The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Rigging The Spring That Makes Docking Easy, Or an Alternative

In the last two chapters in this Online Book, I wrote a lot about the huge benefits of having an aft spring running from the boat at her balance point.

But what to do if you are not blessed with the required cleat and/or fairlead (most boats are not)? That’s what this post is about.

Truth and Consequences

But first, let’s pause for a moment for a reality check. I know many of you will say installing a new fairlead and/or cleat is just way more aggravation than it’s worth.

I totally get that and so will have some alternatives in a moment.

But first, to help you in your decision-making, here’s the consequence of not making the change:

Spring Not at Balance Point

A boat that does not have a fairlead at the balance point will, in many circumstances, need to get two lines, instead of one, onto the dock, adjusted for length and secured, before the docking situation stabilizes.

The reason is that on some (most?) boats, going ahead and loading an aft spring led from the more common amidships fairlead or cleat, will result in the bow swinging in and hitting the dock, perhaps quite violently, while the stern swings out, regardless of rudder position.

This might be manageable when coming alongside a floating dock with a bunch of fenders hung forward, particularly on a smaller boat, but cruisers who venture further afield will be faced with fixed wharfs and/or coming alongside other boats, and sooner or later damage will be done with this method.

Spring at Balance Point

And, anyway, a balance-point fairlead just makes the whole docking process easier and more elegant, with no need for pulling on lines to get the boat straightened out—particularly important when the breeze is up and/or the crew are not quite as spry and strong as they once were.

I want to emphasize that last point. If our standard docking procedure requires the crew to pull the boat into position using brute strength, said procedure is fundamentally flawed and should be fixed. Otherwise, except with very small boats, sooner or later there will be a disaster and that may include someone getting hurt.

And one final plug: Although Morgan’s Cloud was designed and built with a fairlead in just the right place—Jim McCurdy was a smart guy—now that Phyllis and I have experienced the joys of the aft-running spring at the balance point, we would not live without it and would modify any boat we might own in the future to suit, pretty much no matter the cost and hassle involved.

Two Alternatives

All that said, if you do decide that the balance-point fairlead improvement is not for you, here are some work-arounds:


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Rob Gill

Hi John
Very interesting and simple (now you have told us) way to find the balance point. It occurs to me that fender positioning might have a marked affect – do you try to always place them at the same points on your rail?
Having a central cleat, up until now we have been your 2nd alternative as our go-to manoeuvre, altering which side we tie up depending on the wind. So if the wind was offshore we would set-up port side to, benefiting from the prop-walk in astern. It seems this must be a balance point for us in reverse as we do not need the bow line to be secure alongside. But we have always set up our fenders differently to try and anticipate where the likely contact points will be.
Rob

Kathy Meinen

Hi John, you’ve sailed in Norway, so you know that many docks there don’t have cleats or bollards – they have rings with which you thread your lines. During the off-season, there’s nobody around to take your line to thread it through the ring. Your post assumes that you have/can get a deckhand ashore. We’ve had problems getting the “deckhand” (in our case, the husband or the wife) onto the dock in the following situation: strong winds and/or current pushing us away from the dock. As soon as the boat gets close enough to safely step off, it immediately slides away again. After about 15 tries we finally manage but do you have any tips? We are both 55 and have never competed in long jump! Perhaps you’ll address “couple’s situations” in a future chapter?

KarlJ

I have a ‘Hook and Moor’, it jammed after a couple of uses – sitting on the side deck with the aft spring jammed in the end of a pole as you rapidly approach a tight finger berth is not a good look 🙂

Karl

Great and timely insights. I have a article in the April Sail Magazine about a not-so-funny at the time docking mishap. What kind of fairlead are you recommending?

Ernest

Talking about this http://www.sailmagazine.com/cruising/opinion/voe-docking-goes-awry/ ? I had wetted my trousers…

Karl

Yep, sadly, that’s me. John’s magic docking system makes a lot of sense. I’m all in. Just need an idea of the hardware recommendation. Happy landings!

Marc Dacey

It’s good of you to relate that, and the Blue Jacket 40 is a beautiful boat with sound design ideas. I agree you would have benefitted from casting even a breast line to the dockhand forward preferably, but that would demand a good arm or a willingness to point the bow at the dock while in neutral, or from the aft cockpit to the dockhand as the boat passes the end of the dock midway between midships and stern. Looping that line over the stern bollard on the dock gets you at least stopped and close to where you want to be…it would take some seconds to blow off.

I customarily assume it’s better to approach the dock in neutral having aimed as wind conditions allow. Once a midship line is off the boat and secured, I will use reverse and prop walk to stop dead and to walk off or cast another line to the dock. Thanks again for your educational tale!

Eric Klem

Hi Marc,

Throwing lines is definitely an underappreciated skill and I find many people are shocked by what is possible with a good line throw. I prefer to throw 2 coils (like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DFLYCRVRPw) although I know others prefer to throw a single butterfly coil or even a single straight coil. When I was working commercially, at the beginning of each season I would get the crew together on a few different occasions when things were light and we were underway and practice. We would line up along the rail with heaving lines and just throw them for 20 minutes or so and the improvements were remarkable. I found that most deckhands could reliably throw a 1″ dockline 20’+ (the limitation here was often hand size) and a heaving line 40′ with the really good ones doing closer to 75′ on the heaving line.

Eric

Marc Dacey

Good point. I often drive the club workboat in conjunction with a crane barge to reset our moorings (ballasted with former rail car wheels). The barge is self-propelled, but steers poorly by any measure. So we all have to coil and throw line to and from the work boat to stay on station in any sort of wind or even to tie off to opposing moorings. We use much the same methods as in that excellent video. Practice does make as close to perfect as is useable! Same with MOB drill with your least-favourite floating hat! Or, as the RYA does it, with a line-weighted fender pushed off the boat at seven knots.

Karl

Thanks for the effort John. This is a good start. Cheers.

Eric Klem

Hi John,

One good option for people who like the bronze look is Spartan Marine Hardware in Georgetown, Maine. They have a few closed fairleads that are well built and look great such as these https://www.spartanmarine.com/chocks-cleats. They are not suitable for really large boats but they work for most.

Eric

Marc Dacey

That locking chock is interesting. Obvious in retrospect, but I’ve never seen its like before.

Steve Ord

We have been using a midships cleat but I think, from reading this post, it is too far forward as our bow can end up coming in hard against the dock. We have Tartan 37 and luckily for us, we have both an inner and outer (on the rail) Genoa track. They are through bolted and we have two cleats on cars that we put on the outer rail as we use the inner one for the Genoa. This makes it ideal for experimenting and finding that sweet spot. We will have to work on this when we go back in the water. Great subject!

John Buchbinder

Hi John,
Thanks for the great articles, and this one especially. I changed marinas last year, and the new marina docking situation had me flumoxed…but no more!. I am fortunate enough (evidently) to have a stout cleat at the proper balance point on my Endeavour 35. I tried out your method and it worked like a charm. I was singlehanding, and had I set up my stern spring beforehand to what I thought would be an appropriate length. I brought the boat close to the finger, stepped off the boat and got the line onto the dockcleat. I had expected that I would have to run to put on the bow line to prevent a crash into the dock, but with the engine in forward at low idle, the boat took up a position parallel to the finger, bow slightly in and stayed there! I experimented with a different approach, and also experienced a major windshift which required a different rudder angle, but it still work great! Thanks!!

Eric Klem

Hi John and John,

Agreed on finding a way to get the line aboard without leaving the boat with it in gear. I have found that if there are horn cleats, with a bit of practice you can throw a loop on the dock and pull it around a cleat with something like 95% reliability provided the cleat is within 10′. As long as you have room to deal with a miss, then this works quite well and you end up with a doubled spring line that makes leaving easy if you won’t be there for long.

Eric

Marc Dacey

The guy across from me invented this and fabricates them. I can see how to easily make something similar appropriate for your deck height. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6kp5wIj5zc