* Capt. JG wrote, On 7/23/2007 2:03 PM:
wrote in message
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it depends on the dock, the freeboard of your boat, whether docking
bow-to, or stern-to, etc.

What I do is to enter the slip at dead slow (engine idling in forward)
about 1/2 knot of boat speed. then I set a stern spring and power
against it. if the spring is set in the right place,and you set the
rudder hard over to the other side from the spring, most boats will
sit parallel to the dock indefinitely, You wll need to experiment with
the location for your spring, about 1/3 forward from the stern works
well with my boat. This works well for me in most conditions, the only
time if fails is when I have a strongish wind (20kts) from the bow of
the boat.

Hope that helps.

That's what I do also, depending on whether or not I'm docking bow-first.
Mine seems to work best at about the mid-point of the boat.

With the cat I'm almost always at a face dock, sometimes with boats in
from and back. Although I can spin on a dime, move the boat sideways
is difficult, so I found I had to figure springs, especially when the
wind is off the dock.

My first line attached is a spring from the bow to a dock cleat about
amidship. To simplify this, I fed about 6 feet of flexible cable into
the center of a singlebraid dockline, forming an open loop. All I (or
any crew or bystander) has to do is loop it over the cleat, as it is
already secured on the boat at the proper length. Once done, I can
hold the boat against the dock even if the wind is blowing off at up
to 12 kts. Over that I can still get the boat close enough to snag
another cleat and haul it in. The biggest problem is convincing
"helpful" bystanders that all they have to do is loop the cleat; it
seems too simple!