Helm control while docking

[sailingchiro]

I leave the mid ship spring line on the dock over my steps. I grab the line as I am coming into the slip then slip around the mid ship cleat.

Trying to lasso a cleat as you are coming in can be a crapshoot. Grabbing a line on a piling or on the dock is easier than wrapping a line around a dock cleat. IMHO. At least you have a connection to the dock.

I also have a zip tie on the line to signify the front horn of the cleat. I cleat dock line at the zip tie at mid ship, put in forward gear to pull boat to dock (if the wind hasn't already pushed me there), get stern line and bow line. Go back and shut down engine.

[waterman46]

Originally Posted by Geoff54

Maybe don't go astern to stop.

You don't say how you are trying to catch the cleat but there maybe a way to catch it first time and at the same time avoid going astern at all.

Take a long(ish) line, attach it to the midship cleat.

Run it outside the sanctions and round, or though the stern cleat and back to a winch. I like though rather than round because it's more secure.

Reach over the top of the lifelines and pull a big loop pack onboard.

Approach the dock slowly, take the boat out of gear, throw the loop over the first dock cleat and winch in the slack but not too tight. This will arrest your forward motion and is MUCH easier than try to lasso the dock cleat any other way.

Before your bow can swing out, engage forward gear at idle.

That might be all you need or you might need just a little throttle and/or right rudder, but she will stop with your stern cleat level with, or just in front of the dock cleat. You effectively have stern line and a midship spring balanced against the forward thrust of the engine. She’ll sit there all day while you make fast.

Since I was shown this, I use it almost every time. Biggest problem is trying to stop helpful people grabbing your line. And it doesn’t work if you are trying to leave your stern sticking out from a short dock.

It's best to figure out how much line you need before you leave the dock, but be a little generous - too long isn't usually an issue but too short.... ooops. You can also practice on a long dock where it doesn't matter if it goes wrong.

BTW, some people refer to this a using a stern bridle, but to me a stern bridle is a bridle across the two stern cleats.

If you try it, I think you'll like it. I did.

Seems to me that the loop you describe may allow the boat to travel too far forward before stopping, unless your slip is a few feet longer than the boat
What might work better in place of using the stern cleat is a snatch block on a stanchion base or toerail track, positioned a bit forward from the stern.

[merrydolphin]

Just understand the forces and maneuvering methods of the boat. You have flow over the rudder, also prop walk in reverse, and prop wash in forward. Understand these forces and all docking maneuvering will be easier. Externally you have wind and current. Always try to set as many of these up to your advantage as you can. (not always doable).

[BrightSEALAB]

Bring her in stern first?

[deblen]

Or..just learn to control "your" boat by practicing outside the marina,away from distractions & "helpers". Learn to "park" exactly where you want,singlehanded, & without lines.
It can be done with any boat under quite difficult conditions if you practice.
Every boat has to be docked & un-docked. Practice with yours & pay less attention to others IMHO.
Cheers/Len

[Bill_Giles]

Reverse in. Once you have her moving then there is no propwash and engine ahead will stop her straight ahead. Plus you will be in a good position to see what is going on and it is an easier step ashore. If it all goes wrong you can easily bale out with ahead power.

[merrydolphin]

Sorry this is a bit lengthy)
As a US Sailing Cruising Instructor, I taught this stuff for decades. So here goes:

I’m seeing confusion on prop wash and prop walk. If your bow is going to port when you reverse, that is being caused by prop WALK. A paddlewheel effect from the reversing prop jetting water on to your hull and then out to the side acting sort of like a stern thruster. You have a left hand prop and transmission, but forget all that confusing stuff! Simply put your boat in reverse while stopped (even tied to the dock if you have a view of the aft side of the boat next to the dock), or out in open water on a fairly calm day. Give it fairly hard reverse, even while slowly moving forward, rudder amidships. Quickly look over the side just forward of the stern. You will see one side with a lot of water movement (sort of like a stern thruster), and the other side not much. The water jet on your boat will be on the port side, pushing your stern starboard and hence your bow port. If your boat is stopped or even moving forward some it will be more effective. This is while in reverse gear. Bursts of throttle will increase effect until you gain sternway. Now rudder will come into play too which may not help your efforts, so unless you want to actually move backwards, don’t allow sternway to develop. Although particularly on a boat like yours the two dominant factors of how your boat will maneuver with sternway is prop WALK, and WIND on the bow. They will often completly over power your rudder.
Prop WASH is an effect that occurs in forward gear. A quick shot of forward will have the opposite effect of prop WALK. And tend to rotate your boat starboard. Especially with starboard rudder, even if the boat is not moving forward (
still), this rotation will occur. Remember that these forces are un changeable and particular to your boat. ( unless you change transmissions and prop!) so you need to learn to live with them. Sometimes they help and sometimes the hurt.
If you have waded through this, take it our into open water and play around with it. Hope this helps.

[Beneteau2011]

Like others, when I’m single handed which is how I usually sail, I use a midship aft springline for my Beneteau 41.1 on starboard in an upwind slip. Slowly enter the slip straight in just below walking speed allowing the boat to continue its slow forward momentum. Stepping on to the dock wrap the midship aft springline around the cleat at the end of the slip and tie it off when the stern is level with you — the springline is controlling the boat. As the bow gets pulled towards you from the boats momentum straining against the springline grab the bowline and secure — this keeps you out of your neighbor.

[Tanqueray]

Originally Posted by ChrisJHC

If you’re coming back to the same slip each time, can you rig a permanent spring line on the dock?
That way you just have to pick it up with a boat hook as you’re coming in, drop it on to a dock-side cleat and your forward momentum will bring the bow into the dock.

My boat (O’Day 322 ) is the complete opposite of the OP…wing keel, very small contact area, balanced rudder, etc.

But I single hand a lot and have learned a few things about my boat…

1) I rigged a spring line that I throw over a cabin-top winch when I come into the slip…line has a hose over the loop end, so it stays in a nice, open loop…and it is on a Shepard’s look mounted at the end of my finger pier where I can easily reach it. Once it is over the winch, a little forward power. Puts the boat right up against the pier and holds it there, even in the strongest cross wind.

I use the to leave the slip too…especially if there is a cross wind that wants to push me into my neighbors boat…set the spring line, engine ahead. Remove all other lines and the boat stays against the pier. When I am ready…power in reverse, and as my boat backs up, I pick up the spring line off the winch and hang it back on the hook.

2) My bow EASILY is blown by any cross breeze…I now use this to my advantage getting out of the slip….

If wind us blowing from port side, I back out to Port…and bow blows to starboard as I back out…once pointing down the alley, motor forward and head out. If wind is blowing from STB, I back to STB and bow will blow to port as I clear the finger pier…once lined up in the alley, I motor out of the alley in reverse, and turn boat around where there is room.

I don’t really deal with much prop walk…my “light bow” was really my issue and not figuring out how to use it..

None of Gus helps the OP, except maybe the Shepard’s hook and spring line with the loop….like him, I am golden as long as I pick up that loop coming back in a strong cross wind, but all hell breaks loose if I miss!

I tried motoring (gently) right into the dock….bow hard against the dock, motor in forward, and using prop wash to push the stern over to the pier…it works and kept me from drifting against my slip mates boat…but I need to put a bumper up there

Good luck.

Greg

[Hugo B]

I can only tell you how I solved my docking problem in a way that worked extremely well, perhaps this will work for you too.

Say you are docking on the starboard side. I left one docking line on shore fastened on a low cleat. What I also managed to do is to put a vertical metal rod with two prongs (like a neptune's fork) vertically up at the shore over which I hung the other end of that docking line (the marina has to agree of course). This high position made it very easy to grab the docking line from the boat, and even if I was blown off the dock by strong winds I could still easily grab it with a boathook.

That docking line was calibrated to such a length that when I fastened it over my starboard winch, the boat would keep going for a little while but then be stopped, so that the bow was kept away from shore by about half a meter.

To dock, I would approach slowly, get away from the tiller for a few seconds, grab the docking line from the neptune's hook, put it on the winch and then push the tiller hard to port, so that the bow would swing to starboard, held back by the midships docking line. As long as the tiller was kept to port with the engine on very low revs pushing the boat forward, the boat was totally secure and I could take my time fastening all the other docking lines (which were on board of course, only that midships one was kept at the shore).

Worked for me!

Cheers

Hugo

[waterman46]

Most of the ideas have involved a single-hander leaving the helm long enough to go about amidships and either step off onto the dock, grab a line from the dock or lasso a cleat. All of which will can stop the boat properly if done correctly every time.

If the boat is still moving much, I would avoid stepping off the dock in most situations, until you have one line already secured. If you are on the dock and you miss your first line, then the boat will continue to crash wherever it is going, unless you have a light boat and can get in a position to stop it from the dock. At least if you stay on the boat, you can rush back to the controls and jam into reverse.

In previous years we had a docking situation which made it nearly impossible to enter the slip cleanly. In most summer afternoons our slip was beam to the 15 to 20 knot wind from the starboard side. The slip is a 90 degree starboard turn from the fairway. On top of that the fairway was too narrow to make a full right angle turn of our 46' 15ton ketch. And she's a shoal draft version, and would slip sideways to port considerably during the sharp turn. Finally, we have CCW prop which when in reverse, to slow our speed as we enter the slip, forced our stern to starboard, effectively twisting the bow to port, in the opposite direction of our required turn.

So best case, on a typical windy late afternoon we entered the slip at about 80degree angle, slipping sideways to port. Very fortunately all slips in this marina have "fingers" on both sides. Single handed, the only way to get the boat into the slip in windy conditions was to have 5 large fenders all along the port side and just bump our way in.

One time I installed a big roller on the port finger. I thought this was the ideal solution! But the first time we used it, the wooden 2x12 it was secured to, simply cracked under the force. The wheel came loose and the metal mount of the roller created a big gash in our topsides.

In a large heavy boat, docking can be the most difficult single-handed task you will find. If we had had a crew on a regular basis, I think I would have done something with spring lines, as I always did with my Cal29. But I always felt this would be just too tricky to be safe in the larger boat.


Later on we installed a bow thruster. But that was after we had left that marina for good!

[Wayne hoath]

You could always fit a bow thruster. Cheating I know but….

[Tanqueray]

Originally Posted by waterman46

Most of the ideas have involved a single-hander leaving the helm long enough to go about amidships and either step off onto the dock, grab a line from the dock or lasso a cleat. All of which will can stop the boat properly if done correctly every time.

If the boat is still moving much, I would avoid stepping off the dock in most situations, until you have one line already secured. If you are on the dock and you miss your first line, then the boat will continue to crash wherever it is going, unless you have a light boat and can get in a position to stop it from the dock. At least if you stay on the boat, you can rush back to the controls and jam into reverse.

I don’t leave the boat, but I do have to leave the helm…usually to the side of the cockpit, to grab my loop off the Shepard’s hook as I enter my slip and put it over the cabin top winch. I can, and have, gotten back at the helm to put the boat back in gear after securing the loop, or adjusting forward speed, etc. once the boats forward motion is arrested by the spring line and the boat is lying up against the pier (held there by the engine in gear, then I can step off the boat and put my bow and stern lines on.

Works great after a few trial and errors getting the Shepard’s hook at the right height and location…. My anchor caught it once as I backed out and way from the pier (so bow was over the pier as I came out of slip)…pulling the hook down. Raised is a little and moved it over some on the end of the pier…so now it won’t catch it.

Greg

[deblen]

Another video of a perfect single handed docking-midship spring,no propwalk needed,no panic & safe step ashore. It can be done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI8kgbSvqeE

[peterbeale]

I have a similar shaped boat, Megelan 36. Docking Mediterranean stern-to, between two boats with little space, in nearly always a cross wind from NE or SW, has been VERY difficult. I had no problem in USA marinas! I have installed bow thrusters and now it is easy. It has allowed me to sail single handed again.