Stern Tie line - BC coastal & area

So I need to purchase line for stern tie ups in Desolation and other areas. For those of you cruising these waters, you know the drill. How many feet of line do I need for a stern tie. I was toying with three hundred feet, but some one suggested six hundred would be better. Being lazy, I prefer to not tie the line to shore "stuff." I'd rather double the line and tie the other end back onto the boat, again you guys know the drill.

What say you.

If you want to double back, 300 ft will sometimes be short. 400' better. But you can buy a full reel (600') for less than 400' which will usually be by the foot. It isn't so much that you end up that far from the ring or tree, but before you get pulled in and everything straightened out and tied up, you need enough line to string it while the boat drifts around and the rode is slack.

We have 400' and served us well in Desolation and Gulf Islands. Of course 600' would be nice just in case but you have to get used to being up close and personal with the shoreline.

I bought a 600 foot reel of 1/2 inch polypro. I got one of these reels; it hangs just inside the cockpit transom

https://www.fisheriessupply.com/shoreline-reel-compact-stern-tie

For years I used a couple of milk crates with 1/2" three strand nylon for my stern tie. I worked well, taking the crate of line with me, tied off at the boat, climb ashore, go around a rock or tree, and back to the boat.
Last summer I tried a spool of that yellow poly floating line (as on Spinner's post above). My spool is 600 ft long, comes on a wood spool with a 2" hole in the centre. A boathook through the hole, all tied off in a place that is out of the way, yet can feed the line across the stern of the boat. A treat compared to hauling a crate of rope with me, all I have to haul is the end of the line, around the fastening point and back to the boat. This line catches up less than 3 strand too, so easier to recover when it is time to go.

I'd recommend yellow line. Sometimes other dinks go in between your boat and the shore...saw one clothesline incident with dark line.

We have 600' of 3/8" yellow poly braid on a garden hose reel, works great boat to shore and back. Just untie the loose end and reel it in .........

I carry 400' of plaited 1/2" nylon line in a 5 gallon bucket for shore tie. Plaited line lays flat and takes up less space.

I don't double the line back to the boat. It usually twists and becomes hard to pull. I prefer to dinghy ashore, retrieve the line and rinse it on the beach to keep the seaweed, mud and sand from getting all over the boat.

I prefer shore lines to sink, especially when rafted with others and multiple shore lines are set. Floating line makes using tenders difficult. With a sunk line, we can drive over it with the tender. A large float is attached to the shore line to alert others where the shore lines are located.

I don't tie to trees to avoid harm to the bark. I tie a sacrificial heavy rope around rocks and clip my shore line to that.

The shore line is also used for stern anchoring with the addition of a chain and anchor.

I use 600 feet of 3/8 inch polyprop (floating) line. From what I have witnessed over the years of watching others stern tie, it seems the difficult part is getting the line back to the "mothership" if you want the line to go to shore and back. To solve this, I take 2 lines ashore, the stern tie, and a much thinner "messenger line". I take both lines ashore and pass the stern tie through the ring (or rings - explain that a bit later), and tie a bowline in the end of the stern tie line. I then clip the messenger line to the bowline, and my wife on the boat reels in the messenger line bringing the stern line back to the boat quickly. On shore, I can pull slack from the mothership to ease the pulling for my "bride". We use a small electrical cord reel for storing and retrieving the messenger line. Works like a charm! Once the end reaches the boat, my wife cleats it off and pulls in what slack she can in the "bight" of the rope (first leg of the trip ashore) and cleats that off when she can't pull anymore. I then easily return to the boat and tighten up as needed.

If using a stern tie ring that is it. If going around a tree, I then use a "bridle" made out of 5/8 inch 3 strand polyprop. This bridle is about 6 feet long, with a small metal eye spliced in one end and a larger ring spliced into the other. On shore, put the bridle around the tree. Then pass the stern line through the small eye first, followed by the large eye. Attach the messenger line, and see above. The bridle eliminates any "sawing action" on the tree, protecting it.
To leave without going ashore, uncleat the free end of the stern line, and tie a knot in the end. Retrieve the line as usual. The knot will pass through the large eye, and "catch up" on the small eye, dragging the bridle back to the mothership with the stern line. I have never damaged a tree yet, and only had the system 'hang up" once necessitating going ashore to free up the snag.
While deploying (due to wind or current) we have used almost the entire 600 feet one time, so it was nice to have it.

We have 600' of 3/8" yellow poly braid on a garden hose reel, works great boat to shore and back. Just untie the loose end and reel it in

This is helpful.

I prefer shore lines to sink, especially when rafted with others and multiple shore lines are set. Floating line makes using tenders difficult. With a sunk line, we can drive over it with the tender. A large float is attached to the shore line to alert others where the shore lines are located.

Do you use a weight at the middle to help keep the line down?

rsn48 said:

We have 600' of 3/8" yellow poly braid on a garden hose reel, works great boat to shore and back. Just untie the loose end and reel it in

This is helpful.

I prefer shore lines to sink, especially when rafted with others and multiple shore lines are set. Floating line makes using tenders difficult. With a sunk line, we can drive over it with the tender. A large float is attached to the shore line to alert others where the shore lines are located.

Do you use a weight at the middle to help keep the line down?

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The nylon line sinks to the bottom by it's own weight. When anchored in strong current, the line will sometimes rise off the bottom so I'll attach a downrigger ball.

The float marking the shore line is attached to the line with a 12' lanyard to keep the line from being lifted up by the float.

Thank you all for remembering to not tie stern lines to trees without some sort of bridle so you don’t girdle the tree and for reminding us here.

I installed a sailboat winch on the stern rail to make pulling the stern in easier. They are frequently available at the used-boat-junk stores, usually need to be dismantled and cleaned/greased because they are the sailboater’s equivalent to Simms pumps maintenance but they are meant to last. In fact, I wish more boat stuff was as robust!

Floating line, too many oysters and rocks!

w8n4sun said:

We have 400' and served us well in Desolation and Gulf Islands. Of course 600' would be nice just in case but you have to get used to being up close and personal with the shoreline.

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If I remember correctly, Mabuhay is the first word in the Philippine national anthem?

Source of Supply

We went the 600’ route.

https://www.cwcglobal.com/rope-cordage/3-strand-polypropylene/yellow

If you buy the 600' spool (like I did), you can always steal from the spool for dinghy painters and life ring lines.

We have 600' and used quite a bit of it while learning. We now tuck into the corners of beaches or estuaries where the distances are shorter, setting the anchor up hill on steep sloping bottoms which gets us closer to shore.

If wind comes up on the beam, we've taken the spare anchor upwind by dinghy and tied it off to a midship cleat.

Being in BC early in the spring and again in the fall, with summers in SE, I can’t remember the last time I used a stern tie.
Our Krogen came with a 600’ spool mounted on the upper deck, which probably works fine but I’ve never taken the cover off it.
The past few months of “shelter in place” have me itching for a bit of socializing, but not enough to yearn for a Desolation Sound anchorage in early August.

Ventana:
I'm with you. We just avoid anywhere where a stern tie is necessary. There was one on the boat when we bought it but has never been used.

At the very ends of many mainland inlets, especially on BC's north coast, stern tying is the safest option because of how steep the bottom falls away from estuary drying flats.

Only under perfect conditions (light onshore breeze during the day, light offshore breeze at night) have we set the anchor hard "up hill" into the slope and spent the night...even then I set the depth alarm to let us know if a moderate offshore breeze kicked up and plucked the anchor out of the slope.

When we get a storm anchor and rode for winter cruising, it'll be at least 600' so we can anchor in deeper water where the bottom usually isn't so steep.

Smaller boats tuck into tighter spaces so our anchoring options are greater and sometimes require a bit of creativity

600 ft of high visibility line on a garden hose reel.

I also agree with Ventana. I have 600' of 1/2 poly on a reel in the lazarette that I haven't used in 10 years. I've come to prefer to be anchored in deeper water and to have the bow come up into the wind, rather than abeam to the wind as often happens with stern tying. I also don't miss the excercise of running the line to shore, etc.

Ventana said:

Being in BC early in the spring and again in the fall, with summers in SE, I can’t remember the last time I used a stern tie.

Our Krogen came with a 600’ spool...

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What Ventana said! We tried it once and it was a massive fail! A bright red boat left the anchorage with its tail beneath its legs!

We’ve travelled from Steveston to Prince Rupert, the Central coast and Haida Gwaii. Never once have we found that a stern tie was necessary in our situation, nor did we regret not anchoring in a spot because it required a stern tie.

Jim

JDCAVE said:

We’ve travelled from Steveston to Prince Rupert, the Central coast and Haida Gwaii. Never once have we found that a stern tie was necessary in our situation, nor did we regret not anchoring in a spot because it required a stern tie.

Jim

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Same here, yet I still carried 600 ft on a hose reel and was ALWAYS in the way.

I want to carry the line in a situation where I don't want to stern tie but am forced to as I ended up anchoring in an area I didn't intend to at the start of the day. I'm an introvert so the idea of going into "Desolation" Sound in July and August has zero appeal. I'm more a gunkholing kind of guy. But I'd rather have something than not, and currently I don't have anything.

We use it because we sometimes are away from the boat for a long day of hiking, so can't keep tabs on the mothership.

If the only anchoring is on the 'angle of repose' of glaciomarine clay, muck, and mud, there is a danger of the anchor being plucked out of the slope if the wind/current is taking the boat away in the direction the slope is going down.

The rode could go from about 1:10 (pulling upslope) to 1:2 (pulling away from the slope).

The stern tie keeps the anchor pulling uphill.

As mentioned, soon not to be a problem with something like 90' of chain and 600' of 8 strand which will get us into deeper water with less slope on the bottom.

Russell Clifton said:

Ventana:
I'm with you. We just avoid anywhere where a stern tie is necessary. There was one on the boat when we bought it but has never been used.

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IMHO a boat your size with the aft visibility limitations is not one I would want to be trying to run a line ashore from. I was OK with a 42-foot Bristol trawler in the North Channel doing that. As I say, just my opinion.

rgano said:

IMHO a boat your size with the aft visibility limitations is not one I would want to be trying to run a line ashore from. I was OK with a 42-foot Bristol trawler in the North Channel doing that. As I say, just my opinion.

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I agree. It's just not in the frame of reference for anchoring possibilities with larger boats.

In some of the anchorages it was necessary to stern tie and we eventually got used to being close to shoreline. In this spot our stern was less than 20' fromm shoreline at low tide. But it was worth it for the beauty and scenery. We have a 400' flatline reel.


I also liked not swinging around in circles overnight, kind of a nice feeling to know we were staying in the same spot. We haven't experienced high winds while stern tied so that will be a new experience one day.

rsn48 said:

I want to carry the line in a situation where I don't want to stern tie but am forced to as I ended up anchoring in an area I didn't intend to at the start of the day. I'm an introvert so the idea of going into "Desolation" Sound in July and August has zero appeal. I'm more a gunkholing kind of guy. But I'd rather have something than not, and currently I don't have anything.

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Maybe one of the "never used mine" folks can sell you their rig for a great price. Sounds like a win-win.

Ken E. said:

I also agree with Ventana. I have 600' of 1/2 poly on a reel in the lazarette that I haven't used in 10 years. I've come to prefer to be anchored in deeper water and to have the bow come up into the wind, rather than abeam to the wind as often happens with stern tying. I also don't miss the excercise of running the line to shore, etc.

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Odd. I cruise PNW and use a stern line a few times every trip. Places like Prideaux Haven, Squirrel Cove, Octopus Islands are either crowded or narrow such that swinging is not a good idea. My avatar picture is my tiny boat in Octopus and a full swing there my be a disaster. Anchoring in Chatterbox with my stern to the wall is common when the docks are full.

My experience anyway...

Pete