Which boat would you move?

[Gail R]

I don't think it's a wise idea to move someone else's boat, without their permission, if it's properly tied up and not a danger to itself or others -- just because you prefer the space they are currently occupying. I would never do it and hope no one would do it to me.

I don't think it's that Roger preferred the space. The fact was that two boats were taking up dock space that should have accommodated three boats. Kind of like parking your car so it takes up two spaces in the parking lot. People at our YC do it all the time -- space out boats so much that four boats are taking up the space that should accommodate six. That is just plain rude. It's even more rude to leave the boat unattended for longer than the time limit, which happens quite often here, and I'm sure elsewhere.

Not sure this is a good analogy, but suppose we were talking about cars rather than boats. Would you like someone to move your car just because they had a bigger car and preferred the space your car is in?

When I park my car, I make sure it's between the lines and not encroaching on a neighborhing space. If I decide to take up extra space, I'm doing it at my own peril.

As mentioned by others here, you had a number of other options beside moving someone else's boat and it didn't appear you had any kind of emergency.

Up here, it is not at all unusual to move boats or raft on when dock space is tight. I would not have a problem with someone moving our boat or rafting up, provided the person was careful about it. OTOH, it's highly unlikely we'd leave our boat taking up too much space in the first place.

In any event, no harm, no foul. I guess people in Maine are a little less uptight than people from the big city!

ETA: People in these parts are also not at all shy about tying off flopoping halyards in the marina. Someone did that for us once (notice I said FOR is and not TO us). When he mentioned it to us a few days later, we didn't get pissed he set foot on our boat. We thanked him for the reminder and apologized profusely for forgetting to do it ourselves. That is how civilized sailors handle stuff like this.

 

[Roger Long]

What did you end up doing? The suspense is killing us!!!!!!!

See Reply # 11.

I also sweetened the deal by putting another line on his boat. I seem to collect dock lines like some old ladies collect cats and he was short one trying to use the same line for bow and spring. If I hadn't gotten it back, it would have been less than the cost of an overnight at another dock. I later found the line neatly coiled up next to the cleat for my stern line.

 

[Tim R.]

Sometimes it appears that people are rude and do not dock properly and other times it is because there were other boats there that might have left. I was once accused of this at a local refueling dock(the one with the floating resturant). I calmly informed the half inebriated driver of the go fast boat that another boat had just left and that I would move my boat as soon as I was done with my pumpout. He was still not happy but I did not care.

 

[Gail R]

Sometimes it appears that people are rude and do not dock properly and other times it is because there were other boats there that might have left. I was once accused of this at a local refueling dock(the one with the floating resturant). I calmly informed the half inebriated driver of the go fast boat that another boat had just left and that I would move my boat as soon as I was done with my pumpout. He was still not happy but I did not care.

Good point with the comings and goings -- sometimes the gaps just happen. I've become jaded by the repeat violations of the 30-minute limit and no overnight tie up rules at our YC dock.

 

[Anchor Down]

Unsupervised and unregulated public dock.

That means we supervise each other and regulate ourselves, right?

I would have no problem coming out to see that someone had moved my 17' outboard around to the shallow side of a pubic dock. But that cleat hitch had better be bullet-proof.

So your son would have had to dance the outboard around the 27-footer: only a small breach of the "don't go tramping across someone else's cockpit" etiquette, mitigated by the fact that no one was aboard you could have disturbed. But I have the Gift of Confrontation, and many people don't, so I don't blame you for feeling skittish about leaving him on the dock alone.

Your solution was a good compromise that considered many angles: good job, Skipper. May your tribe increase.

 

[n624ma]

I watched the dinghy dock at Bar Harbor one afternoon a while back and as the commercial guys came in with their dinghys they just slammed in, moved whatever they needed to, and tied up. I watched it go from about 10, which was comfortable to about 20 which was bedlam.

(Sam, Not directed at you, just a pet peeve of mine)

If everybody would put a 10'-15' painter on their dingy and put the END of the painter on the cleat there would be a lot more room at the dock!

Then you can just push them aside, tie up and push your dink away from the dock.

End of rant :cussing:

 

[BobM]

I agree with your approach. I did the same one year when I had to drop my boat at the dock to be craned the next morning. Three spots occupied by two boats. I shifted them forward and pulled in behind.

One caveat to this is the competence of the person doing the shifting. If you are perfectly capable of tying the boat up appropriately that is fine. I hope you put some cute coils in their dock lines just to emphasize your aptitude ;-)

 

[Roger Long]

other times it is because there were other boats there that might have left.

That's actually what happened in this case. The sailboat is one of the three that are tied up at the dock 3 out of 4 times I come in or drive by. A problem with an unregulated public dock is that a couple of people will always use it to get a couple grand's worth of dockage. For the deal they are getting, I think a little flexibility is warranted and the owner certainly was as nice about it as he could be. I'm not going to complain about the semi-permanent residents though because I like free too.

Speaking of that floating restaurant, that was one of the most interesting jobs I ever did:

http://www.rogerlongboats.com/Boats.htm#Dimillo