more about how line types and various gizmos may help should I run across this situation again.