The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Coming Alongside (Docking)—Manoeuvring in Close Quarters

Up to now in this Online Book, I have covered setting up to come alongside, and using a magic springline that makes the actual docking easy, but what about getting the boat close enough to the dock to get a crew member and a line ashore without hitting anything?

That’s what I’m going to tackle in this and the next few chapters, but first let me tell you a story.

We were in a commercial harbour in Newfoundland and, as so often happens when cruising “The Rock”, the harbourmaster had found us a great berth, in this case alongside a massive floating dock in the most sheltered corner of the harbour.

The next day another sailboat came in and tied to a high and rough concrete dock in a much more exposed area.

I wondered over to say “hi” and pointed out that there was a much better berth just behind us, and further in, on the floating dock. I also offered to catch their lines when they moved. The skipper of the other sailboat looked at me like I was an idiot and said,

Thanks, but we have a full keel.

It took me a moment of confused thought (do hope I didn’t have my mouth open) before I realized that what he was really saying is that he could not safely manoeuvre his boat into that snug berth.

The interesting thing is that this clearly experienced skipper (I could tell by looking at the boat) assumed that any damned fool would understand that a full keel meant that getting in and out of this berth was impossible.

The point of the story being that this, and many other boat handling myths, have become common wisdom.

And that’s sad, because if we learn to reliably get our boats in and out of tight spots we will have a far more relaxed cruising life, since the snuggest and most sheltered berths are nearly always the most challenging to get in and out of.

So let’s bust those defeatist myths.

To do that it’s vital to clearly understand how our boats respond to various power and steering settings. Yeah, I know, you’re thinking “here comes the boring theory, just tell me how to do it”.

Sorry, no can do. Most all of the coming alongside approaches that I see that don’t end well (including some of my own), are a result of not applying the fundamentals properly, so we need to cover a bit of theory if we are all going to become fellow members of the docking perverts’ club¹.

The good news is that there’s really only one base skill we need to learn to make getting alongside easy in most any circumstances:

Turning the boat with little or no forward motion.

One more thing, throughout these chapters I will be focusing on single-screw boats without bow thrusters, since if we solve boat handling for that configuration, those with twin engines and/or bow thrusters will be able to take this information and add in the additional benefits that said gear provides.

OK, enough blather, on to the meat of it.


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Russell L

I enjoyed the way the chapter was laid out. Excellent work as always. The video was great, especially with the personal touch of Phyllis orchestrating the maneuver. Thanks again for the valuable information.

Marc Dacey

No, really, excellently done, John and Phyllis. The writing was clear enough, but the diagrams in different wind profiles and the lovely shots of MC in action really sealed the lesson. Since I started working with the four-bladed RH Variprop in docking situations, I sometimes get questions like “why do you hit the throttle in reverse so hard when docking?” It’s exactly to kick the stern in so my altitude-challenged wife can get to the dock with a line! And as you point out elsewhere, you can motor dead slow forward with the right aft spring on and stay pinned to the dock without fuss until all lines are on. Great tutorial.

Rob Northcoat

Hi John
Just interested in your thoughts on retrieving an anchor and chain after a winch failure.
Haven’t had the pleasure yet but it is a situation that I am keen to hear some ideas on as Maree and I enjoy short handed sailing passages.
Currently in some off the track locations in Indonesia.

Bryce

This chapter is fantastic, well done. It has remedied my boneheaded practice of trying to whip the helm from port to starboard when trying to work the prop walk.

To answer your question at the end of the article: In my view, the highlighting enhances understanding and reminds me of advice I received a long time ago when preparing speeches – tell ’em, tell ’em, and tell ’em again.

Stein Varjord

Hi John.

As I currently work as Skipper on tourist boats on the canals of Amsterdam, I get to practice extremely close quarters manoeuvres non stop. Much of the time, the boat length is more than the canal width. Quite often just barely more than the width. 90 degree turns come every ten minutes on average and the amount of other boats in any direction is often what would be called rush hour if it was on land. On the professional boats we use the VHF radio to announce our arrival before each tight spot.

I can, of course, support every word you say here. Without these techniques, one simply cannot go into the canals. With them, it’s actually quite easy to handle even big boats in there.

I will only add a level to the issue about throttle. On the canals, we use an on/off mode while turning. That means absolutely full throttle both in forward and reverse. The transition should be as quick as possible. The forward thrusts will be a bit shorter because the prop is less powerful in reverse. (On high powered speed boats, this is too much power, but on most any other boat…)

The reason for using so much power is that this technique is working with the inertia of the boat. The more acceleration force on a not much moving boat, the more it will rotate. So the slower the speed forwards, or the more power added, the sharper the turn gets.

This can be illustrated by in open water stopping the boat completely, turning the rudder fully over and giving full throttle forwards. The turning is sharp at first and then gets gradually less sharp as the boat picks up speed.

The classic newbie mistake in the canals is to ease the throttle in the middle of a sharp turn because one is afraid of hitting the side of the canal one is entering. That widens the turn much and normally results in bumping hard into the canal wall. Normally hurting the pride more than the boat. 🙂

On the new layout with boxes, I like it a lot. Visually separating the text pieces and making it easy to look back at some key issues is great. Makes it more readable. I think the text boxes should be quite short though. No explanation, just minimalistic key points. The biggest box might defy its purpose and seem like just normal text with another colour.

Karl

Hey John,
Your hard work paid off. This is a concise and well thought out post. The layout and new highlighted sections are smart stuff and a perfect summary for quick re-reads. Thanks for the education and encouragement to get passed the myths that hold us back from enjoying a cozy berth.
Karl
s/v Celestial