Boating when alone

[Bentwings]

I’ll be often alone with only my dog next summer. One of my car breakfast guys asked how will I tie up without help?

Good question.
My slip is on the down stream side of the pier. The river flows parallel to the slip, perpendicular to the pier. My slip is 40 feet and the boat is 34’ water line and 39’ OAL. The down stream boats usually dock facing up stream.

Most of the time there will be someone who can grab a bow line and at least tie off the bow. However there will be times when I’ll come in late or there just isn’t anyone around. Late last fall I tried leaving the boat in forward gear. Like this it will go forward against the current on just one motor at idle, to the pier with the bow spirit and anchor hanging over the pier. Unfortunately there are other boats on the other side of the pier with equally long noses and I don’t want to crunch one of them.

I’m not comfortable jumping off the boat with it in gear. The stern line is easy to tie off while on board but still I’m away from the controls. Last summer I essentially navigated 40 miles on one motor and passed through two locks. I had a helper but the lock master tossed the lines out short in the locks so I had to just hold position with no guide ropes. (Lines) I did dock once by myself by tieing off the stern line. It would be a real stretch to have a loop line midship and try and snag a cleat from the helm.

I thought about having a line hang between the two bow cleats about a foot off the water. I could maybe snag one of the slip cleats but this would be like making a carrier landing at night in the fog with only one wire.

Any ideas?

[Jammer]

Hi Bentwings


We're on the same river, stop by sometime, I'm in Pepin, send a PM for details.


My wife is not comfortable with lines so in practice all my docking is singlehanded.


What I do, is have a rope spliced in a loop. The loop is 8' in circumference or about 4' long if you hold it so it's straight. When I dock, I put one part of the loop around my stern cleat, and then reach out and work the other end of the loop over the dock cleat. Then I can motor as necessary to bring the loop tight, gently, and increase throttle so that the boat is pulled forward against wind and any current, and towards the dock, with the loop holding it back. With some right rudder the boat will line up just perfectly against the dock and stay there.


Then it's just a matter of walking forward and making the bow fast. No need to leave the boat until everything is completely secure, and no need to leave the controls until the boat is motionless and held in place by the loop.


Once I have the bow made fast and the engine shut down I put a few twists in the loop so it won't come off the cleats.


The only times this hasn't worked is when the boat has been on the leeward side of a dock on a windy day and the wind is enough to push the bow out even with the engine roaring.

[Jammer]

Rereading your post, what kind of boat do you have? Sounds like the helm is either up high or forward.


In any case the key to the whole thing is that you have to get a line on a cleat while you're still at the helm. If you miss, go around and do it again. You can use a boathook if you have to, or there are some fancy commercial products that will get a line through a ring if that's what you're dealing with.


Once you've got the first line on, the rest should be easy

[UFO]

From your mid-ship cleat have a line ready running outside the boat and then back over near the stern. As you come in lasso a cleat on the end of the pier (add one if there is not one) from the stern of your boat and cleat/winch off on the boat - At a marked point on the line so you do not go to far forward! You can then continue to motor forward and the bow will come in pivoting on the line - Judge the amount of revs needed.


Works every time for single handing - Unless you miss with the lasso

[Bentwings]

The boat is a Silverton 34 Express.

Thanks for the tip. I thought some kind of “ lasso” would be best. Yours sounds cool. I’ll give it a try.

Sorry I don’t have better exterior pictures. I just got it last Aug. it’s got a full canvas covering the cockpit. It’s on the hard now but it will be in the water as soon as they start putting the boats in come April.

I’m at River Heights Marina in Inver Grove Heights. It’s just north of the old Swing bridge park if you look on the river maps. I forget the mile marker..
It came from Red Wing.

I had some issues with bad gas and water in the gas. That’s why the miserable trip up from Red Wing. I still have generator problems but I’ll get that in the spring. I just hope nothing froze in our recent cold weather. I’m going to go down to the marina this week end and charge batteries.

Sorry for the sideways picture. Something is messed up with my iPad. The picture is from Red Wing.

Byron

[Bentwings]

My slip is 40’ and when the boat is tied up the swim platform is about one foot forward of the outer end. There is a big guide pole for the floating slip feature right at the end. I have to be just a bit forward of this to board. My bow hangs over about one foot roughly the same as everyone else with full size boats. The up stream boats usually back in but boat directly opposite mind comes in either way.

They may switch us around in the spring but I don’t think I’ll get a longer slip as I wasn’t charged for it.

In the evenings there is usually somebody around but during the day there is not much activity.

The lasso thing should work if I can get the canvas loose or prepped for this use.

[requiem]

My first thought for this question is to use a line off the midships cleat, but an alternate method is the stern bridle, which is what I think UFO might be referring to?

Here's a video of the method: https://vimeo.com/110882884

[Tillsbury]

If I were you I would moor stern to. You go straight past your slip, and reverse at it. You will have plenty of steerage as you will have the flow against you. Say 2kts flow, travel at 3-4kts to make 1-2 towards your slip. As you get in, slightly reduce your throttle until you back right up to where you’re going, and then lean or walk off the stern to tie up. You can leave the boat in gear astern pushing it into the back.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Bentwings

I’ll be often alone with only my dog next summer. One of my car breakfast guys asked how will I tie up without help?

Good question.

Most of the time there will be someone who can grab a bow line and at least tie off the bow. However there will be times when I’ll come in late or there just isn’t anyone around.

You'll remember I've sometimes said a few specific problems can also be solved during the boat shopping phase...

But in the meantime...

Assume you will NEVER have anyone useful on the dock; in fact, even when willing and enthusiastic people are around, sometimes that's about the worst thing that can happen. IOW, sometimes it's better to wave dock folks off and do things yourself anyway.

And usually you can assume something bad can happen if you step off the boat before your secured. (There can be exceptions, but even exceptions can go south in a heartbeat.)

You might spend some time reviewing docking procedures published in various forms. Chapman's Piloting is one, but there are several published in either Kindle, Nook, Google Play, or probably Apple systems... some for specific boat/engine configurations and some more generic. Compare suggestions you read to your specific situation, and then internalize those...

I'd guess you'll find spring lines are your most useful, probably first to deploy. After that, you can use a combination of gear, current, wind, or wave to bring the boat where you want it. (Bow and stern lines are usually the last things we pay attention to. In our home slip, for example, I can get a fore and an aft spring line on, have a beer, go out to lunch, strum a guitar, whatever... the bow and stern lines are almost superfluous.)

Always try to use wind and current to your advantage; don't aim for where you want to go, aim so the wind and current will take you where you want to end up. (Works sometimes, sometimes not so much.) Powering into wind or current is usually more controllable than letting wind or current have it's way with you. (Similar to "downhill in snow has right of way" -- but not much control.)

Throwing techniques are also probably high on the list for practice. Cowboy skills sometimes work better with a stiff rope, but then stiff lines aren't usually great for much else. Sometimes you can get a line over a cleat or a pile using the "skip-rope" technique... holding both ends of a long line and heaving the bight over whatever. Might not hurt to have a grapple handy, too, for use in rare instances.

But the single-most useful thing I've found when teaching this kind of stuff locally is PRACTICE (repeat that a bazillion times)... and be prepared for "not so great" at first and expect "better" the more you do it. Generally you can develop a feel for thrust from each gear in each direction, how long, what happens, etc.

Your rudders are relatively tiny, and won't work all that great at slow speed in reverse anyway.... so you may well find setting your wheel amidships and only using gears ("tractor steering") can work for maybe 80-90% of your docking situations... even with the low-ish torque from your gas engines and relatively tiny screws.

I often have people here repeat a landing 10-15 times in a row... and I usually suggest when they're on their own that they do the same thing: dock, leave and do it again, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat... Starting with a fine day at slack tide (around here, when possible) when there's nothing else on the daily agenda, just go out and back (a lot) to practice docking.

Really good fenders and be a great investment. And your downstream neighbor may thank you for that!

This would also be a good topic for the other forum.

-Chris

[MV Wanderlust]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qHdPhkSSNQ

[boatman61]

Hi.. I am a singlehanded sailor more often than not however I set up the boat the same way whether solo or with crew..
Bow and stern line are led to the centre of the boat so they are outside the fenders.. on the midship cleat or other strong point I attach a shorter line.. as I come alongside the pontoon I line the centre to a cleat, stop the boat then move forward, grab the line and either flick it round the pontoon cleat and make fast on deck or step across and make fast on the pontoon..
I then take which ever line is more urgent on the day, fore or stern and make that fast before the down stream end.. then I can adjust to suit and set my springs.
The central line when tied close will stop the bow or stern swinging out.

[MV Wanderlust]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Hi.. I am a singlehanded sailor more often than not however I set up the boat the same way whether solo or with crew..
Bow and stern line are led to the centre of the boat so they are outside the fenders.. on the midship cleat or other strong point I attach a shorter line.. as I come alongside the pontoon I line the centre to a cleat, stop the boat then move forward, grab the line and either flick it round the pontoon cleat and make fast on deck or step across and make fast on the pontoon..
I then take which ever line is more urgent on the day, fore or stern and make that fast before the down stream end.. then I can adjust to suit and set my springs.
The central line when tied close will stop the bow or stern swinging out.

Our preferred approach, as well.

[Shrew]

We have the same situation. Here is what we do. Our slip is downstream of the finger pier, with the finger pier on our Starboard when we back in. Our prop walk reverses the boat to starboard (toward the finger pier).

1) We leave a line on the outmost piling which is on the same side as the finger pier.

2) I pull up to the piling perpendicular to the slip with the midship cleat right up to the piling.

3) I grab the line on the piling and give it 1-1/2 turns on the midship cleat.

4) I turn the wheel all the way to port (away from the finger pier).

5) I 'bump and fill' between reverse and forward. The prop walk moves my stern toward the finger pier. thrust wash over the rudder in forward does the same. I use the line from midship cleat to piling to slowly spring myself around and into the slip.

Once close enough we can either casually hand the stern line to anyone on the dock, or toss a loop around a dock cleat.

[John_Trusty]

Not your question, but when I started single-handing, my biggest fears were docking and falling overboard. Treading water while my boat sails off into the sunset is still a nightmare. I don't think that I could re-board my boat if the swim ladder was up, even if it wasn't moving at 6 kts. Considering that I'm daysailing and coastal cruising, I invested in a PLB to clip to my PFD. I expect that even if the water was cooler, I'd have about an hour of life, and the local coasties could find me in that time. Anyhow, it makes me feel better.

[Bentwings]

John, your boat is bigger but looks like the same issue with only rear access.

I’m in Minnesota. We have infamous mosquitoes the entire boating season. We get clouds of Mayflies. Then there are all the pest bugs.
This results in extensive and tight canvas with zippered clear vinyl windows. So most of us are sealed up pretty tight. My helm is midship relatively high. Not express bridge or convertible. My only real opening is the entry flap at the rear starboard corner. I used the lasso type the only time I was alone last year.

There is only about 60-70 feet open water between boats on the neighboring pier/slips. The current is about 4 mph and prevailing wind is parallel to the current and same direction.

My slip is about 3/4 of the way down the pier towards the shore.

My very first attempt at docking was totally worthy of typical YouTube video of a newbie screwup video. I am new to big boats too. So bear with me. This happened at night with fog and mist about 40 deg f. I only had the port motor operational. I had already navigated 40 miles and two locks so I was not in a good mood. I was not in a good position and I knew it. I dropped my helper off with a boat hook at the end of the pier. Then backed away and turned to go down the row to my slip. Since it would be a right turn I thought I could swing the bow around as I got close to my slip. WRONG. the current simply pushed me away and the best I could do was back out. I only hit one boat with no damage but my bow drifted over the second boat in and of course the hanging bow line hooked his bow and anchor. ZOO TIME. My helper ran over the next pier and boarded the boat and untangled the line. I then was able to back out and we tied off ay the outer end witch I should have done in the first place.

The next day the marina manager told me that it’s just too tricky to spin the bigger boats in the confined space with two motors because of the current. With one motor it’s almost impossible. Then he showed me the easy way. He lined the boat up Parallel to the current, steering a little with the rudder. Then just tweeted the rudder a little to angle the bost about 5 degrees. Using the throttle he just marched the boat down the line and straightened the bow out and entered the slip without touching either side. His helper tied off the bow and midship spring lines before we got off. We added stern lines and we were done. So easy I couldn’t believe it. They move 100 boats every year in the spring so figure he gets at bunch of runs each year and he has been there for awhile.

So I got a good lesson. I watched a number of boats dock over the few months before fall and they all do the same thing except the smaller single engine IO.

I only got one attempt with both motors and I got in with out difficulty. I used the lasso method. It was a bit too long but held fast.

Here is a picture of the back of my boat. If I can open the canvas at the helm I may be able to toss a midship line on to the slip and hook the cleat there. That’s the goal for this spring. The canvas while near new is not well thought out. It is definitely tight but it’s difficult to open anywhere but the back.

This is a 50 foot slip where it was when I bought it. This slip was very difficult to get in as the current was much faster and at an angle to the slip. It took me three attempts to get in.....good thing I had more fenders. LOL

Thanks for all the tips, I really appreciate it. It’s going to be a big year for me. and my dog.