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?