"Bart" wrote in message
oups.com...
Here is a complicated docking situation that will require
a bit of thought.

Your house and starter batteries are dead. As a result
you are unable to start your engine. You have a 15'
shore power cable, and this means you must not only
sail into your slip, but also want to back into your slip so
your charger can restore your batteries.

The dock is a long dock with no finger-piers-only pilings
on each side of every slip. None of the other boats stick
out past the pilings. Your slip is just wide enough to fit
your boat.

The wind is moderately strong and onto the dock and in
line with your slip--the worst possible direction. Your boat
is a Catalina 30 and you have two (2) crew to help you.

You have only one shot at getting it in right. After deciding
to sail into the slip directly downwind under bare poles, all
of a sudden a light goes on in your brain and you figure out
a safe way to get the boat into the slip, stern in, without
using an anchor.

How did you do it?


Since none of the other boats stick out past the pilings, that means that
the outer-most pilings may be used without excessive concern for hitting
another boat. Approach perpendicular to your slip. Tie off to 2 pilings, one
forward, one aft. This should secure you in a position perpendicular to your
slip, with the wind tending to blow you away from the pilings. Feed slack
through the rear cleat while mate #1 walks the bow line back to the stern
and mate #2 readies to tie off the bow to the next piling and with a new bow
line. By leap frogging the lines, you walk your boat to it's slip and
slightly past it. As the stern passes your slip, secure a line on each of
your own slip's outer-most pilings and tie off the farthest piling to a
stern cleat while leaving the other line slack for now (i.e., if the pilings
and your slip are on your starboard side, tie off to your starboard side
stern cleat to the furthest piling of your own slip). Release the bow line,
allowing the boat to pivot 90 degrees and align itself with the slip (if I
understand the situation correctly, the wind is blowing your boat directly
out of it's slip (if it was in the slip). You should be aligned, secured,
and able to "walk" the boat into your own slip by working both stern lines
and the pilings of your slip (i.e., a mate on each side grabs the pilings
and walks you in using the gunnels.
Makes sense in my head, but I don't know if I put it in words in a
comprehendible way.
Scout