What mods have you made to make single-handing easier?

[Msweetnam]

I agree with all the tips on self furling mains and jibs, auto pilots etc.. but my real challenge is docking single handed. I have a 45 foot center cockpit with no bow thruster. My solution is similar to "Tally Ho" above, but I use a midship cleat on the boat. Once it's on, i can motor into it and it will hold me to the dock. I learned that from a ferry boat captain who had to do that with very large old ferry's.

One other solution that I've seen (rairly) is to setup some "catch lines".. essentially two docklines on the front of the slip that provide a V shape into which you can steer the bow of the boat. it holds it steady. Hard to describe actually.. lol

 

[Tally Ho]

One other solution that I've seen (rairly) is to setup some "catch lines".. essentially two docklines on the front of the slip that provide a V shape into which you can steer the bow of the boat. it holds it steady. Hard to describe actually.. lol

My son and I took a sailboat charter class years ago…which consisted of a lot of docking practice. My son was at the helm, under the direction of our “skipper”. He was coming into the slip very hot I thought, but I was just an observer at this point…

I heard the skipper tell my son to give it some throttle (he was in reverse), then, “more throttle…more throttle..hard reverse!”. And I thought, ouch…that concrete dock is gonna hurt…then the boat pulls up short…and the pilings on either side sort of groan and lean in…as the bow caught some sort of rope net strung between the pilings…whew!

The charter operator uses that slip for all of their dock training .

Wish I could rig that in my slip!

Greg