Entering the slip with a strong crosswind

[sailingfool]

My advice for the strong crosswind situation would be to enter the slip bow first and focus on getting an "after bow spring" line onto a windward cleat or piliing situated about half way into the slip.

Leaving the engine in gear with rudder to leeward will keep the boat to the windward side of the slip, and you can attach additional lines at your convenince, no need to hurry. You cannot do this manuover stern-first.

[FishFinder]

Originally Posted by pegasus1457

Guys,

I will try some of the remedies proposed, but the easiest is to come in bow first when the wind requires it.

Thanks again.

My boat acts similarly, in a crosswind the bow can whip to leeward fairly fast ... moving forward I seem to be able to control the bow swing more at slow speed using little bursts of power and the propwash over the rudder to keep control, then using reverse as a brake more or less. Maybe it just seems easier because this is what I'm used to I dunno. I rig an aft-leading spring line that is put on a cleat first like previous poster said to control bow swing once in dock.

Ultimately though every boat/skipper is different, if conditions are such that you feel stern-in will be dicey and bow-in is easiest then I'd definitely say do it bow-in temporarily. Once there you can relax and wait for more favorable winds or come up with a plan for flipping boat around/set up lines/get people on dock to assist with move.

[ardoin]

If you have a crew of 1 or more, you can use a spring line: bow to pile to aftship. Pull up into the wind next to the pile that is on the windward side of the slip (the pile should be at a point near the stern that will allow the stern to swing into the slip without hitting the lee pile or pier). Put a fender board btw boat and pile. Rig the spring line and rig a long bowline. Put her in reverse and adjust the spring as she backs and turns. Once you are part way in the slip, use the bow line to keep the bow in shape and continue to adjust the spring.

If the boat windward of your slip sticks out, then you have to change it up a bit. Tie a line between the piles on the windward side before you leave to sail. I use my forward spring line for this. Then when I untie the spring that runs from the center pile to the stern, I hang it forward over the line tied between the piles. Put the windward bow line on the pile when you leave so it is easy to fetch on the way back. Now for the tricky part. Approach the slip as usual, and start backing in. Have crew near the back quarter ready to with a boat hook the catch the bow line ASAP and walk it forward with instructions to not let the bow fall to the lee. Grab the spring ASAP and connect it to the stern. while slowly backing (or pulling the spring by hand). It will be like springing in to the slip, but it is done with lines already on the piles and no fender rather than a long spring line and fender you rig on the boat.

When I single hand... I do the same setup, but I don't have the chance to catch the bow line. So the bow is going to blow to the lee. In this case I have a pad on the lee pile, and I cut the engine just as the bow blows (usually about 1/4 to 1/3 of the boat is in the slip at that time) and use the spring line to pull the boat by hand into the slip and grab the windward stern or midship line ASAP. Tidy up when those two are in place.

If you don't have a pile on the lee side, I don't know what you can do without crew. Maybe drop anchor to control the bow.

[sww914]

Not to be a wise guy, but is there anyplace similar to practice? That's how we get good at things. The first time I drove a boat, an aluminum skiff, I had my wife (USCG) teach me how to dock. After a year or so my sailing buddy had me skippering his Columbia 21. As I pulled up to the dock, making a nice upwind down current landing that required no running, jumping, fending or yelling, he pushed me off to my surprise. He told me to put it in it's slip, and that I'd better back it in. We had no motor but I had seen him and helped him backwind the main by pushing out on the boom and back it in many times.
The pressure was on. Backing a tiller boat into a slip perpendicular to the current (2-3 kts) one way and the wind (solid 15) the other way and the sun was going down. One other thing, a rock seawall about 4-5 feet behind the rudder when the boat was slipped.
I practiced. I practiced a lot that day. After several aborted attempts a very nice German lady in the second story of the hotel above the slip too the time to tell me how to land on the dock as I had the first time. She was exactly right, but I had a hard time explaining to her that I was required to back it in. She yelled- "It's a sailboat, you can't back it up!"
I pointed to my friend and told her that it was his boat and he said that I can and must back it up. She was convinced that I was mentally unbalanced but continued to watch nonetheless.

A couple more tries and I had the current and the backwards speed figured out and I nailed the landing, to use figure skating terms.
No bent rudders, scratched paint or broken fiberglass at all.
A 21 is pretty easy but it is a keelboat.
Practice is good.

[random42]

Originally Posted by pegasus1457

The piling end of the lines are attached to rings which slide up and down on poles with the tides. These rings are shared by neighboring slips. There have been a number of incidents of boat damage due to the ring getting snagged on the bottom of the pole and not coming up with the rising tide.

Assuming you are describing a pole which is parallel to the piling and the ring getting caught at the bottom; a simple modification to prevent the ring getting within 1 diameter of the bottom (or top) of the pole, should solve the problem.

You could either tie a line between the ring and the midpoint of its desired travel or insert a block (of wood) or other obstruction to prevent the ring reaching the ends of the pole. Obviously any method chosen should not introduce new opportunities for snagging the ring.

[NCC320]

On the issue of the outer piling tie rings jamming on the piling...this is a real issue and can result in serious damage to stern of boat since lines are shorter (unless you can cross the stern lines, in which case it is less an issue than when the rings are connected to bow lines). The issue is the same with chains (with or without PVC pipe rollers) or lines simply looped around the piling. They can all slide down and then jam. For situations where I must go bow in and have extremely short stern lines as a result (can't cross the lines in my slip when bow in), I've treaded the lines through a piece of re-inforced flexible PVC pipe with the line going from boat cleat around the piling and back to the boat cleat to keep the line from jamming. I hold the pvc pipe in place by a small line to it's mid section tied of to the piling a few feet above the normal position of the stern dock line on the piling. Even so, this is only temporary bow first docking and I re-dock stern first as soon as the winds permit. As to the flexible PVC sliding up and down the piling to releave pressure, it seems to work reasonably well, but the soft surface of the PVC wants to still grab the piling. I have ordered a Pipe Viper bending tool (about $40...do a Google search) that will allow me to prebend a 3/4" hard PVC pipe in a semi circle to go around the piling...it is satisfactory to pass a 1/2" or 5/8" line through the opening. The hard surface against the piling will make this sleave slide more easily up and down the piling so you do not jam the short stern line attachments on the piling or damage the boat from such an event. I will make up a couple of lines (already have with flexible PVC) and keep them on the boat for when I need them. Just an idea that others might consider.