Dock Lines on Avon 340 RIB ?

[twistedtree]

I'm trying to figure out where to best tie dock lines on my Avon 340 RIB dinghy. The manual says where to attach a lift harness, and where to attach a tow line when towing the dinghy, but is silent about where to attach dock lines for tying up along side a dock.

Right now, I have three lines that I use, and they are attached to the D-rings that are used for a lifting harness. The D rings are located inside the boat and attach securely to the fiberglass hull. One is in the bow on the center line, and the other two are at the stern corners. I have my dock lines attached there because they appear to be the most sturdy attachment points.

The problem is that when tied to a dock, like the one where the boat lives 80% of its time, the lines come up and over the side tubes to the dock cleats. The constant wave action is causing the lines to slowly saw their way into the tubes. In a couple of places it's already worn through the outer gray surface material. One also runs across a grab rope that runs fore and aft on top of the tube, and the dock line sawed about half way through the 1/2" grab line. Clearly this is not good.

There are a couple of alternate attachment points for my dock lines, but my take is that they will only last about a month before ripping off if I use them. One set of alternate points are two loop/handles on top of the tubes towards the stern. I could attach my dock lines to these and eliminate the rubbing across the tubes, but I fear that the loop handles will rip off after not too long. There are also two metal rings held to the outside of the tubes towards the bow, and I could use them for bow lines as well, but have the same concern about them ripping off.

I'm getting the feeling that a RIB is just not up to life at a dock in anything other than lake-like water, which I do not have.

Suggestions?

Thanks,

Peter

[Vasco]

Have you tried one line to the bow towing ring and an anchor off the stern to keep the dink off the dock? If it doesn't have a ring in the the fiberglass, you can install one easily enough. If you must tie it up fore and aft, put a ring in the hull at the bow and another one in the transom, on the outside.

[Jim Cate]

Two suggestions:

First, very soon now you should be buying some patching material and some glue, and apply some sacrificial patches to the tubes where the lines have chaffed them. If you leave the scrim exposed to sunlight the fabric will degrade, and great problems will emerge in the future.

Second, what I did on our RIB was to bolt two nylon horn cleats on the transom, expressly for the dock lines. Added sacrificial patches in the wear areas. I don't leave the dink tied alongside for long periods, so this has sufficed. In your case, I would add chaffing gear on the lines where they bear on the tubes/patches. Shouldn't be a big deal in any case.

Cheers,

Jim

[Blue Stocking]

Tie the painter tightly back to the engine front rail. clove hitch your dock lines to the painter, to shore. Works for my brothers RIB at my dock

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Vasco

Have you tried one line to the bow towing ring and an anchor off the stern to keep the dink off the dock? If it doesn't have a ring in the the fiberglass, you can install one easily enough. If you must tie it up fore and aft, put a ring in the hull at the bow and another one in the transom, on the outside.

Indeed!

This solves several potential problems:
- your dink doesn't get trapped (& crushed) under a dock in a rising tide.
- your dink doesn't chafe on dock pilings & etc.
- your dink isn't taking up valuable loading/unloading space at a crowded dock.

[twistedtree]

Guys, thanks for all the suggestions. I'm especially thankful to learn that the exposed tube material will degrade from sun light and needs to be covered back up. I'll do that and create rub patches as part of it.

Here's a little more background that I realize now would have been helpful...

It's my own dock, so no worries about blocking out other people, and it's floating so tide level does not affect the dinghy/dock relationship. It's a somewhat exposed location subject to boat wake, especially on the weekends, and wind driven wave action. The bottom line is that the boat gets worked a lot while tied up.

My initial arrangement was like one of your suggestions. The bow line was attached to the outside bow towing eye. From that position, it ties to the dock without contacting the tubes. Only the stern line was an issue, running from the inside lifting eye up and over the tube to the dock cleat. The edge of the dock is lined with fenders, but the dinghy still was getting thrashed around a lot, and I was getting chafing on the tube from the stern line.

My next approach was to use a pair of those spring poles to hold the boat off the dock. Because the spring pole pulls up and away from the dock, I had to move the bow attachment to the inside eye rather than the outside eye. From that point there is a breast line and a spring line, but now both run up and over the tube. The stern pole still attaches to teh stern inside lifting eye, and its breast and spring line run up an over the tube as well.

The spring part of this arrangement works pretty well holding the dinghy off the dock, but I now have more lines over the tubes, and they are chafing even worse than before. So I've just traded one problem for another. Yesterday I abandoned the spring poles and went back to tying the boat directly to the dock.

Right now I think I'll just stick with a direct tie to the dock, and add some rub patches. I also put a roller on the dock edge so if the weather is supposed to get real bad I can pull the Dinghy.

[savoir]

If it's your dock what about fitting a pair of davits ?