Coincidentally, "Good Old Boat" has an article on getting out of narrow slips this month. I didn't see anything about getting in though.
Docking tips
- Thread starter KandD
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Are you concerned about getting into slip and losing control of the bow when you try to do bow/stern?
If that is the problem, a solution could be what is known as the
Australian Crawl. You continue to have bow and stern lines ready however You will tie yourself to the dock by using a spring line at midship.
Use one of your spring lines at midship and tie her down. She will only swing as far as you give more slack to the midship spring line. tie her close to dock and she will only swing a few feet.
Then when you are under more control you can then tie bow and stern.
Good luck....
I would like to learn more about docking in this situation as I had it in Mystic Seaport a few weeks ago. The current was at least a knot and there is no way I could back in especially with the wind with the current. The bow of my 356 blows down so fast. I had to go bow first and with some speed and rely on reverse to stop the boat. Not what I want. A twin screw powerboat had a lot more trouble than I did.
Earlier while waiting for the bridge opening I was amusing myself by seeing how long I could drift into the current without the bow starting to fall off. It turned out I could go a long way. In fact, with the current flowing over the rudder, I could maintain control even with no forward way. This made me wonder if I could approach the slip from downcurrent, into the current, and very slowly approach the piling at the upcurrent outside part of the slip. If I could loop that piling with a line and keep it tight, could I allow the bow to fall off with the current and rotate the boat into the slip stern first.
Problems: 1) If the slip isn't wide enough the arc of the stern of the boat may not make it into the slip causing the stern to hit the downcurrent outside piling - bad. Or the bow of the adjacent boat - very bad. I could probably power forward and get out of those situations but ... 2) The bow may fall off too much hitting the same piling or the same adjacent boat. Hopefully, if you still had the midship cleat tight to the upcurrent outside pole, you could speedily bring a line forward to the bow cleat to control or recover from the bow being dragged downcurrent. 3) The crew would have to provide enough slack as the stern rotated into the slip to allow the stern to translate back into the slip while the bow person provides enough tension to keep the bow from falling off. 4) If the adjacent boats extend past those outside pilings I don't think its possible - but I'm willing to learn.
In any event, it is a maneuver I would like to have in my quiver but seems a bit risky to try without lots of practice. I think you need more than 7 inches spare room and some pretty good crew.
If its your slip, some pre-rigged lines could help alot as per the GOB article - which I read.
Earlier while waiting for the bridge opening I was amusing myself by seeing how long I could drift into the current without the bow starting to fall off. It turned out I could go a long way. In fact, with the current flowing over the rudder, I could maintain control even with no forward way. This made me wonder if I could approach the slip from downcurrent, into the current, and very slowly approach the piling at the upcurrent outside part of the slip. If I could loop that piling with a line and keep it tight, could I allow the bow to fall off with the current and rotate the boat into the slip stern first.
Problems: 1) If the slip isn't wide enough the arc of the stern of the boat may not make it into the slip causing the stern to hit the downcurrent outside piling - bad. Or the bow of the adjacent boat - very bad. I could probably power forward and get out of those situations but ... 2) The bow may fall off too much hitting the same piling or the same adjacent boat. Hopefully, if you still had the midship cleat tight to the upcurrent outside pole, you could speedily bring a line forward to the bow cleat to control or recover from the bow being dragged downcurrent. 3) The crew would have to provide enough slack as the stern rotated into the slip to allow the stern to translate back into the slip while the bow person provides enough tension to keep the bow from falling off. 4) If the adjacent boats extend past those outside pilings I don't think its possible - but I'm willing to learn.
In any event, it is a maneuver I would like to have in my quiver but seems a bit risky to try without lots of practice. I think you need more than 7 inches spare room and some pretty good crew.
If its your slip, some pre-rigged lines could help alot as per the GOB article - which I read.
My dock neighbor with a CS40 has a V shaped of lines to hold his boat in place when he comes into the slip. After one fiasco I adopted his idea. I have a temporary line set up that I pull into place when I leave the slip. Everyone always asks, "aren't we coming in a little fast". I make sure we get into the slip and then reverse to slow and stop the boat. Otherwise the winds blow me into the pilings.
That is a narrow slip you have. Did you guys move to Ingleside? I know you can't be in the municipal anymore. They don't have currents there that bad?
I agree with going in bow in. I am in a resort type area now and alot of people walk by our slip. If we couldn't run around the boat naked we would just sell it.
That is a narrow slip you have. Did you guys move to Ingleside? I know you can't be in the municipal anymore. They don't have currents there that bad?
I agree with going in bow in. I am in a resort type area now and alot of people walk by our slip. If we couldn't run around the boat naked we would just sell it.
Hermitt... we are in Virginia now... I miss the municipal marina, our big slip, the prevailing winds that let us dock so nicely, big-heavy finger piers....
I made a diagram - the first image is us coming into our slip ideally, and the order we attached the lines. Our forward spring acted as a break, although I would reduce head way to a crawl, we docked into prevailing winds so I needed to motor against something as we got the others attached. The second image is how we are in our slip now, with the green showing the harness and light blue showing our dock lines. / diagram cleats and * show horns.
Whether pulling in or out, we hit 1/3 forward from the stern on the port side - the currents push us into the pier before we get settled. Pic three has my idea, but I'm not sure how the bow will respond. If I hold the starboard stern line on as I back out, the bow should swing to port (which will counter the strong prop-walk). In addition, I can feed it out as I back against it and it'll hold the boat against the piling correct?
My concern is
1) the prop walk is keeping the bow off the finger pier, so I don't want to cancel it completely
2) I think the bulk of the rudder is forward the cleat, so the current would push the bow towards the finger pier as well correct?
I made a diagram - the first image is us coming into our slip ideally, and the order we attached the lines. Our forward spring acted as a break, although I would reduce head way to a crawl, we docked into prevailing winds so I needed to motor against something as we got the others attached. The second image is how we are in our slip now, with the green showing the harness and light blue showing our dock lines. / diagram cleats and * show horns.
Whether pulling in or out, we hit 1/3 forward from the stern on the port side - the currents push us into the pier before we get settled. Pic three has my idea, but I'm not sure how the bow will respond. If I hold the starboard stern line on as I back out, the bow should swing to port (which will counter the strong prop-walk). In addition, I can feed it out as I back against it and it'll hold the boat against the piling correct?
My concern is
1) the prop walk is keeping the bow off the finger pier, so I don't want to cancel it completely
2) I think the bulk of the rudder is forward the cleat, so the current would push the bow towards the finger pier as well correct?
Attachments
Andrew - I think if you approached it into the current, you'd have more control. If the piling is upstream, then a forward spring to the piling would probably work, once you run against the spring, either the bow or stern kicks out depending on where you turn the rudder, so you could catch it - hard to port to kick the stern upstream and then let it off as you pull in. I think I'll try that when I come back in next time.... hmmm..
Good Maneuvering course
NauticEd provides a great course on maneuvering a sailboat in and around a marina including backing tips and dealing with wind and propwalk. It's at http://www.nauticed.org/courses/view/maneuvering-under-power
NauticEd provides a great course on maneuvering a sailboat in and around a marina including backing tips and dealing with wind and propwalk. It's at http://www.nauticed.org/courses/view/maneuvering-under-power
The pivot and backing in seems practical. Install one or two rotating bumpers on the pivot point. Off the wall idea that I actually use when we have high wind in our marina is the tug boat approach. We have several friends who tie up their skidoos nearby. We drop one of us off to get the skidoo. We can use the skidoo to lead the bow line in to someone on the dock and/or use the skidoo as a tug boat (with a couple of those flat seat cushion style bumpers hung overboard) to nudge us into the slip. it's really simple and there is little anyone can do from the dock unless you can get close enough to get them the lines. The skidoo does the job nicely.
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