Dock lines high on piling

[Danno 1914]

This year the boat yard attached the stern lines near the top of the pilings, about 6’ above high tide line. Max tidal swing is 1.2 ft. Plenty of line to accommodate tides.
Any reason to lower the lines?

 

[jssailem]

That is a question worth being asked of the yard manager. Is it uniform for all boats in the marina? Maybe some one thought it would be easier to reach the lines while standing on the boat deck

 

[Danno 1914]

I did ask, but the answer was a non-answer.
I will take a look & see where the other boats’ lines are attached.

 

[Davidasailor26]

I would not assume the yard had any grand plan or special wisdom. Our yard puts the lines up high when they launch boats because it’s more convenient for them to put them up above the line hangers than to run them around lower. Boats that don’t move them themselves end up hanging from the lines on blow-out tides.

 

[sailcapt340]

Could you post a photo of your line set up for us? In our case, we are between 2 pilings and I have our lines at about 4-5 feet above the high tide mark. These tend to slide down on their own as the season goes on, but I keep them at the 4-5 foot level above high tide.
What it does for us is keep the forward lines from getting wrapped and tangled in the anchor. Prevents chafing and eases freeing them when we leave the mooring. The aft lines being higher eases boarding the boat, not having to swing lines over our heads or wrapping at our feet.
Higher works for us all the way around. Of course you need to allow extra length in your lines doing this set up.
It also keeps the lines out of the water and collecting sea grass and stuff. Somewhat extending their life.
And when returning it places the lines slightly above us so we don’t need to bend down and reach for them.
My photo below is a little older, we were prepped for an incoming Tropical Storm, so I had slack in the lines to allow for the rise in tide.

 

[thinwater]

The geometry is obvious. The best range will happen when the ropes are level with the deck at mid-tide. BUT, the real test is how the boat is secured at extreme high tide (huricane/tropical storm). Thus, 6 feet above mean high tide (Tom's River has seen some big surges IIRC) might not be all wrong. I've seen small boats pulled right under during a tropical storm because their lines were low (8' surge, Chesapeake Bay). I've seen my slightly lower lines slightly underwater at peak surge (no harm--enough slack).

There really are two cases. Normal handling 99.9% of the time, and rigging for storms. But the marina cannot assume people will show up and make the change.

Or maybe they just did what was easy. I set mine about 4 feet above high tide. I don't want to be reaching down, and this is good for the storm tides.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

I did ask, but the answer was a non-answer.

what did they say?

 

[Danno 1914]

Thanks. My yard has demonstrated their lack of special wisdom several times.

Could you post a photo of your line set up for us? In our case, we are between 2 pilings and I have our lines at about 4-5 feet above the high tide mark. These tend to slide down on their own as the season goes on, but I keep them at the 4-5 foot level above high tide.
What it does for us is keep the forward lines from getting wrapped and tangled in the anchor. Prevents chafing and eases freeing them when we leave the mooring. The aft lines being higher eases boarding the boat, not having to swing lines over our heads or wrapping at our feet.
Higher works for us all the way around. Of course you need to allow extra length in your lines doing this set up.
It also keeps the lines out of the water and collecting sea grass and stuff. Somewhat extending their life.
And when returning it places the lines slightly above us so we don’t need to bend down and reach for them.
My photo below is a little older, we were prepped for an incoming Tropical Storm, so I had slack in the lines to allow for the rise in tide.
View attachment 232287

I’ll take photos on Monday.
There’s a wooden hook that prevents the lines from sliding.
Looking at your photo I’d say my lines are at the top of the bow piling.

 

[sailcapt340]

The hook is a great help. If you look close, On my aft piling I use the chain that was left on the pole when the piling was driven in, to hold the lines at that level. I screwed a stainless steel eye hook in the forward piling to hold the lines where you see them. At a moon high tide I can stand on the bow and raise the lines if needed very easily, same in the aft, by standing on the wing seat.
For us, the height removes the stress when returning. All our lines are at convenient positions. More so for my wife, who is at the bow and all she has to do is grab any of the 2 lines and just wrap a cleat. That holds us in and I neaten them up after we are on.

 

[jaysweet]

In our marina, there are finger piers every other slip (so you have one on one side), two cleats on the main dock and 2 outboard pilings. I keep lines on the outboard pilings up at around eye level when standing next to the helm. So it ends up that the stern lines (for me: I go in bow first) rise quite a bit as they go from stern cleats to the top of the piling. And the bow lines (for me) fall, but not as drastically when they go from the bow cleats to the cleats on the main dock.

Somehow or other, this works fine, and has worked for 20 years at this marina. Almost everyone has their outboard piling lines up near the top of the piling, whether they're bow first or stern first. This is probably approximately 6-7 feet above water level. We do have tidal variation, but only a couple of feet most of the time. I think it pretty much ends up moving the boat forward or backwards in the slip because the lines are rising on one end and falling on the other. The only real danger is rubbing on the finger pier, and I'm pretty finicky about adjusting the lines so that can't happen.

Oh: BTW, I cross the stern lines, but not the bow lines. To each his own.

Regardless, of course it's your choice how to tie up. I wouldn't generally follow what the boatyard happened to do.

 

[Danno 1914]

Thanks. That set up sounds exactly like my marina in NJ. My stern lines may be a couple of feet above eye level in the pilling.

 

[Banooma]

I struggle a bit with the same thing, based on where I tie up the docklines on launch day. I dock bow in. It's an acrobatic reach from a rail seat to a corresponding piling from the stern. Usually that means a lot of slack when the tide gets very high, which happens quite a bit on the Forked River. My slip is also fairly narrow relative to beam, so I'm often worried about the rub rail rubbing a bit too much against the pilings, especially at the stern. There are two pilings on each side toward aft- one a few feet beyond the swim platform, and one a couple of feet fore of the cleat. In order to prevent too much port to starboard sway when there is slack. I run a line from each piling to the cleat. Finding a happy medium is difficult- it always seems to require adjustment. To this point, I've added some decent dock edging to the pilings and finger pier, and use my best guess with fender placement.

 

[Danno 1914]

I’m just off Tom’s River, Dillon’s Creek. All my lines are easily reached with a boat hook. I had no problems with the lines last yr when the stern lines were about level with the boat. After reading all the responses, looking at every other boat’s lines & observing mine at high & low tide, I’m pretty confident it’s a secure set up. The slip is not cramped, there’s plenty of room. The tidal swing is 1’, and it’s very protected from wind & especially waves.