Docking line legnth

D

Dive1

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On the west coast we have nothing but floating docks. We are going to ship our boat to Alabama and do the Great Loop.
The current stern lines are 15 feet, bow 25 feet, midship 25 feet. The boat is an express with LOA at 41 feet.
Are these lines adequate for fixed docks? Recommendations please.
Dave
 
15 is too short for the stern, I like at least 1.5 x beam so I can tie the line the opposite to the dock to compensate for tide. Obviosuly you need two of these for when you are in a slip and you need to cross your stern lines. And you need the extra length to be able to throw it

Bow should be ok

For spring I like them long enoug so I can round them back to the boat this way i can release them from the boat when ready to leave. 25 should be just long enough. Again, two of them when tied along side a dock, one fwd spring and one aft spring
 
Extra length is always good because you never know what you will encounter at strange docks .I add extra 5' or so for loops around poles. All my lines are boat length or more.
Lines only for home dock just need to fit the space and tides but longer runs are better to keep the boat in place with tides.
 
By "midship" do you mean the line you use for your spring? If so, I would want it much longer than 25' for a 41' boat. If you're going to be doing that much traveling I would also recommend at least one spare line for each application. One can never have too many or too long of lines.
 
Long lines are good for locking aswell
 
The extra 5 ft or so for the lines to the poles sounds good. I also have redundant lines for all cleats plus extra 100 ft lines for the locks.
For looping around the poles do most people use a particular tool attached to the line?
 
quote:
Originally posted by pdecat

Long lines are good for locking as well

Click to expand...


Is that the case in the Mississippi? It's not true in the Great Lakes.

I took that advice before my first transit through the Welland Canal (330' from Erie to Lake Ontario). I hadn't thought it through, and as a result, I have a set of never-used 120' lines in my garage.

In a floating bollard-equipped lock, you'd only need regular lines. In a non-bollard lock, you'd have to throw your lines UP to the lockmaster or rely on the lockmaster to release them when you're at the bottom. That seems like a strange way to run the asylum...
 
There is an association of boaters who do or have done or are planning to do the great loop:

http://www.greatloop.org/

I suggest joining and asking your questions there for the best information.

Personally, I would think your lines are too short but I would recommend having several lines of various lengths because you can never be sure what you might run into.
 
My lines are about 1-1/2 to 2 times the beam (though IMO 1-1/2 x beam is too short), with at least one line on each end that's roughly the length of the boat. Down below I have two more lines of 100' each.
 
Here is more advice (just what you need, lol) - I use different length lines for my home dock but on the boat I only have 35' lines (not counting 2 X 100' for special occasions). By using only one length of line, I never have to think about what length I need when I have to throw a line to a dock hand. I just grab one, loop it on the cleat and toss it as needed. Much simpler. I have enough to think about when docking at a location I have never been before without thinking about dock lines, also.
 
Good point. Mine are all coiled on deck where I can see at a glance what I have, but not having to pick the right line would be an advantage. A longer-than-necessary line may be a hassle, but a too-short one is useless.
 
We've found it useful to get any "special" traveling lines in a different color so they're more easily recognized. For example, we use a thicker/longer line for warping, so that one is gold. (Apparently white and gold are stronger than other colors of the same size/braid.)

FWIW, we do the same thing at our home dock... so untrained visiting "crew" can be told to do something with "the white line" (or red or green or whatever) and they don't have to immediately know words like "forward spring" and so forth.

-Chris
 
Good plan. My "home dock" lines are left on the dock, and I don't normally let passengers touch them so color-coding isn't necessary. So, ALL of my on-board lines are "traveling" lines. As the shorter ones wear out I'll probably replace them with longer lines which IMO tend to be more useful, (if more expensive)

Usually I put a big 3' eye in one end and a back splice in the other, though that depends on how you work the boat. We do our tying-up from on-board and adjust them at the boat's cleats. Folks who like to step ashore and adjust at the dock cleat probably don't need the big eye.

It really ticks me when I pass a big eye to some kid on the dock and he makes it fast in some way that I can't just flip it off when I'm ready to leave. There's no point in arguing with him/her but once the boat is fast I'll go ashore and re-secure that line so I can.
 
It's probably hard for dockhands to deal with all the different "styles" of boat owners so you really can't blame them. They expect you to tie up a certain way and you are in the habit of tying up a different way.

I, and all the boaters I know, put the dock line loop through a cleat on the boat and toss the free end to the dockhand or whoever is on the dock. If I need to leave the dock without assistance, I just wrap a line around a dock cleat and bring the free end back to the boat. When I'm ready to get under way I can release it and pull it back onboard.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I leave my lines on the cleats at my home dock so they are already set the correct length. I carry a different set for transient docking.
 
As they say, different strokes for different folks (and different boats). Being an old merchant sailor I like to keep control of my own lines; if I can I'll get close enough that I can put the eye on the cleat/piling with a boat hook or simply rope it.

I've found if you control how much line you let the dock hand have, you can control to some extent what he does with it. If you give him the whole line, suddenly he's in charge.
 
At least the boat's length...

Sometimes a "25-foot" line WAS 25-ft before the eye splice. Other times the line is correctly described as 25-ft because that's its actual finished length.
 
I did the Great loop in 2011/2012 on my Tollycraft 44 CPMY. I carried 8 30 footers and 2 50's. I only pulled the 50's out once and that was in Chicago as spring lines when a storm came in. It was a great trip have fun!
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com

Jim
Tollycraft 44 CPMY
Sweetpea
 
Thanks guys for the comments. I do belong to the Great Loop Assoc. and will get some longer lines for the stern and midship cleats.
Dave
 
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