Docking failure...
- Thread starter rich356
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you know, if you had been alone you probably would have corrected jsut fine and handled the situation...
in stronger winds, in addition to not going too slow it's real important to anticipate what the wind is going to do. if your slip is to port and the wind is blowing from starboard, you need to come in closer to the stbd side of the channel/fairway... if the wind is coming in from your stern and you need to turn bow into your slip on port, start the turn as much as boat length sooner...etc..
same when leaving. since you will leave backing out, if the wind is pushing you back into the slip, back further out, all the way across to make up for the drift while you'll be turning and dont' be afraid to use some throttle to turn as quickly as possible to minimize your exposure.
in stronger winds, in addition to not going too slow it's real important to anticipate what the wind is going to do. if your slip is to port and the wind is blowing from starboard, you need to come in closer to the stbd side of the channel/fairway... if the wind is coming in from your stern and you need to turn bow into your slip on port, start the turn as much as boat length sooner...etc..
same when leaving. since you will leave backing out, if the wind is pushing you back into the slip, back further out, all the way across to make up for the drift while you'll be turning and dont' be afraid to use some throttle to turn as quickly as possible to minimize your exposure.
No bow thruster. I'm not really sure why they make us dock bow in. I guess it could be depth because it's only about 4.5 feet under me. Maybe because it's easier to dock bow in? Pascal - I think you're probably right. Since I would have had no other choice I would have had to figure it out. Certainly, what my BIL did to get us back into the fairway made perfect sense to me, and I was about to shift the port engine into reverse anyway. Put it this way, I knew reversing was the answer, but I needed some time to think about the best way to do that. Since time wasn't on my side I figured let him do it and learn from it. My slip is to starboard, and in this case it was a crosswind blowing from the the left front of the slip to the right back. So by the time I started to try to pivot the wind had already caught my boat's fat butt and pushed me over. Should have just started to turn in way sooner rather than waiting to pivot. During lunch today I was actually drawing diagrams of my slip and wind coming from different directions to think about what I'd do exactly. Obviously there is no substitute for actual experience, but seemed to be a worthwhile exercise.
This tells me you'll do much better next time. Sometimes you have to back-off and re-think the theory. Run it through your mind constantly and that helps to improve. I have done that a lot with powerboating as well as sailboating. It works with both.
Don't feel bad. I perform almost 60 landings (docking's) in a 10 hour shift when I run a water taxi.
Most of them are in some sort of cross current and obstacles nearby. Yesterday after bailing out on my first attempt I made a particularly hard landing on the second attempt in a ripping cross current. One passenger actually wanted her family's tickets refunded because she felt I docked to hard. She also wanted a phone number to "file a grievance" about the "hard bump" she and her family had to endure. I gave her our web site address and politely apologized about the bump and reiterated that "any landing you walk away from is good landing".
It's all part of boating. Sometimes you just have to "Stick It"...It may not look pretty but at the end of the day getting the boat in undamaged and walking away unhurt is what's important.
Adam
Most of them are in some sort of cross current and obstacles nearby. Yesterday after bailing out on my first attempt I made a particularly hard landing on the second attempt in a ripping cross current. One passenger actually wanted her family's tickets refunded because she felt I docked to hard. She also wanted a phone number to "file a grievance" about the "hard bump" she and her family had to endure. I gave her our web site address and politely apologized about the bump and reiterated that "any landing you walk away from is good landing".
It's all part of boating. Sometimes you just have to "Stick It"...It may not look pretty but at the end of the day getting the boat in undamaged and walking away unhurt is what's important.
Adam
I agree with Pascal: "you know, if you had been alone you probably would have corrected jsut fine and handled the situation..."
As a singlehandler, I am always visualizing how to approach a dock, slip, anchorage, etc. Before I do anything. Anchoring can especially be tricky, so I won't go out if the wind is ablowin' because the wind will move my boat faster then I can move and I'm apt to end up on the rocks in these narrow sloughs.
When I am going to dock, I first pause in the channel in neutral to see what the conditions [wind, current] are doing to the boat. Then I decide what my approach will be in those conditions. I always try to let the prevailing conditions work for me. Usually that means bowing into the wind/current for more control. But sometimes conditions won't allow for that. That's when the challenge begins!
A couple of weeks ago I was putting my boat on the side tie to do some cleaning of my slip. The outgoing tide was really ripping through and, just my luck, the only side tie was on upstream side. So everytime I tried to get my boat along side, the current was taking me away the minute I got the engine in neutral. It took me half an hour [no body around to lend a hand], but I finally got that baby secured to the dock! It wasn't pretty, but it worked!!!
As a singlehandler, I am always visualizing how to approach a dock, slip, anchorage, etc. Before I do anything. Anchoring can especially be tricky, so I won't go out if the wind is ablowin' because the wind will move my boat faster then I can move and I'm apt to end up on the rocks in these narrow sloughs.
When I am going to dock, I first pause in the channel in neutral to see what the conditions [wind, current] are doing to the boat. Then I decide what my approach will be in those conditions. I always try to let the prevailing conditions work for me. Usually that means bowing into the wind/current for more control. But sometimes conditions won't allow for that. That's when the challenge begins!
A couple of weeks ago I was putting my boat on the side tie to do some cleaning of my slip. The outgoing tide was really ripping through and, just my luck, the only side tie was on upstream side. So everytime I tried to get my boat along side, the current was taking me away the minute I got the engine in neutral. It took me half an hour [no body around to lend a hand], but I finally got that baby secured to the dock! It wasn't pretty, but it worked!!!
We can't stern into our slips because it will erode the docks, the docks are man made on top of a penninsula with cement sides that only go down into the water a foot or 2 now since the water is down. Constant prop-wash would erode the docks in no time at all. Plus not to mention its about 2 feet MAX at the wall.
Brian, Remember the close call I had when turning the wrong way, with the wind, at the end of a narrow canal?[:-scared]
Lucky for me, you and a few other SFBC members were on board. You guys moved like greased lightning and saved us from some chips and scratches. Wish I could find that post.
Rich, some day you'll be out on the boat when a horrible storm hits. The wind will be whippin, spray blinding your eyes, waves churning and the current doing impossibe things with your boat.You'll pick your line on the slip, have to throttle up a bit to compensate for all the forces torquing you around. You'll slide by your slip, hit the forward reverse in perfect time to swing around and into the slip with the barest kiss of fender to dock. You'll look around with extreme pride and guess what!!1 Nobody saw you do it. Seems there is only a crowd when you lose it.
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Charlie speaks the truth.
A good friend who is a rodeo cowboy gave me two of his calf roping ropes for the boat. Does that make them lines when they're on the boat? If I'm alone and need to get attached to something and can't get close I simply lasso it. Those ropes are very stiff and hold their lasso shape quite well.
A good friend who is a rodeo cowboy gave me two of his calf roping ropes for the boat. Does that make them lines when they're on the boat? If I'm alone and need to get attached to something and can't get close I simply lasso it. Those ropes are very stiff and hold their lasso shape quite well.
Liz - That's a good idea to pause in neutral to see what's going on with the conditions. Haven't dreamed about it yet Nancy. It probably would have been more of a nightmare if I had actually hit anything! Learn something new everyday Ray. I had no idea that's why we docked bow-in. Charlie - You should have seen it when we took the boat across the lake from the Chicago side where it was stored to the Michigan side where it lives now. I don't know how familiar you are with Lake Michigan, but it's essentially like the ocean except more choppy on bad days. In my boat 5s to 7s aren't a lot of fun, and that's exactly what we had that day. The spray was so bad at times you couldn't see through the strataglass. Boy was I happy that we had it all up though. We would have been soaked and freezing otherwise. It wasn't even stormy. Just windy with the wind coming from the northeast (not the direction you want to come from on the lake).
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Liz nailed it... it's all about visualizing !
i always visualize the track/path i need to follow then throw in the wind and adjust accordingly. then it's a simple matter of following thes invisible dots on the water. kind of like those driving video game where the line is shown on the track.
stopping altogether has its limits though as on windy days the wind is really set but will gust around because of other boats or buidlings. I always look at the water surface on gusty day, like a sailor would, as you can usually see the gusts coming allowing you to anticipate them.
this is also where it's critical to have everything ready... lines, fenders so that you can focus 100% maneuvring and reading the water.
Liz, you may want to consider adding a windlass to your boat with a remote helm switch. It makes anchoring much easier and safer on windy days since you can control you anchor and the boat at the same time.
i always visualize the track/path i need to follow then throw in the wind and adjust accordingly. then it's a simple matter of following thes invisible dots on the water. kind of like those driving video game where the line is shown on the track.
stopping altogether has its limits though as on windy days the wind is really set but will gust around because of other boats or buidlings. I always look at the water surface on gusty day, like a sailor would, as you can usually see the gusts coming allowing you to anticipate them.
this is also where it's critical to have everything ready... lines, fenders so that you can focus 100% maneuvring and reading the water.
Liz, you may want to consider adding a windlass to your boat with a remote helm switch. It makes anchoring much easier and safer on windy days since you can control you anchor and the boat at the same time.
wkearney99
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Pausing while docking is not usually a good idea. When you're moving you have control. When you let the wind or current start pushing you it may becomes much harder to recover. It's much better to be under power and maintaining positive control of the boat's position. When YOU control the situation you learn to gauge just how to put the boat where YOU want it. I've found it much better to get comfortable with applying power and predicting where it'll go instead of waiting for the wind. For me, it's all a matter of predicting momentum. I try to learn when it'll become a real problem and avoid letting things get that bad.
For example, don't let yourself get pushed too far to one side. With most boats the steering point is such that the stern has to 'swing wide' to get the boat to turn. Better to pull the boat back in reverse, pivot out where you HAVE space and then resume a forward course. I've had to do this a couple of times when making a turn to port to come down along our dock to the slip. The wind turns out to be a little harder than expected and I start getting pushed to the side more than will be recoverable. So I crank it back into reverse to move more to the far side, pivot using the engines and then resume. While this might not 'look' all that great, it's much less stressful that 'hoping' to make the turn while still going forward.
It's just VERY important to be EXTREMELY careful about how much (if any) throttle gets applied. My throttles and transmission are on the same sticks so it's easy for me. When you've got separate sticks for trans and throttle it can be a bit more challenging. When stressed it becomes easy to get confused about which ones do what and overcompensate.
As yet I haven't had to dock in extremely challenging conditions, thankfully. Our marina has a sea wall around it that really keeps things calm within the slip areas. I have had to practically 'surf' through the sea wall entrance once or twice when the chop picked up pretty bad. Talk about nerve-wracking! Practically pulling 10kts into the gap and then backing down HARD once into the calmer protected water. Makes docking on a calm day seem like a no-brainer.
For example, don't let yourself get pushed too far to one side. With most boats the steering point is such that the stern has to 'swing wide' to get the boat to turn. Better to pull the boat back in reverse, pivot out where you HAVE space and then resume a forward course. I've had to do this a couple of times when making a turn to port to come down along our dock to the slip. The wind turns out to be a little harder than expected and I start getting pushed to the side more than will be recoverable. So I crank it back into reverse to move more to the far side, pivot using the engines and then resume. While this might not 'look' all that great, it's much less stressful that 'hoping' to make the turn while still going forward.
It's just VERY important to be EXTREMELY careful about how much (if any) throttle gets applied. My throttles and transmission are on the same sticks so it's easy for me. When you've got separate sticks for trans and throttle it can be a bit more challenging. When stressed it becomes easy to get confused about which ones do what and overcompensate.
As yet I haven't had to dock in extremely challenging conditions, thankfully. Our marina has a sea wall around it that really keeps things calm within the slip areas. I have had to practically 'surf' through the sea wall entrance once or twice when the chop picked up pretty bad. Talk about nerve-wracking! Practically pulling 10kts into the gap and then backing down HARD once into the calmer protected water. Makes docking on a calm day seem like a no-brainer.
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I remember it very well. That was one seriously windy night! I seem to recall there was some fancy shifting and throttling on the part of the captain that also kept the situation from getting worse.
What a great night on the boat it was, truly one of the the few things I miss up here...
Actually, pausing wouldn't have done much in my case. I was one of the only boats out and the other boats were blocking a lot of the wind. Until, of course, I got to my slip which was basically a wind tunnel between a 36 Carver and a Great Banks trawler. Pascal - we keep our lines set up on the dock when we go out. I know there are disadvantages to this, but it's what most people do at my marina. The two vital lines while docking in my slip are the bow spring line and port stern line. Bill I have separate sticks so it can get confusing as you said. I haven't used any throttle myself while docking yet, but that would have been helpful the other day. Throttling up while you're headed into a concrete wall like we do in our slips is a bit intimidating! I'll get it down though.
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the one docking failure i will remember for a long time was actually leaving the slip... it was a few years ago with the maxum 37 taking it to the shop on one engine. It was pure stupidity since i shoudl have known that there was no hope of turning the boat in the 50' fairway on one engine against a 15kts wind. I ended up drifing down the fairway side to the wind unable to turn. I noticed an empty slip 4 slips down and across into which i got in, bow first. Still not having learned the lesson, I though it could back out and use a sprind to turn... didn't work either and ended up drifting once again sideways running out of room. I was saved by an empty slip, on the other side in which i was able to back in. Finally learned the lesson and asked a vessel assist tow boat that was in the marina to give us a tow out of the marina... shoudl have spent the $40 right away 
but it was a VERY valuable experience !
but it was a VERY valuable experience !