During hurricane season, fixed docks make me crazy as there is no good
way to either keep your boat from beating itself to death against the
pilings or when the storm surge really goes up impaling itself on the
pilings. What a stupid situation.

So......What we really need is a sort of ratcheting device that keeps
your boat centered between pilings based on the differential tension on
docklines. It'd be spring loaded to either take line in or let it out
depending on differential load. It'd require no power of course. It'd
allow your boat to rise or fall a lot to take up storm surge but would
keep her centered 'tween pilings. The real problem I see is how to
attach said device to the boat and every boat differs. Fitting it
would be empirical for each situation and I assume it would be kinda
expensive.
What Y'all think?

wrote:
During hurricane season, fixed docks make me crazy as there is no good
way to either keep your boat from beating itself to death against the
pilings or when the storm surge really goes up impaling itself on the
pilings. What a stupid situation.

So......What we really need is a sort of ratcheting device that keeps
your boat centered between pilings based on the differential tension on
docklines. It'd be spring loaded to either take line in or let it out
depending on differential load. It'd require no power of course. It'd
allow your boat to rise or fall a lot to take up storm surge but would
keep her centered 'tween pilings. The real problem I see is how to
attach said device to the boat and every boat differs. Fitting it
would be empirical for each situation and I assume it would be kinda
expensive.
What Y'all think?


It's simple. Do as is done in locks, where a vertical steel wire is
used to fix each of the boat's mooring lines, which are looped
around it. As the tide goes up and down, the lines adjust their
height automatically. For long term unattennded moorings, chafe
protection becomes critical. Can we say "metal eyes?"

Of course, the best answer might be to sink the boat, raising it
only when it is needed. A 12 volt tire pump could do it.

NEXT!

Terry K

In article . com,
wrote:

During hurricane season, fixed docks make me crazy as there is no good
way to either keep your boat from beating itself to death against the
pilings or when the storm surge really goes up impaling itself on the
pilings. What a stupid situation.

ONLY if you only consider the pilings next to your boat. Using just
those, the boats in our marina survived (just) Isabelle's surge that
exceeded normal high tide by about 6 feet. Water was 3-4' above the
docks and usually is 2-4' below. I believe, but am not sure, that it was
called an 11 foot surge. The primary change everyone made was to move
their dock lines from the dock level to the top of the pilings (3' or
so) and sieze them in place with nail driven in above and bent over the
lines.

The pictures of all the boats lined up with no dock or pilings or shore
in sight, just water and a couple of treetops, no visible means of
support, were neat, but .... the water was flat, wind was coming over
the hill, no shock from bucking around.

Got scared by that so started thinking: Our dock lines are set to just
keep us off the pilings and dock in normal conditions, a 4-6 foot range
of tides. There's enough slack to let us slide a good 10' out the open
end. (assume crossed stern lines at the dock, bow out. Spring lines from
the outer pilings keep us off the dock but there's no practical limit to
how far we can slide out.)

What if we add a second set of heavier lines that go one slip further
over to each side, set to keep us in the same locus? Instead of the
stern lines being 15' long, they'd be 35' or so. Bow lines could be
similarly lengthened, but they're naturally quite long. Springs are less
of a problem, since the boat can slide out with impunity as long as it
stays in that "lane".

Discussed it with the guys I most trust. They liked it, so I got 200' of
line and implemented it the next storm scare. Had it tracked in, I would
have freed or cut the normal lines and depended upon the new lines. All
things considered, I think I would have felt safer with that than
hauling, since a few boats and a couple of cars in the parking lot
floated away during Isabelle. Dock boxes probably wound up in the next
state.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

Jere Lull wrote:

In article . com,
wrote:

During hurricane season, fixed docks make me crazy as there is no good
way to either keep your boat from beating itself to death against the
pilings or when the storm surge really goes up impaling itself on the
pilings. What a stupid situation.

ONLY if you only consider the pilings next to your boat. Using just
those, the boats in our marina survived (just) Isabelle's surge that
exceeded normal high tide by about 6 feet. Water was 3-4' above the
docks and usually is 2-4' below. I believe, but am not sure, that it was
called an 11 foot surge. The primary change everyone made was to move
their dock lines from the dock level to the top of the pilings (3' or
so) and sieze them in place with nail driven in above and bent over the
lines.

The pictures of all the boats lined up with no dock or pilings or shore
in sight, just water and a couple of treetops, no visible means of
support, were neat, but .... the water was flat, wind was coming over
the hill, no shock from bucking around.

Got scared by that so started thinking: Our dock lines are set to just
keep us off the pilings and dock in normal conditions, a 4-6 foot range
of tides. There's enough slack to let us slide a good 10' out the open
end. (assume crossed stern lines at the dock, bow out. Spring lines from
the outer pilings keep us off the dock but there's no practical limit to
how far we can slide out.)

What if we add a second set of heavier lines that go one slip further
over to each side, set to keep us in the same locus? Instead of the
stern lines being 15' long, they'd be 35' or so. Bow lines could be
similarly lengthened, but they're naturally quite long. Springs are less
of a problem, since the boat can slide out with impunity as long as it
stays in that "lane".

Discussed it with the guys I most trust. They liked it, so I got 200' of
line and implemented it the next storm scare. Had it tracked in, I would
have freed or cut the normal lines and depended upon the new lines. All
things considered, I think I would have felt safer with that than
hauling, since a few boats and a couple of cars in the parking lot
floated away during Isabelle. Dock boxes probably wound up in the next
state.

The solution is spring lines. We did the same in Isabel and the surge
got up to the top of the pilings. The biggest change was that we tied
the bow lines to the pilings across the dock from us because close to
us there were no pilings only cleats.

The top picture at http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html
shows the boat the next day at low tide. The boat next to us was
hauled, so that made a good straight shot for the picture.


grandma Rosalie

Rosalie B. wrote in
:

http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/id1.html

What a beautiful boat. Thanks for the link! We'll be watching for more.

Glad she wasn't damaged....

--
Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and your outlined in
chalk.