Sailing into a marina

[Jumpstart]

Tips for sailing into a marina. If you have roller furling, drop main before entering marina. Roll in headsail enough to control speed and to keep moving. Use a good size canvas bucket that you kick off the stern to make your final stop. Try the bucket method in open water first to see how long a line you need on the bucket and to gauge how fast it will stop you. If at all possible, find an open dock that is in to the wind if the wind is much over 10 knots. I have successfully used these methods sailing into a dock in over 15knots of wind single handed. Obviously having your fenders out, dock lines on, and a long spring line ready are a given. Funky fuel problems one year caused me to need these skills. Nothing like a couple of fuel polishings, multiple racor replacements, and an ojt course in fuel line bleeding to make the problem go away.

 

[thinwater]

I've done it twice (engine problems) with two boats, both in perfect conditions and easy slips. No rule. In both cases I was fully prepared to anchor inside the harbor if ANYTHING had been off. Jib only; easier to quick douse all power if the wind does something weird or you decide to anchor instead. Like many, I learned to sail with no motor.

But I have also anchored out and fixed my problem (no tow) other times, when the conditions were not perfect. I would not try a marina with skinny fairways or convoluted approaches.

Many variables. I understand why a no-sail policy makes sense. I've seen some really expensive, dumb stuff when the motor was working fine!

 

[Terry Cox]

Never, here. Boat too big. In a situation described by the poster I would anchor out and either call or dinghy in for assistance, if unable to determine or fix the problem.

 

[Dr. D]

My marina has the "motor in only" policy. I agree with it. As the OP put it, the conditions were all right. The conditions will often be all right, until they aren't. If in a similar situation I would anchor out and hail TowBoatUS.

As others have stated, I also started sailing without a motor. Great. With my current boat I might be able to do so, but let us look at it from the other side. With boat in my slip I'm working in the cabin and then I hear and feel a loud "BANG!" I go up to the cockpit to see the bowsprit of another boat up over my transom and the [fill in the blank] on that boat saying, "Well, conditions were all right, so I was sailing into my slip...."

 

[Dalliance]

Regardless whether the harbor rules allow it or not. If I can’t solve the mechanical problem myself outside the harbor, this situation is what my Boat US membership is for. I would be calling TowBoat US. I’ve seen others, an expert race crew actually, try docking under sail and it didn’t end well. The OP has great skills, had perfect conditions, and was lucky. I’m in a busy harbor with 1,200 boats. Even with all the skills and perfect conditions, it‘s not worth the risk.

 

[jaysweet]

I've done it, but just as the OP did: I sailed in and started the engine right at the last minute to assist with getting into the slip. I actually stupidly ran out of fuel about a mile out, but I was motor-sailing and I was betting that being heeled over affected the fuel. So I was pretty sure I'd have a minute or two of fuel left once I flattened out. I did test it before the critical moment, and we have an easy (outer) slip.

 

[bawlmer]

My marina does not allow sailing into a slip. I personally do not know of any marina that does. I had to use my Tow Boat US policy once to get me in due to an engine issue. Money well spent.

 

[DougM]

I believe a lot of us who learned to sail on engineless boats could probably sail into a slip with some degree of confidence. However, physics dictates the fact that a light weight centerboard boat will carry less momentum than a 10 ton keel boat. He ce more potential for damage.
The no sailing into a marina rule is presumably there because of the wide variation of expertise amongst the boat owners residing in the marina. That said, I have seen more powerboaters crash into docks, bulkheads, and neighbors than sailors.

 

[PaulK]

The Harbormaster may have the actual legal authority to require using an engine - if you have one. At the time, you didn’t. Does your marina make dinghies drop their sails and paddle in the whole way down the channel? One size does not fit all.

 

[DArcy]

I have seen more powerboaters crash into docks, bulkheads, and neighbors than sailors.

My club is 90% sailboats so I rarely see powerboats under way in the harbour. The only collisions I know of in the harbour have been sailboats under power, and we do not have any restrictions in sailing in the harbour. A few years ago my neighbour ran into my boat when I wasn't aboard, a friend told saw and mentioned it to me. No real damage. I've seen boats moving too fast in restricted space hitting other boats. The boat I race on has been hit twice while moored, all of these were sailboats under power. Some people are just careless regardless of the rules.

 

[Kings Gambit]

My marina also has a 3-nights a week sleep-over policy. But I bet my left kidney that if I was clean, quite and discrete no one would say a word if I spent a month on my boat --- EVEN IF THEY KNEW ABOUT IT!.

I don’t know about that. I think you’d lose a kidney. The 3-nights-per-week policy is, I believe, based on cost issues. Live-aboards pay quite a bit more monthly than regular permittees. They do so because they make greater relative use of marina facilities; therefore, are asked to pay more. A regular permittee effectively living on the boat surreptitiously at the regular rate would be in the “higher relative use category”, but not paying for it. Live-aboards who know of the cheating don’t like it, and sometimes report It to the marina. The ages-old complaint, “How come I have to pay extra but that guy doesn’t?” Some marinas, in order to accommodate permittees wishing to vacation on their boat for a month, say, have an up-charge policy. You may stay on the boat longer than 3 nights per week for a few weeks a year, BUT you must pay the up-charge to that of the live-aboards, etc., during that time. Now, everybody gets to pay relative use at relative rates, etc.

 

[Kings Gambit]

I see the “No Sail“ policy as actually “No Sailing in the Marina“, as in day sailing. It probably goes back a long way, but the folks in charge now don’t seem know why there is a policy or how it got there, although conclude it’s there to keep incompetent or unluckily sailboaters from hitting the dock or other boats (because they may also know little about boating). It’s actually there so there is orderly (safe) traffic flow entering and departing the marina. Skippers of big power boats don’t wish to be holding position in a constrained fairway, in a crosswind, while some kids, even big kids, in a fleet of Cal20s are tacking all across his path. The marina has no legal authority to impede or restrict a sailboat transiting under sail to and from that person’s slip. “Emergency“ now appears to mean when an engine won’t start.

That said, I have no problem asking the marina chief or harbormaster for power assist to get into my slip if I cannot do it under sail, and the auxiliary is “out.”

 

[Sandy Stone]

The marina has no legal authority to impede or restrict a sailboat transiting under sail to and from that person’s slip.

Maybe not, but I bet they have the legal authority to evict you from the marina.

 

[Kings Gambit]

Maybe not, but I bet they have the legal authority to evict you from the marina.

Not for that. Under Admiralty, waters inside marinas are still US navigable waters, etc. Municipal marinas are probably less likely to try something like that private ones.
,

 

[rgranger]

Does your marina make dinghies drop their sails and paddle in the whole way down the channel? One size does not fit all.

That is a good point I hadn't thought of. I also have a Hobie 16 (original model) and I keep a paddle threaded in the center laces that hold the two pieces of trampoline together. I sail up to the dock and when I'm a few feet away, I drop the sails, sit on one of the bows and paddle the boat to the doc for the last few feet. I've been doing this for years and no one has ever raised an eyebrow.

 

[rgranger]

I don’t know about that. I think you’d lose a kidney. The 3-nights-per-week policy is, I believe, based on cost issues. Live-aboards pay quite a bit more monthly than regular permittees. They do so because they make greater relative use of marina facilities; therefore, are asked to pay more. A regular permittee effectively living on the boat surreptitiously at the regular rate would be in the “higher relative use category”, but not paying for it. Live-aboards who know of the cheating don’t like it, and sometimes report It to the marina. The ages-old complaint, “How come I have to pay extra but that guy doesn’t?” Some marinas, in order to accommodate permittees wishing to vacation on their boat for a month, say, have an up-charge policy. You may stay on the boat longer than 3 nights per week for a few weeks a year, BUT you must pay the up-charge to that of the live-aboards, etc., during that time. Now, everybody gets to pay relative use at relative rates, etc.

In general you might be correct... but my marina does not have liveaboards so I don't have to worry about being tattled on.... and I have a Hunter 26 with a solar panel so I'm drawing any significant electricity. I would be using the bathhouse so there is that...

 

[Serenity on Hudson]

Lost power in a Hunter 23.5. Dropped the main and came in on the Genoa. Very light wind but had to go on a beat to get in. Was being blown into a high bulkhead, so used the hook to fend off the bulkhead til I reached the ramp dock. The engine weighed 100 # so I wasn't going to try to take it home to fix. Left it on the boat on it's trailer for the marine to fix. Electronic ignition. When I got the the launch ramp there was applause from the power people, actually all of them, including the owner of the Marina.
I used to rent Flying Scots in the Potomac. No motor. The marina was behind a sand bar and on the inside of a small peninsula. Had to get up speed, raise the keel to scoot over the sand bar, then enter the embayment and make a u-turn to dock. No help from the dock. Never seemed too difficult as I never rented a boat when winds were unfavorable. Belle Haven in Alexandria.

 

[TomY]

Sorry for the long-ish post. Please bear with me.

The inevitable occurred; I had engine trouble. Basically, my engine was pulling any water to cool itself. It over heated after about 5 minutes and asked me to turn it off.

I couldn't have been more than a half mile from the marina, and decided that my best option was to sail as close as I could to the marina, and then switch the engine on for the final approach into my slip. I did this under the jib alone.

As I approached the opening to the marina, everything could not have been smoother. Wind was a steady 5 knots. My speed was about 1.5 - 2 knots. I decided to keep going and was able to pull right up to my slip, turn on my engine, and back in.

About a minute after tying off, a dock worker comes up to me and tells me to "never, ever do anything like that again." His reasoning was that a "gust of wind could have come and blew me into one of the very expensive boats." I told him I had engine trouble, and he said, "then you call us to get towed in."

So my question is, is this a common thing for marinas to have a rule that you cannot come into the marina under sail power? I have read a good number of articles that suggest that people actually practice doing this in case of emergency.

What would the dockworker have said, if your engine quit leaving the docks (just as likely), and your boat was being pushed, beam to, into boats to leeward?

And you had made sure your furling jib was ready to unfurl (or you have a hank on jib ready to hoist in a few pulls of the halyard),...and you unrolled enough genoa to make way and head safely out.

Would he advise you, "never do that again!"?.

 

[jon hansen]

i have noticed that allot of you all like sailing shorthanded. not me. not how i learned to sail. crew, lots of crew is the standard to sail these toys to their full potential. i love having crew. have been recruiting crew my whole adult life. aeolus has many regulars. lots of friends will go any time. i do play hard.
so, get some crew like this

then while you sail into the harbor playing this tune

and i think you'll find that no one will be bitchin.

it's all about style, it's all about mood, it's all about having fun
, jon !

 

[jon hansen]

here 's another great harbor tune