On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:57:28 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-07-23 09:35:00 -0400, Rosalie B. said:

If you have loops on both ends, how do you adjust the length?

Oh, didn't actually say: At "home", we don't adjust them ever. They're
set for the life of the line.

Our "away" lines at most have one loop since they need adjustment.

We use old sheets (no loops) under certain conditions -- they can be
thrown quite a distance. Handy when warping raft-mates in.

If you want to go through the Panama Canal you are required to have
four 150 foot lines.

Casady

I don't do anything special with "home" docklines. Docking and undocking at
home is the practice for being able to handle other situations smoothly. I
don't want to make it easier.

It's probably a mindset left over from my flying days when you go out and
just do take offs and landings over and over without stopping.

--
Roger Long

Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-07-23 09:35:00 -0400, Rosalie B. said:

Jere Lull wrote:

(You *do* splice loops in both ends of your "home" lines so your crew
simply has to drop the lines on, don't you?)

Bob has the loops on one end.snip

If you have loops on both ends, how do you adjust the length? When we
leave the boat, we leave it adjusted to the middle of the slip (with
spring lines) so when we come to get on the boat, we slacken the lines
on one side so that the boat can come over to the pier and we can get
on. How can you do that with loops on both ends?

I carefully set our lines at "home" as loose as I could without
allowing the boat to contact any of the pilings or docks, but *lots* of
slack so we could drift backwards. Then I powered the boat every which
way I could to ensure most unreasonable winds wouldn't blow us into
anything. That determined the length of the lines I made up.

The "outside" stern line has two loops: one for while we're away, one
that allows us to bring the boat to the finger pier.

Works great for us.

Isabelle proved that I got it almost right. The surge was within inches
of needing to cut the shortest line, but we otherwise survived by just
moving the lines to the tops of the pilings and pinning them with nails.

This is a picture of our boat at low tide on Friday after Isabelle
when through on Thursday.

http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasle...fterisabel.jpg

The water was still up about knee level over the dock. At the height
of the storm the water was up to the top of the pilings. (The guy who
was in the slip next to us hauled his boat for the storm).

In our slip (fixed docks-50 foot slip), we have pilings on each side
of the slip, but at the end of the slip there are only cleats on the
dock. So in preparation for the storm, we had to run lines across the
dock to the other side where there were pilings. Bob didn't want to
get his feet wet, but I waded out along the dock to check on things
(climbing over other people's lines that they had run similarly), but
the boat was so high above the level of the dock that I couldn't get
on when I got there. Normally the bow lines would go to the cleats.

Come the next storm storm, I flip the boat end-for-end and add the two
new lines to the next pilings over for the stern. If *they* need
adjusting, boating on the Bay will no longer exist, as Isabelle
exceeded the worst surge in 75 years and wasn't far off from destroying
everything.

Our home lines (of which there are 14)

I don't believe I've seen a boat or slip situation that required 14
lines under normal conditions. Six: two bow, two stern, and two spring

I don't think we really require that many lines either, but that's
what Bob does. I can't find a picture ATM to check (although I can
see 6 lines on the picture) but we have four stern lines (one directly
to the side of the stern from that side and one that crosses over to
the other side), and two long springs on each side, plus one short
line in the middle to pull the boat in to the pier so we can get on
(after loosening the lines on the other side). Then there are four
lines at the bow. But I can't remember what the other line is.

(to keep the bow off the dock) should be all that's required. NO
springs to keep the boat from drifting back, as it just won't move that
far. [I do have a short "spring" that I set on the "inside" main winch
to give me positive control. That's the first to cut, of course, if the
other longer lines are set.]

Then again, we're small, our dock lines relatively large, and our
slip's relatively wide.

We have a nice slip and what is particularly nice is that we are on
the inside of a T so that the dock actually goes all the way back to
the gate and I don't have to climb off the bow to get to the finger
pier. Bob keeps the boat well back in the slip so as not to have the
anchor overhang the dock in the front.

We come and go to the dock without help - just the two of us because
we carefully hang the lines up on the pilings as we leave. [Bob is
an ex-aviator too, but he has to deal with amateurs - i.e. me - in the
docking and so he DOES want to make it easier.]

I do require help at other marinas, because I am absolutely terrible
at throwing lines, and I've only ever managed to lasso a piling ONCE
in 10 years. I also do NOT jump. If anyone goes from the boat to the
dock, it is Bob and coming in to a strange marina dock, we need him at
the helm.

We've had some interesting experiences where the dockmasters aren't
really that aware. We were coming into the Isle of Palms marina once
and they told us to put the boat in between two little sailboats on
the face dock. Bob lined us up, stopped the boat, and the wind blew us
sideways banging into the dock with considerable force, fortunately
right in the middle of the available space.

But the most egregious example of this was in Southport. They have a
long face dock and put transients inside and outside on the face dock.
There are slips sticking out into the basin from one end of the face
dock, and two sections in the basin and one section at the far end of
the face dock. The marina is on the site of an old menhaden factory.
There is a grass lump where the boats used to unload. That dock
doesn't go out as far in that area.

They wanted us to come in and tie port side to, which necessitated
getting into the dock with the port side next to the inside which
should have been easy. Unfortunately the boat only backs to starboard
(unless you want to back to the starboard) and the wind was carrying
us away from the dock so the first pass didn't work.

As we tried to turn to make another pass, the current caught us and
carried us sideways down the fairway. As Bob tried to regain control
without running aground on the grass lump or hitting anyone else's
boat, the dock master and other boaters ran up and down the piers
trying to decide where we'd end up. Eventually at the end of the dock,
the cross dock lessened the current, and Bob was able to back all the
way back up to the entrance and make a better approach.

The dockmaster's comment was - I guess I forgot to mention that we
have current.

On 2008-07-24 09:16:22 -0400, Rosalie B. said:

This is a picture of our boat at low tide on Friday after Isabelle when
through on Thursday.

http://home.mindspring.com/~gmbeasley/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/raafterisabel.jpg

The

water was still up about knee level over the dock. At the height of the
storm the water was up to the top of the pilings. (The guy who was in
the slip next to us hauled his boat for the storm).

In our slip (fixed docks-50 foot slip), we have pilings on each side of
the slip, but at the end of the slip there are only cleats on the dock.
So in preparation for the storm, we had to run lines across the dock
to the other side where there were pilings.

Sounds and looks good, except I suggest you move the lines on the
pilings up to the top and "pin" them with nails bent down over them to
keep them from slipping up (too easily). That forward breast line looks
like it would have been pulling down pretty hard at high tide.

Someone on our dock took a pic at high tide: No docks, pilings or
visible lines; just two rows of boats lined up on the water; only a few
tree tops visible on the breakwaters between them and the Bay looking
towards Baltimore. Very strange picture, as I recall.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/