See 'Fixed Docks' , was 'Slip & mooring costs'

Thanks Jim - I knew someone would be able to explain this
better than
I could. What is a griping board in American English?

A plank, laid over your fenders (Bumpers?), which takes all the
chafe against the Quay (Dock?) wall or piles.

When we are moving from marina to marina on a daily basis, we
have
been told by a dock person that we should give the dock person
the
looped end of the line so that they could just drop it over the
cleat
or piling and wouldn't have to tie it off.

Good practice for him - he knows loops can be used at his dock,
but it doesn't work if the attachment points are loops of metal -
common in Europe.

But coming into an unknown (or even a known) transient slip,
Bob
usually has lines rigged on all four corners and in the middle
(with
additional lines on the pin rail and accessible

I guess without loops.

I can NOT understand
these people who come into a slip and after they get INTO the
slip,
they go diving into lockers after the lines like they've never
tied up
in a slip before and didn't realize that they'd need lines.

Ah, but it's great entertainment, a tremendous recipe for passing
the dock rope *over* the rail by mistake, then scrambling to
re-tie the lot, dropping it into the sea just as the skipper
gives a great burst of reverse. That loud shriek of rope over
stainless, and the sudden engine silence, the shocked faces -
eyebrows shooting skyward, the sudden loud voices.

usually he puts the loop end on a cleat in the boat and gives
the free
(bitter?) end to the dock person. That's so that we know the
line is
attached to something on the boat, and that the boat person
handling
the lines (me) won't have to let go of the line due to excess
pressure
from wind and/or current.

I do a small variation on that idea; I make the rope up on the
boat cleat with a round turn and a figure of eight with some
spare on board. Then it's ready to be surged (slipped out under
friction if surge isn't American English) or pulled in as needed.
Very useful when you can't get up to the quay level at low tides.
One hopes the shore guy to ties off only the bitter end with a
good knot . . . which can't always be arranged in a foreign
language.

In any case, when we get more or less secured to the dock, Bob
adjusts
the lines so that they loop around the pilings and return to
the boat
so we have control of both ends of the line. That way, we can
cast
off again without getting off the boat to untie the line, plus
the
lines can be adjusted from the boat if necessary.

Great practice when distances are short - ie, there's not too
much tidal range and plenty of mooring posts.

In the case of cleats on the dock (which is often the case with
floating docks), just before we leave, Bob loops the line off
the
cleat and gives me both ends so that when we are ready to go I
can
(hopefully) flip it off the cleat.

At our home slip, we have the loop end on the dock, and chafe
protection on the line where it goes through the chock or
whatever so
that I know where to cleat it off in the boat.

In our home slip, with only about 2 feet of tide, we normally
have at
least 10 lines rigged.

2 on the bow
2 bow spring lines to amidships
2 stern lines
2 stern spring lines to amidships
2 breast lines

I conclude your home dock has a finger pontoon each side, and
floats with the tide; or has four piles, nose to the dock.

Snipped the lovely descriptions of good seamanship. You obviously
sail a lot. Recently I've been sailing a lot in an area fairly
dense with charter vessels. The evening's entertainment is
fabulous. Most people in Greece moor bows or stern to the dock,
dropping an anchor to hold them off the quay. Anchors often
aren't properly dug in, so when the night breeze comes in onto
the quay there's a lovely scramble to action as the boats start
to chew the quay up. At 2am the action is well lubricated with
earlier jugs of retsina and pretty blurred. Morning departures
are even better as all the crossed anchors are lifted. It's a
great way to learn - by watching other people's mistakes!

JimB
Yacht Rapaz, sadly for sale, to help pay for that lovely Greek
seaside house we've just bought.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jim.bae...cification.htm
jim(dot)baerselman(at)ntlworld(dot)com