On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 19:46:50 -0500, "Charles T. Low"
wrote:

Jack,

Excellent information, thank you. A few things:

THANK YOU - one caveat: I am much more experienced with using this
technique with sailboats. I am assured by power boat instructors that
this works well on "keelless" vessels as well.


-you will probably need a well-fendered bow for these maneuvers. Docking and
especially undocking as you describe can entail sitting at quite an angle to
the dock, pushing into that dock with the curve of the bow rather the "flat"
of the topsides;

If the aft docking line is positioned properly (after some
experimentation) the boat will sit square to the dock.


-I find in my past planing and semi-planing hulls that if you're talking
about winds in the 15 kt plus range, that even the techniques you describe
can get pretty hairy. By the time I get close enough to attach my lines, and
then put the throttle to idle and the tranmission in neutral, go and attach
the line, and return to the helm (just a few steps), all hell can have
broken loose. There are clever ways around this (viz. a fascinating thread
with Karen from Australia last year), but it's a bit of an advanced
procedure, and I hesitate to recommend it to beginners, for fear of being
complicit in causing them some grief. What are your limits for being able to
do this?

ISPA (International Sail and Power Association) teaches this a s
standard method for all levels. As a crew member goes ashore, there
is only one line with which to deal. Also, if you handing a line to a
person on the dock (not recommended) you can tell them to tie off
opposite the stern.


-for the undocking sequence you favour, I have a question about uncleating
the line: you say to push the stern away from the dock with power, forward
gear, rudder turned towards the dock, and I can see the boat yawing, the
after amidships spring holding the bow in to the dock and the stern swinging
out - then how do you get at the cleat, on the dock, now out of arm's length
from the stern, to uncleat it?

Run a bight around the cleat or the ring back to your deck cleat.
When ready to leave, uncleat and haul in the dock line.

For those with their own docks, consider setting a permanent line of
the proper length with hook that can be attached to the toe rail or
attachment point on the vessel.


-some of the docks I frequent use rings rather than cleats, and I haven't
decided on the best way to attach quickly (and temporarily) to a ring in
heavy weather, for the "power spring" techniques you're extolling, although
I always figure something out, but it's a bit of an impromptu affair every
time, with many variables coming into play. An old trick that I don't use
very much any more but is handy to have in my armamentarium, is a line
attached to the boat at both ends - a bight of this could be passed through
a ring, quickly secured by a knot (or back over a transom cleat), and made
to function as a variation of the after amidships spring you describe.

Any of that gel with you?


I have not tried this.

Jack