• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Boat Handling ?

MadMax

Member I
Hi All, after about 40 trips in our E27 I finally put ding on her starboard side after scraping the anchor on the bow of another boat as I was trying to get into our slip. Coming into our fairway, our slip is on the starboard side with a port side tie up. The tide was going out at the midway point so the water was moving from port to starboard / left to right across the beam. Even in forward gear this was pushing the stern of the boat to starboard as well as the entire boat coming in kind of sideways. There was no wind condition.

My question is what is the correct way to handle the boat in this condition so I can come into the fairway straight and make a nice sharp turn to starboard into my slip like I've done so many times before. Any advice would be most helpful, thanks.
MM
 

HughHarv

Hugh
That situation sounds tough to do at normal speed. I think I'd back it into the slip in that condition and wait till the current was more favorable. But if I had to come in bow first I might do the following. To keep from crabbing too much, I'd come down the fairway faster than normal and keep to the port side (current should keep stern away from those boats to port when turning into your slip). I'd have my springline attached at midship cleat, winch or mast. As the beamier part of the boat passed by I'd slip it over the first dock cleat then engage reverse hard enough to slow down or stop. The current and the spring line should hold the boat against the dock.
 

tooblaaave

Member I
If your alone, I would come wide make my turn above the the slip, to help with drift, come in at a moderate/slow speed. My E27 swings the aft to starboard in reverse severly, I almost never use it. have your line one the center of the boat. You need to pray alot in that situation, be as far forward as you can on the boat to jumo to dock catch a cleat and hope for the best. personally I would read the tide tables more closely and I always come in based on that. I know this is clear as mud:confused:
 

SurabyaKid

Member III
A trick I learned from a fellow E26 owner of "Aluva" is to tie a fore aft line from bow to stern outside the lifelines with some slack in it. This allows the single hander to get off the boat and have a degree of control of both ends of the boat prior to tieing off the dock lines.

Pat
E26->"Pronto"
 

tooblaaave

Member I
Yeah the for aft line is what we use. work great. some folks like the single line smack dab in the middle, that works amazingly well also
 

TRMN8R

Member II
A trick I learned from a fellow E26 owner of "Aluva" is to tie a fore aft line from bow to stern outside the lifelines with some slack in it. This allows the single hander to get off the boat and have a degree of control of both ends of the boat prior to tieing off the dock lines.

Pat
E26->"Pronto"

Yeah the for aft line is what we use. work great. some folks like the single line smack dab in the middle, that works amazingly well also

That's a GREAT idea, since I SS most of the time..............great thread!
 

CaptDan

Member III
That's a GREAT idea, since I SS most of the time..............great thread!

Adverse docking maneuvers are always challenging, eh?:egrin:

All the key ingredients have already been covered: strong way on, turning above the mark to catch the current drift, lines at the ready. But here's one more: prop walk.

Fin keelers will generally kick their sterns to port with a sharp reverse thrust of the prop. This can work to your advantage in these types of situations. The solution that's worked for me is as follows:

1. Two stern lines cleated and readily available at the pier (in a hurry it's nice to have a backup.)

2. A bow line rigged on the boat, outside the stanchions, coiled at the ready near the port boarding gate.

3. Stern kicked towards the pier, my reaching over, grabbing one of those stern lines and quickly making it fast to a winch or cleat. (If possible, try to put the rudder amidships after making turn and before backing down. That minimizes bow swing.)

4. Moving off the boat, bow line in hand, leading the bow back to the berth and making fast. (In a current or cross wind, that bow's moving fast, Jack. :egrin:)

Obviously this involves a bit of practice and dexterity. But it's worked pretty well for me - even when there's a crew available to handle the bow line.

One last thing: it helps to have two smaller fenders - one at the stern, the other forward at the bow. Large round fenders at the beam act like 'trampolines' - pushing your vessel away from the dock when you least need it.

Capt Dan G>E35II "Kunu"
 
Last edited:

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
I'm on a mooring so I can't speak from direct experience however most every boat in my club uses this method:

-Install a "shepherds crook" on your dock, right at the end of it. A shepherds crook is a length of PVC, pipe, etc. that holds a dockline at hand height so it can be easily grabbed from the cockpit as you pass it.

-This dockline is a very specific length. When attached to the correct point the boat is positioned exactly where you want it to be, lengthwise on the dock/slip.

-The dockline is attached to the boat in a very specific position. You must find this location by trial and error. To find this out you slack all your docklines, attach the "special" line and put the boat in forward. If the bow swings out, the attachment is too far aft, if the stern swings out, it is too far forward. Sometimes the primary winch is perfect, sometimes its a cleat on the toerail, you need to experiment. Only the "special line" should be taught when doing this testing.

Done correctly, pull into the slip and simply grab the "special line" from the "crook" then make it fast at the attachment point found in the abovementioned step. The line will stop a slowly moving boat and leaving the boat at idle in gear, forward, will lay the hull against the dock nicely. You can now take you time tying up. The boat will stay "locked in" to the dock this way as long as you need it to.

It works amazingly well.

RT
 
Last edited:

MadMax

Member I
Thanks for your ideas an advice

Hi All, thanks for the input, I have the utmost admiration for all of you single-handers, I'm not one of them yet. My wife and I are a team on our boat, maybe someday I'll get the nerve to go solo, we'll see. What I'm really trying to figure out is how to handle the tide that's pulling the boat into a crabwalk and I don't to avoid the tide. We're daysailers and have certain times we can go out and I'm not about to stop that because I'm not happy with the tide, I need to master it so please keep the advice coming. I think I'm going to try to replicate the conditions, load up my boat with beefy friends with boat hooks and just practice until I can figure it out for starters, thanks again, you all are a great bunch.

MM
 

HughHarv

Hugh
docking

RT is right on, a friend has the "shepards hook" setup and he docks his Hunter 34 like a pro, single-handed. The only way to deal with crabbing into the current is to carry a little more speed than normal. You'll still crab, but at a lesser degree. It's like landing an airplane in a cross-wind, just as your ready to touch down, you kick in the rudder and point the nose straight down the runway. Put in neutral, coast into the slip, grab your line on the way by, piece of cake. Okay, so practice makes perfect.
 
Top