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About single handing!

4K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  NCC320 
#1 · (Edited)
I've read a lot of posts regarding single handing on this forum. Have even posted a number of items myself. But fair warning, this is going to be a long thread, and before someone asks what's my point, let me answer. It's mostly in jest, so read and enjoy. Maybe post some of your own experiences. And don't hesitate to offer suggestions as to how to do it well using some of your favorite techniquies.

It's an admission, despite messing with sailboats for 43 years, I still don't quite have it down pat (of course, being from the south might explain some of that, because, everyone knows those guys aren't quite as smart as people from other parts of the country).

It's an aknowledgement that lots of sailers can do it well. Why, many places 15-20 kts. is the norm (true) and people routinely single hand boats of all sizes, some up into the 40-50 ft. range. And they single hand docking routinely in the 25-35 kt. range, and occasionally, there is a post of single handed docking up in the 45 kt. range. Oh, I forgot to mention, those are crosswind dockings. Now, I've got to admit, I believe some of those docking stories are a little like fish stories, but I could be wrong. Anyway, let's push on....

(The system dropped me out on an edit with the details, so I'll try again another day).

I really was going to publish some YouTube illustrations that I think would have interesting:

Crosswind:





Docking with Crosswind....I'm afraid it looks like this sometimes and I want to avoid it this way.



Come in hotter, but you might get this result.....been there, but hit only once and no VW.



At about 20 kts., at my marina, the waves look like this. No good for the boat if I'm single handing.



And if I mess up on the approach on my dead end fairway, there is no escape and I could wind up like this:



In 20 kts. I will be making a downwind/crosswind approach into the slip. The southwest wind gives me a 45 degree starboard bow crosswind in the dock. My boat is 11' 9" in a 14' slip. I did some measurements, and cross slip movement in 20 kts. will be about 3/4 kt. or 1.2 ft/sec., so I don't get very far in before hitting the leeward piling....I stop at that point because I don't want to damage the stanchions or sides. Then stabilize the boat so wind does not drag it out of the slip. It's tied up at this point and I can work to get proper lines on and finish the docking. If I don't get far enough into slip or the situation stabilized, wind will either sweep me out of slip or bow down on neighbor. It's never pretty by myself. To get that far into the slip requires me to be at the wheel actively trying to manage the bow into the slip and to complete the 90 degree turn. I know people say "spring lines" but I have to get a certain distance inside the slip before I can use it. And in the few seconds that I have, I can't even get from wheel to the piling to place or pick up that spring line. Anyway, that's the way I do it.

Even went to Pier 39 in San Francisco three times to see how they did it....picked wrong days, I guess, not much wind at pier, but plenty out on the bay. Locally, no one goes out when it's 20 or above anyway, except this one old guy with a 15 ft. Westwight Potter. It gets choppy with the shallow water so it's not too much fun. I thought I would learn from the long distance cruisers at our marina (4 or 5) but they never go out unless they are leaving for the Bahamas.

What I strive for and hope to attain some day is docking ability like this.



At any rate, I've never done this. But if I do, I hope the girl in the blue bathing suit is there to help.

 
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#2 ·
Knowing your limitations, working to expand your abilities, and not putting yourself at unnecessary risk. There's almost always someone who does it better, someone who does it worse, ain't no big deal where you fall on the scale.
 
#3 ·
Well,
Youve been making it hard on yourself. I dock my 69 ft long 18 ft wide sailboat in my 12 foot slip single handed daily in a 98 kn cross wind with a shifting current that runs 42 kns. Both sides of my slip have mega yachts with no fenders and my fairway aproach can only be made in reverse around two 90 degree turns and I have never so much as brushed a piling...

Wait a minute that is total bull sh1t, we operate in the real world around here.:laugher:laugher:laugher

Sounds like you are doing fine. I am looking forward to hauling out this winter so I can get rid of the last two sailing season's evidence of not so perfect docking conditions.

Doing my part to remember that they are only boats, not as fragile as premature infants in a NICU.
 
#22 ·
I started this year too. In South Carolina.
I can attest to your statement. It isn't easy. I have bumped the dock. In fact on Sunday my wife and I went out with no wind well some but not much. We got back just in time to catch an afternoon storm. I left my 30 C&C on the face dock tied up. I went back yesterday to put it back into the slip, Single handed. I thought I was there at the right time at the slack low tide. "Wrong" it had started to go ever so slightly back out, putting the current at my stern. It shoved me into my slip. I tie up on the starboard side. I had fenders out. I tried to slow by using reverse. The right hand prop-wash drove my stern out from the dock. Thank god I had no vessel beside me. But I got it done I bumped a little but no harm a little buffing won't fix. It is a great hobby and sport; I am having the time of my life. Thank god there's sailing.
 
#6 ·
When I started driving a 40 foot dive boat, whipping around my little 28 foot sailboat got real easy. When I started docking an 85 foot tug with a 300 foot fuel barge on the hip, whipping around the 40 foot dive boat got real easy. If it all possible, It's good to get experience on bigger boats with more windage than your own. Take a job as crew on a ferry, get a deckhand job for the summer on a big boat, it doesn't take long to get a feel for how the bigger boat's handle. Like driving a big truck and jumping in a little compact rental. When I get of the tug after throwing 3" lines for 2 weeks, the lines on my sailboat feel like shoe string. It's relative.
 
#7 ·
If I had to sum it up in the most generic terms...if you can line things up so you come in and just kiss the dock, just stall out as you touch it (or an inch shy of it) and then throw just ONE line around ONE cleat or bollard, now you've got a good start. That one point of attachment should give you the chance to jump ship, to get on the dock with a second line to secure the boat and stop it from blowing or twisting around.

Front, rear...doesn't matter as long as you've laid out at least the two lines while you were well out in the clear, and get the chance to use them quickly once you are in.

In some conditions of wind, there's just going to be no pretty way to come in or make secure and there's no shame in trying to call ahead to see if someone can take your lines. Remember, the folks on the docks don't want to see smashups either.
 
#8 · (Edited)
If I had to sum it up in the most generic terms...if you can line things up so you come in and just kiss the dock, just stall out as you touch it (or an inch shy of it) and then throw just ONE line around ONE cleat or bollard, now you've got a good start. That one point of attachment should give you the chance to jump ship, to get on the dock with a second line to secure the boat and stop it from blowing or twisting around.

Front, rear...doesn't matter as long as you've laid out at least the two lines while you were well out in the clear, and get the chance to use them quickly once you are in.
Each dock is different, and above should work in many cases. At my marina, the finger piers are very short, and by the time that I contact the first (outer) piling, and after I immediately get a line on/off that piling and then jump off to handle a second line, I will be doing it in the water. Finger pier doesn't extend that far. But I agree that your recommendation to get two lines on and you've got it is correct. First one should be whichever one you can get, and the second one (to/from same piling) should be toward bow or stern such that one of the two lines leads aft and one leads forward. Now, using engine and rudder as needed, the boat can held steady against the piling, not being dragged out of the slip or on other end, falling down on neighbor. And laying against, or pivoting about the piling is perfectly good technique. Just don't crash against it to hard...you can help this a bit in those last few seconds of maneuvering into the slip. And whatever one does, that boat is moving 3/4 kt. crosswise in that slip, that's about 1.2 ft. per second, so that clearance between boat and piling is going to close quickly.

Again, each marina and wind condition is different. That 20 kt. wind is almost always from the SW per my earlier description, and that's a 3 mile fetch across shallow water, so lots of waves/chop is present like in the video above that shows waves in 20 kts. That motion is going to damage the boat in no time at all. Put out a fender to protect the sides? Yes, but remember that the crosswind is still acting on the boat, and first things are to complete the turn into the slip, getting as far in as possible, getting those two lines on, stabilizing the boat and then we can focus on getting a fender in place. As to putting out fender in advance, you don't know where to place it, and if it hangs off the side entering the slip, there's a good chance it's going to hang up on piling and pivot boat in an undesired direction abruptly. Keep in mind the time for all this to happen. Moving sideways at 1.2 ft. second when you have only about 2 ft. to move doesn't give much time. Remember, it's just one person dealing with this, not the large group of people shown in the video trying somewhat successfully to keep the two boats apart. It is this wave motion, and the high potential to damage to the boat (I really, really don't like dings on the hull) that often determines whether I will go out. Waves and wind are not the problem once out, but wave motion against a fixed hard piling or pier surface equals damage and expense in my mind.
 
#9 ·
I single hand a 40 foot, lot of windage power boat to the dock in heavy winds all the time. As soon as I have nosed to the dock, step off with a line and take a wrap. Done. I kill the engine, Once you have one line, your done, you should be able to warp the boat in to any position you want by line handling. I run a long stern line to the bow so when I calmly and slowly step on the dock, I have both lines in my hand. Take a turn with the bow line to get controll and pull the stern into positon. The more relaxed, slow and calm you move and the slower you aproach the dock, the smoother it will be. No need to muscle the boat into position with the engine.
 
#10 ·
"I will be doing it in the water. Finger pier doesn't extend that far. "
I can appreciate your concern. We have a ahort list of rules on board, including:

1-Stay on the Boat
2-No swimming without lifeguard (see above)
3-No walking on water, it tends to start religions.

My only problem was in BC, where they apparently don't use cleats or bollards, and there's nothing to throw a line around, unless you can sneak it under that slot in the dock railing.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Ah, this is where the discussion turns to the Halpern Mk III docker.....What is the Halpern MK III Docker you rightly ask?

The Halpern MK III Docker consists of an old wire halyard run the length of the boat outboard of everything. Riding on that wire is a small Harken wire block. Tied through the shackle of the block is a loop of line slightly longer in length to the beam of the boat so that the loop when folded is slightly longer than roughly half the beam of the boat.

Before starting to dock the boat rig all bow, stern and spring lines.

When the Halpern MK III Docker is deployed the former halyard is run tightly along the windward or up current side (which ever is stronger) of the boat, outboard of everything and is cleated at the bow cleat and stern cleats. The block is pulled aft to the helmsmen’s station and the loop is held in the helmsman’s hand.

To deploy the Halpern MK III Docker the boat must be backed into the slip so that counts out use by many of you.....But if you own a boat that backs well in reverse, as the outer most windward, or up current piling passes by the helmsman, the loop is dropped over the piling. As the boat continues to back in the block runs up the length of the wire holding the bow from paying off. Meanwhile the helmsman focuses on steering towards and catching an aft piling or cleat with a dock line. The loop of line prevents the bow from paying off to leeward. Once the stern is tied off you can rig springs and breast lines as necessary at liesure.

BTW, In a reasonable breeze, when there is a finger pier or I'm coming along side a dock and with a reasonable sized boat, I do something like Capt Aaron suggests, using long stern and bow lines which tie together so I can rotate the boat and move it more precisely.
 
#12 ·
Jeff, I think the Fuller Brush man used to sell something like that. They were eight foot long sections of bright varnised teak, about two feet wide, inset with heavy clusters of foot-long boars' bristles. You just run the bow up across one of the boards, the bristles cushioned the impact and snugged it right up, long enough to secure the boat.

Available in the Marine Section of the Fuller Brush catalogue.
 
#13 ·
A trick I learned is to have a spring line tied off to the first piling you have access to while on approach. Have the length set so that you can drop it around one of your cleats, then leave the boat in forward/reverse idle (depending on how you dock) while you secure the rest of your lines.I suggest having your fenders out, as it will keep you snug against that side of the slip until you disengage the motor.
 
#15 · (Edited)
As before, each persons situation is different depending on dock, wind, crosswind, current, characteristics of boat, etc. Your suggestion is good for some conditions, but in the example (20 Kt. crosswind on either bow or stern quarter, depending on whether in fairway or slip). Approaching the slip with bow first, and having to make a 90 degree turn into/next to outer next (windward) piling to get into the slip, there is no time to do what you have suggested. Remember going forward at 1-2 knots, the cross wind is pushing boat sideways across the slip opening at about 1.2 ft./sec. while boat is also going forward about 2 ft./sec. Even manuevering to keep bow close to windward side of slip, the boat is going sideways at 1.2 ft./sec in a 14 ft. wide slip with a boat that is nearly 12 ft. wide. So the time we are playing with is just a few seconds, and there is no time to get to a piling to put on that spring line. The boat is just going down on that leeward outer piling no matter what, and at that point, you want to get it stabilized by stopping the boat so you don't drag the side against the piling and damage the hull or stanchions, and then getting fore and aft lines on that leeward piling. Use engine to assist to prevent boat twisting about this single piling and hold it there. As to jumping off to manually handle two lines from the finger pier is not feasible at that point because you haven't reached that short finger pier that is somewhere in the distance. So what is to be done at this point has to be done from the boat.

Now, to get the rest of the way into the slip is where your suggestion applies directly. On the windward outer piling, that I can reach using boat hook if needed, getting a spring line on the piling and leading it forward on the boat to a block on a cleat or through cleat, then leading the line to helm station where I can tend it (adjusting length as needed to allow boat to enter the slip by powering ahead). The temporary lines on the leeward piling are then released and taken in. Next, powering ahead against the windward spring line, using rudder to get boat off the leeward piling, and slowly entering the rest of the slip as springline is gradually lengthened is how I get it in the rest of the way. And as you suggest, use the springline with engine at low speed to hold the boat in position long enough to finish docking with regular lines.

In fact, over time, I have evolved my pre-docking procedure to have two lines, one on bow cleat, one on stern cleat lead along edge of deck so they overlap on the leeward side. (Lines should be loosely tied together or to life lines so there is no possibility of them getting overboard and tangled in the prop.) On the windward line, I preplace a springline at bow, one end led aft ouside the life lines to helm station, the other end led through a block back to a jam cleat at the helm station. And just in case I need it, a second line at windward stern cleat that I can tend from that end if I need it. Sounds like a lot of lines? Yes. But, I can remember at least two times when the wind got the better of the situation, and I had to make an unscheduled, quick docking in "first available slip" without any lines on deck. Genny sheets work wonders in an emergency.
 
#17 ·
At about this point, someone is going to suggest to just go to another slip or marina. While that is a practical solution in many cases, I closed the door on that one some years ago when I elected to purchase a condo in the development which has it's own marina where a slip is part of the package. So, while I could move to another marina (or temporarily rent a slip on the lee side of the creek), I hate to pay for this option on top of the condo costs. The view from the condo side is great however. So in our discussion, let's assume that is not an option.
 
#18 ·
Fenders are a single hand dockers best freind. Backing in is usually a preference, not an obligation. If it's honk'n, put the bow in. You should be able to put the bow of your boat any where you need to and take wrap around what ever is there. If it's blow'n, hang fenders every where and have one free and handy. Sail bags ( with sails in them) used to save my ass all the time.
 
#19 ·
I have to admit, in conditions where I don't feel comfortable, I simply find a place to drop the hook. Course, I don't have to be anywhere, so where I am doesn't matter.
 
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#20 ·
I ran 5/8" lines on both sides of my slip between the outer pilings and the finger dock/main dock. Once you have those in place you've always got something to grab with the boathook. I also have a very short line, about 3 feet with an eye on the end, right at the end of the finger dock. When I back in the first thing I do is put that eye over my winch and I've got my first secure point. Then I stroll to the bow and secure the weather line, and Bob's your uncle.
 
#21 ·
Yep,
All joking aside there are some really good tips and advice here. I will throw in what works for me since I single hand a lot and dock in different and new locations regularly. There are a couple things I always try to do when docking, 1) I always have four lines rigged and ready before I come into a slip, two fore and two aft. If I am entering a marina where I know staff is waiting to catch a line I place the loop over my cleats and have the lines ready to toss to the dock hands. If I am coming in on my own I tie them to my boat with cleat hitches so I have large loops to drop over pilings or cleats ready. 2) Probably the single most helpful thing I do is rig mid boat lines to both sides. I do not have mid cleats so I tie long lines to the lower part of my shrouds and run them outside the life lines and back to the main winch in my cockpit. One of these lines (typically whichever is upwind as I enter the slip) is the first one I get around something. Doesn't matter if it is a piling or a cleat on a finger pier. The mid line run back to the cockpit wii hold the boat still and keep it from twisting around allowing me to shut the engine down and casually fix the dock and spring lines. The key to the mid cleated line is to do no more than drape it over the piling (do not wrap or tie) and use the winch to pull the boat snug, it will stop the twisting that the cross wind will attempt to induce.

I don't rig fenders when entering a slip as I find they are more in the way than a help. I do rig fenders if I know I am coming into a floating dock or a full length finger pier. I often use the mid cleated line even when I have a helper on deck if there is a significant cross wind. It is very simple to point the bow close enough to a piling to have a helper simply drop the line over it and then I can control the boat from the cockpit and get everything completely settled down before using lines to finish getting us docked and tied.

Happy docking!
 
#23 · (Edited)
Why do I single hand and why should you?

If you have been following this thread and don't single hand, or are relatively new at it, but are apprehensive about it, don't be. When you single hand (or feel capable of single handing), you open up lots of additional sailing opportunities. But you do have to plan ahead more for evolutions such as setting up lines, docking, or special docking assists to aid you. Also, you have to give a bit more thought about Plan B to get out of this mess when things go wrong, and consider the impact of increased wind or wave action. And things will go wrong at times.

I found that, when I felt that I needed at least one other person on board to assist me, that in addition to being subject to weather (too much wind, too little, too hot, too cold, ...) that I was slave to other's agendas. I had to ask "crew" in advance if they wanted to go sailing on a particular day. Sometimes yes, sometimes no...it was their schedule that was controlling things. And if they did come, sometimes it was "I've got two hours" when you had hoped for a day. Or at times, if they came, the wind had picked up to where I was uncomfortable in departing/docking, or the wind had died so that it was just going to be drifting in hot summer heat...but I had to go since I promised them to go sailing. And as to their help, unless they were active boaters, usually they did the wrong thing, or took too long to do something, like trying three or four times to place the bow line that they just released on the piling while the boat was drifting into a sideways position which made getting out difficult without lots more maneuvering. When you can single hand, you can go when you want to go, often on short notice. In your maneuvering, you are not dependent on your crew or guests. You know what you want and you do it. Usually, when I have guests on board, I'll say I want to do it myself to get practice for when I am alone, and simply ask them to standby to push off on the leeward piling if I don't clear it...which I normally do. It's nice to have guests on board, and sometimes they really can help in difficult evolutions, such as getting that bow or springline on the piling while you are maneuvering the boat so they can do it when wind has picked up significantly. Once out, I let my guests steer and I tend the sails. Generally, they go away happy.

As to size of boat, I can only speak to smaller to midsize boats (22-32ft.), but I found my 28' easier to handle than my 22' or 24', and my 32' easier than all the others. Docking is a bit of a challenge because the slip, being more or less constant width while accommodating a much wider boat means there is less room for error.

As I said at the beginning, I've been doing it a long time, but still don't feel comfortable in many situations..i.e. the crosswind docking at 20 kts. that I discussed. Often in more moderate conditions, my dockings look good, and sometimes they don't. So far, I haven't damaged the boat, so I guess I'm doing ok. And still learning. One of the reasons that I presented the beginning of the thread the way that I did was that I wanted to get some of the more experienced boaters to share their techniques so we can all learn from them. They have done this, and I hope they will continue to do so, especially in dealing with crosswinds, gusts, and currents.
 
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