How not to dock by an experienced sailor

[capta]

I do not own a museum piece! Boats are made to use. All the good things in life are.

We're no showboat either.
We're in the yard now. Rows and rows of boats with polished or newly painted topsides. I'm so jealous. But as soon as we're home in the Windwards, our friendly boat boys will be coming alongside, bringing fish, fruit, and vegetables, etc taking our guests on tours and generally being helpful and friendly at the expense of our topsides. So instead, we're doing seacocks, renewing hoses and painting our bottom with us$7,50 a gallon antifouling paint that did much better over the last two years than the us$300.00 a gallon Sea Hawk, did the previous 4 years.

 

[Tally Ho]

The only thing that matters....

how many witnesses were there?

A few came to my rescue and helped pull me off my neighbors boat....so there were witnesses!

Greg

 

[JimInPB]

... painting our bottom with us$7,50 a gallon antifouling paint that did much better over the last two years than the us$300.00 a gallon Sea Hawk, did the previous 4 years.

Care to share a few more details????

 

[LeeandRick]

Ha! There would have been video, but I forgot to charge the camera at home, so it was down below charging to capture the ride home. It caught that is all its sportiness.

View attachment 157950

I don't own a jacket as heavy as your crew has. I don't see any geese in the picture, maybe it's time to head south.

 

[capta]

Care to share a few more details????

We tried the Sherwin Williams Sea Voyage antifouling and even though it is designed for faster boats than us, after 2 years we had some growth, but very few barnacles. This year I ordered their Antifouling 45 which is designed for harbor work boats (more like what cruising boats do speed wise) but there was an error so we were basically gifted with the Sea Voyage. Still, who's complaining?

 

[Parsons]

Yes indeed, it adds to the boat's wabi-sabi.

Thanks for teaching me another lesson, @Jackdaw . but like BlowMeAway, I had to look this up. Although I normally do not like uncommon names for boats, I may have to consider this as it perfectly describes the boats I've owned.

 

[Jackdaw]

Thanks for teaching me another lesson, @Jackdaw . but like BlowMeAway, I had to look this up. Although I normally do not like uncommon names for boats, I may have to consider this as it perfectly describes the boats I've owned.

I always loved the notion of this concept.. and that it comes from a culture we normally associate with perfection.

 

[Jackdaw]

JD, the main luff always looks loose (not necessarily in a bad way)....a factor of the sail cloth, or the shots you share.

Its the material.... zero stretch so when you sheet or vang hard it will show a tiny wrinkle. Normally we pull it out with the cunningham.

 

[Jackdaw]

Not to sound like a know it all, but wouldn't a spring line have stopped the boat and held it to the dock by powering forward against it, while you got out the bow and stern lines? Am I missing something?

Good point. It probably would have normally, but this place has diabolical docks. The piles are HUGE and outboard of the decking, so there is no good way to fend. I actually bought flat fenders I drape around the piles specifically for this dock. Coupled with the wave action, it was a hot mess. I had thought about taking the lee side and pulling her across, but we would have been pounded. Had it not been for the 'race' aspect of the day we might have gone elsewhere. The pic below some the dock on a calmer day.

 

[Jackdaw]

Jack,
What camera do you have, that is able to superimpose the heading & boat speed in the picture?
That is a nice feature.

The latest GoPros (from the Hero5 on) have built-in GPS. The camera stores the GPS info as meta-data in the MP4 file. Its therefore normally invisible, but the GoPro Quik software can read it, and optionally overlay gauges on the resulting videos and stills.

 

[pateco]

I actually bought flat fenders I drape around the piles specifically for this dock. Coupled with the wave action, it was a hot mess.

I tried flat bumpers, but the only thing that has worked for the large piles at our dock has been fender-boards.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

@Jackdaw
Congrats on advising On how to ram a dock
accidentally of course. Look at it this way. Others to include myself have done that too but at least you admitted when many of us would not.
I note you saw my thread as an expert launching a boat this past weekend. At least I got my annual bath and oh shucks, no more flies around me. That old green frog, Kermit, will have to look elsewhere for supper
Crazy

 

[Dennis Kitchen]

It's always frustrating to plan and prepare so well and still have difficulty. Nevertheless, without your skill and planning it would probably been a huge debacle, so we should probably say under the circumstances, "job well done". No doubt it has upped your game for the next time. All this is in contrast to much of the amateur hour drama seen weekly " at a boat dock near you". Boat Dock Follies I call it.
Dennis

 

[Will Gilmore]

As they say in the flying world, any landing you can walk away from...

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[Daveinet]

One of the things I curious about is why everyone does not use a center cleat and a single line. I was force to do this because when you are single handing, you need to be able to have the boat held flat to the dock until you are ready to cast off. Since my jib winches are on the top of the cabin, they make a perfect point to tie off to. I throw a slip knot around the winch. The other end of the line gets looped over the dock pole and pulled tight in the jib jam cleat. This makes it very easy to quickly cast off, or tie off when coming in. No cleats to wrap around a bunch of times. Makes it simple until you can tie off the boat properly.

 

[Jackdaw]

One of the things I curious about is why everyone does not use a center cleat and a single line. I was force to do this because when you are single handing, you need to be able to have the boat held flat to the dock until you are ready to cast off. Since my jib winches are on the top of the cabin, they make a perfect point to tie off to. I throw a slip knot around the winch. The other end of the line gets looped over the dock pole and pulled tight in the jib jam cleat. This makes it very easy to quickly cast off, or tie off when coming in. No cleats to wrap around a bunch of times. Makes it simple until you can tie off the boat properly.

That’s a great point. I use a centerline a lot when I solo sail. I wrap the line around BlueJs chain plates, and run it to a cleat midway down my dock. Picture from my solo return today. Get that attached tight and the boat goes nowhere. The trick is that it only works well when you're pulled up tight against the dock, which would’ve subjected use to a beating in this case.

 

[David in Sandusky]

We always use a spring line with a spliced loop on the midship cleat, and a big loop tied with a bowline. The crew uses a pole to help drop the big loop over a pole or cleat, then the engine and rudder do the rest. Crew easily steps to the dock with the bowline once the boat is alongside, I hold the stern to a cleat until the crew returns to make the stern line fast. Then we shut down the engine and relax, taking our time to complete other docklones.

 

[Kings Gambit]

My experience has been that most crew and certainly “guests” aboard are not skilled at docking, even in mild conditions. I had to dock my P-30 with way on to the weather finger of a double-wide slip in FL whenever the wind blew strong from the east. In other words, often. I always feared for me slip mate to leeward; so, I tried to be well placed w/ fenders.

If attempting your maneuver I’d have a boat hook ready to snag the dock cleat at the stern once the boat had stopped, or nearly so. Then work from there. I know it’s usually a toss-up using the hook for it working out just right, but I’m pretty sure I’d never jump off the boat, three feet even, onto the dock in that kind of situation. If it came to that decision point, I’d allow the boat to blow across and fend off as possible, casting a stern line to the dock man after he had gotten the bow secured. I agree—the way not to do it in your example!

 

[DougM]

I have a seawall mooring between two other boats. The wind is generally parallel to the seawall, but can either be from forward or astern. My Bene 323 had no midship cleats (evidently Beneteau thought leading spring lines through a chock, then to forward and aft cleats was a better idea).
I added midship cleats to the toe rail soon after I got the boat. We generally left our dock lines ashore, and depending on wind direction, could grab the aft or forward spring as we came in with a long boat hook. We got really good at it since we had the added incentive of protecting the neighbor’s boats.

Now, I have to do the docking singlehanded most of the time, so the method of leading a long spring from the midship cleat back to a cabin top winch works well because I have 4x4 uprights that I can easily loop, no drama.

 

[jssailem]

@DougM Now that is a system, what I am talking about....

I guess when you use the same dock all the time it is a natural to want a fixed length line to just slip over a fixed point and the boat will be in the perfect position.

When I sailed small Boats (light weight and less than 25 ft) it is nothing to grab the dock or push off from the dock. Now with a 16,000 lbs boat such tactics are dangerous. I use the idea stated by Doug with my boat. A line attached amidships to something strong, i.e a cleat, a strong backed padeye, or even the primary shroud base. Using nylon 5/8’s line (nylon because of the stretch) I run the line outside the lifelines back to the cockpit. Using one of the stern cleats or the winch as a control point in the cockpit. (I have seen this described as a “stern bridle” spring line) When I approach the dock I have slack in the line. I bring the boat up near the dock and I throw the length of line from between the midships and the cockpit out over a piling, or a dock cleat. I can even toss the line over to the dock from several feet away. I then return to the cockpit and draw in the line while putting the motor in forward at idle. The boat snugs up against the dock, stopping even with where the line from the cockpit stretches out to the dock. I can cause the bow to snub in or out using rudder and power. The line holds the boat in position. Once snug against the dock with boat engine at idle in gear I can leave the boat and tie up the bow with and stern lines. NO JUMPING ors SCRAMBLING required. This system works even in a breeze with or against tidal current.

If I miss the throw, I retrieve the line and try again. If my approach is too far away, no one is attempting to jump to the dock, I just pull back out and approach again. If you are at the helm under power you are in control of the boat. Reapproach is not a failure, but an assessment of current facts that require an alteration to your first plan. Like a touch and go landing.

I suspect this would have worked for Clays approach, once I saw the slip and the piling. I would have attempted this using the slip end piling. And one of the board fender ideas or a couple of really big fenders to keep the boat off the pilings.