Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come in?

[Stu Jackson]

Many folks have reported having trouble with "helping hands" when they dock.

Many times they only make things worse.

What have been your experiences?

 

[JohnCTV21]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

I tend to have good experiences, if someone offers to help, they just hold the boat off the dock until I can secure the lines. I mostly sail at clubs with experienced people, so that helps.

 

[Jimm]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

Usually don't ask, but rarely have problems ...

 

[kappykaplan]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

I generally don't ask (single hand frequently), but I do freak out when my aft spring line isn't laying on the finger pier, where I left it, for easy pick up without leaving the boat.

 

[reworb]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

At my own dock or a dock I'm very familiar with, I don't ask nor do I want help. At those docks I'm used to the winds, currents,tides etc and helping hands whether experienced or not mess me up. At a strange dock with tight quarters a helping hand is always appreciated

 

[Kermit]

We rarely feel we need help. We got chased in by a heavy downpour Sunday and were greeted at the dock by a dock neighbor who heard us coming. He shot out of his cozy and dry Catalina 30 to help us. We would have been fine without him but it sure was nice seeing someone we don't know very well going the extra mile to help when he could easily have stayed dry. That's just one the many reasons we love our sailing club.

 

[woodster]

We rarely feel we need help. We got chased in by a heavy downpour Sunday and were greeted at the dock by a dock neighbor who heard us coming. He shot out of his cozy and dry Catalina 30 to help us. We would have been fine without him but it sure was nice seeing someone we don't know very well going the extra mile to help when he could easily have stayed dry. That's just one the many reasons we love our sailing club.

most of the time sailors are that way but there is a certain percent that do not help ...

i myself am of the mind that i took it out without help so i better be able to bring it back in by myself..but there are times when a helping hand is nice and most welcome..it all boils down to whatever gets you through the day

 

[kito]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

Depends on if the helping hand has been enjoying adult libations all day. I can't count the times back in my power boating days the "helpers" end up in the drink or hanging off the side of the boat

 

[shemandr]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

My own slip - no. There was rarely anyone there to help. When I went into a marina while cruising - yes. Almost always. I think a well run marina wants to make sure there is no damage to their boats from transients. If I ran the marina I wouldn't leave it up to transient skippers to decide if they will accept help.

 

[dlochner]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

The problem with helping hands is that their well intended efforts often make matters more difficult. How often has someone grabbed a bowline and pulled it in tight causing the stern to pull away from the dock?

Last year I was docking and a 90 lb friend tried to help. I blew it and needed to try again. She wouldn't let go of the dockline trying to pull a 15,000 lb boat against the wind. Word got around the club that my new to me boat was quite a bit heavier than the J30s that people were used to helping. Its nickname became "The Beast."

None the less, I do appreciate the intentions, if not the actions, of helpers.

 

[py26129]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

I completely agree with the previous post.

In principle, I do not like handing off control of my boat to someone on the dock, whom I do not know. When we come in we are always ready to handle the docking on our own. This applies whether I am sailing with my family or single handing

Matt

 

[Allan12210]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

My wife and I have a system. We like to maintain control over our docking and have had some disruptions with over eager helpers. Usually we like to secure the midship spring to a cleat first then with throttle and rudder the boat can be balanced along the dock. With help that doesn't always happen. They either can't or won't actually cleat the line (maybe that's confusing) as in tie it. Usually they try to hold it then drop it and run to the bow and pull that into the dock. That's the line that gets cleated real short and the stern is over next to the adjacent boat or in the middle of the slip. We prefer to do it ourselves but what are you going to do?

On the otherside, if I'm willing to help or been asked to, don't you hate it when they fling docklines at you from real far out right at your face? Then you are supposed to pull their boat in because at that point they are done driving. I was taught not to throw lines, but rather use boat handling skills.

 

[pateco]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

I dock at a private dock, not a marina, so help is never around. When I first started docking there, I had fixed mooring whips that tended to want to gat caught in the standing rigging if I did not approach the dock at exactly the correct angle°. This was made harder by the need to spin the boat in our narrow dead end canal just before docking. Prevailing east winds make it simpler to dock facing east.

After a couple of fiascos with my "new to sailing" sons, I decided to solve the problem by switching the stern Whip to a hinged type that can be flipped out of the way when we leave the dock.

This made the approach to our dock much simpler since the whip was now out of the way, and no longer wanted to get hooked in the stays. Docking with the boys working the lines is now much less stressful.

I cleared some of the muck under our keel so that we don't hit bottom while docked at low tide, but at dead low tide, the water is still a little to shallow on the approach to our dock, so I had to call the home owner once, and toss him a long line so that we could tie up loose at a distance, and wait for the tide to rise. We couldn't get close enough to get off the boat, and I couldn't convince either of the boys to swim a line in. LOL Started cleaning up the boat as we waited, and as the tide rose we just pulled ourselves into the dock. Now I am more careful not to return at dead low tide.

PS: I have also found that since we are inland, the tide data for our area lags by about an hour to an hour and a half. Low tide at our dock occurs more than an hour after the posted time. for Pompano Beach

 

[Kings Gambit]

My concern about help with docking is that I'm never sure what the "helper(s)" is/are going to do. My concern sometimes applies to crew with me on the boat, as well as people standing on the dock fingers ready to help with lines. Most of it depends on the type of slip I'm entering, and whether or not I'm coming in alone versus having my wife or "knowledgeable" crew aboard. My slip is a "full slip"--two fingers. So, docking is not a problem in cross wind b/c I can simply let the boat lay against one finger or the other once it has been stopped using the diesel; I get off and adjust the lines, etc. No problem. If I'm entering a double-wide slip in a cross wind where the neighboring boat is leeward of me and I'm alone, then I can usually use a hand or two on the dock. Once again, however, it's never certain what those "hands" are going to do, even when I start "barking" orders.

The critical task for the "handlers" is to help keep the boat from blowing over onto the neighbor, not to stop its forward momentum. This is best done by grabbing and "holding" [half turn on the cleat] the line at the mid-ship cleat while I stop the boat using the diesel. This then gives me time to get off and fix the bow or stern line before the boat starts to "twist" in the slip. Of course, pulling the boat in by the bow first sets up your basic "CF" where I'd hardly be worse off if I had just laid against the leeward boat on fenders, and then tightened up my lines. This seems to be what folks want to do [as stated above]. Or, grab the lifeline and pull the boat over that way instead of picking up the dock line laying right where it needs to be to hold the boat w/o creating a new rebedding job for me!

 

[pateco]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

Here is a decent picture of how we are docked now.

 

[arf145]

I dock bow-in with one of the short finger piers common in our area to starboard. All I want a crew member to do is secure the stern line so I can use rudder and forward power to hold us against the finger until we secure the rest of the lines. I've had to warn whoever is sailing with me to attend to that job no matter what kind of help is being offered from the dock, because frequently one of these helpers will hold up a bow line and call for us to take it--not job #1 at the moment. My favorite was an unknown person on the dock that started throwing us lines and trying to direct me on what I should be doing at the helm! All these folks are being friendly and trying to be helpful--even the control freak guy--so I thank them even if we ignored their efforts.

On the other hand, I am very happy to have a marina person ready to help at an alien dock!

 

[jeepsailor]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

At my home slip, I leave a set of dock lines at the dock, just where I need them, at the correct lengths. One of the first lessons I learned was to never approach a dock any faster than you plan on hitting it. I'm the only sailboat on a pier full of well intentioned power boaters, and I can say that there is almost always someone there to hand us a line. I park stern in, with a starboard side tie up, and they know by now that I have a system. They almost never grab the boat, simply hand me my midship spring line which allows me to back in, pull up close at the right distance, and then tend to remaining lines. Although, I've had an occasion or two, where the winds were up, coming from seemingly multiple directions, and it's nice to know that you have neighbors that will be there to lend a hand if necessary.

I do have to say that I just got back from a bare boat cruise in the Virgin Islands on a much bigger, much nicer, boat than mine, and truly appreciated the bow thruster on that boat. Even with the constant 15-20 knot wind down there, coming up to a dock, or a mooring, was a breeze. The only time I had an issue and had to do a go around was when I had the check-out skipper telling me to do one thing (counter to my intuition), and I followed their orders. After the go around, I simply said "I got this", did it my way, and brought it right in, barely touching the fenders.

 

[CharlzO]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

I always welcome any help coming in, since I'm only at 26' so it won't matter either way, hard for me to screw up an entry with her so far. The only time I have any issues is when I go to leave out, and someone wants to help cast me off. And that's only because I have an outboard in a well, and very little control in reverse, and not a lot of running room between docks. So I REALLY have to get the boat sprung to get the stern pulled in and the bow as close to perpendicular to cast off. The last time someone helped (and I'm gracious for the offer, truly), I ended up having to do a back and forth thing twice to get close enough that my dad on the bow could reach the rail of the next boat and push it back farther out to clear. It's the only reason I'm contemplating a kicker mount instead, though it would put the outboard so far out of reach, I have no idea how practical it really will be.

 

[BigEasy]

Re: Do you ask for or use help with dock lines when you come

It can be frustrating when a novice onboard or on the dock is trying to help. I always pick up the aft spring line first and cleat it on the midship cleat. Then I have total control of the boat using the rudder and forward motion to lay the boat alongside the dock. One thing that I have done that has helped tremendously is last time I had to replace my docklines, I used a different color line (black)for the aft springs. Without get technical with the folks onboard or on the dock, I just tell them to hand me the black line or attach the black line to this cleat. It just helps a bunch with communications for those that don't know one dock line from another.

 

[SoSound]

When I offer to help, I specifically request; "Tell me what you want me to do."

When my wife and I are greeted by a prospective helper, I reminder her to "Tell them exactly what you want them to do!"