Sailing Pet Peeves...can we keep out of the War Room?

[Stu Jackson]

Docking & Lines

There are lots of single handing tricks. Here are some of them:

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6379.0.html

Read the link in Reply #1 also.

 

[NotCook]

Dock lines vs. docking

At least for us, lines on the dock are more about getting the boat tied up than about the docking process. Docking requires a spring line to a midship cleat. There is no, "coming in a little too fast and stopping the boat with a spring line" for us. I would never rely on a cleat to stop the vessel. The spring line is for holding the vessel against the dock while getting the stern and bow lines attached. The premeasured dock lines allow attaching all the dock lines without having to adjust each one each time - a process that can take 30 minutes for us, or longer of it is blowing. They all have to be adjusted so that they all flex at the same time. Otherwise, if one is tighter than the others, a good solid rock will simply pop the cleat right out of the dock. If you do it just right (er, wrong...), you can unzip the cleats like a zipper! So, it is huge to have premeasured dock lines all in place. However, flipping them across the dock when you embark, instead of laying them along the edge of the dock is, well, just bad form...

 

[Stu Jackson]

They all have to be adjusted so that they all flex at the same time.

Good point. And true whether you have a large boat or a "regular" one.

Our summer winds blow starboard to port, but winter storms come port to starboard or from dead ahead. We have our lines adjusted so that the boat stays in the slip without hitting the dock in ALL of those conditions. I sure wouldn't want to have to do that everytime I used the boat, even if I bothered to mark the dock lines.

Oh, another pet peeve: people who string their dock line loops through the holes in the cleat and then back and around their cleats. Makes it impossible to get them off without untying the dock line from the dock. I know, they think it's more secure. What they should do is get the right sized loops and lines for their cleats or just use a keeper line (small diameter) around the main dock line. Mostly seen on powerboats, but too often these days on new AWBs.

 

[Fly_H23]

My peeve is when you're all alone in a quiet anchorage and another boat anchors close enough to hear their music and conversations. It's different if lots of boats are at anchor and space is limited. I simply love the solitude of a quiet anchorage.

 

[Indysailor]

My peeve is when you're all alone in a quiet anchorage and another boat anchors close enough to hear their music and conversations. It's different if lots of boats are at anchor and space is limited. I simply love the solitude of a quiet anchorage.

This happens everywhere, unfortunately. Just as bad is getting settled on the beach then having a group set up next to you, with a giant radio. I guess the surf sounds are too monotonous for them to bear, or maybe make the beer run through them too fast.

 

[TomY]

I can only think of one thing that bugs me.

We have 2 town docks about 75 feet long for loading and unloading. Luckily, space is available 95% of the time.

I'm amazed how often boats dock right in the middle of an empty dock which depending on size limits the number of boats. Some people have to be asked to move to an end.

 

[Maine Sail]

We have 2 town docks about 75 feet long for loading and unloading. Luckily, space is available 95% of the time.

I'm amazed how often boats dock right in the middle of an empty dock which depending on size limits the number of boats. Some people have to be asked to move to an end.

To add to Christmas' comments I get peeved when a little center console docks at the deep water floats leaving the shallow water ones completely empty. Of course to them they think there's plenty of room!! No one with deep draft can even use them cause the guy drawing 9" is tying up the deep water float and is clueless......

Another one is what I call the "launch saunterer". The launch is full with 8-10 people and they see that but continue to saunter as slowly as humanly possible down the dock knowing damn well everyone on the launch is waiting for them. Our club dock is about 300 feet long+... Then at the last minute they stop at the ice machine and sloooooowly pick out their bags of ice and then causally walk down to the launch and get in....:cussing::cussing:

Yesterday a woman decided to hose off her dog while 9 people waited in the launch in 98 degree temps. She even did the "that's a good boy" stuff, made him lie down, roll over etc. and took her damn sweet time. Everyone on the launch was pissed off but she had NO CLUE..... Some people live in their own worlds!!

 

[BobM]

Some more.

Sitting at your mooring relaxing and some chowda head blows by you in his dinghy rocking you and everyone else he passes.

Our mooring service. We are literally a captive audience as he is the only one that services our harbor. "Is my mooring in?" emphatic YES...drive around in the dink for 30 minutes and no it isn't...or its in the wrong location...or the mooring pick up stick is missing...for the second time in five years...or magically one of my pendants now has a loop too small for my cleat when it was fine the year before...etc...etc...etc.. Asked to have my mooring moved this year because my boat was grounding at extreme low times...so close to large power boat (whom I was told had already lodged a compliant with our mooring guru) that I deployed my fenders just in case. Returned next week to see that boat moved but saw another ball so right next to mine (feet away) so lodged a complaint and he moved that ball further away. Still pretty close to a forty foot sailboat...but seems to be okay. My boat likes to sail around on its mooring a bit, a condition made worse by topography, as it sits in a lane which tends to get more wind / wind driven wave action than boats fifty feet to either side as the slot passes by an island and there is a slot in the hills.