docking seamanship 223
Th is protects you in the event of a collision. Assign one crew to work a
roving fender. Have a fully extended boathook ready on deck.- Signaling equipment. You must have a means of warning others in your
path. Use your radio, whistle, or loud-hailer to communicate.
ENTERING THE MARINA
- While you are in clear water, start moving the boat at bare steerageway
toward the channel. It takes a considerable amount of time to get a vessel
with an off set screw steering straight. Depending on the rudder size, it may
be 50 yards or more before your boat straightens and answers the helm. - Favor the same side of the channel as that of the operating engine. If the good
engine is your port engine, favor the left side of the channel. If the good engine is
the starboard engine, favor the right side. Th is gives you room to turn or pivot. - Keep the engine in gear as long as possible. If you need to take it out of
gear, do so in an in-and-out motion: ahead-neutral, ahead-neutral, ahead-
neutral. Do not under any circumstances allow the boat to lose steerage.
Th e smaller your rudders, the more critical this becomes. Maintain control. - Use your peripheral vision to spot emergency moorings—piers, pilings,
empty slips, or seawalls—on the way in. Keep your options open.
SLIP DOCKING
Put aside any notion of trying to back into the slip. With one working engine,
bow-first is the only feasible approach.
If Your Good Engine Is on the Side Toward the Slip
- Start your turn into the slip earlier than you think you should. Use full rudder and
use short bursts of throttle in reverse gear to pivot the bow into the slip. Pass both
bow spring lines around their respective outer pilings as soon as the bow enters the
slip. (A bow spring line leads aft from a cleat on the bow to a piling or dock cleat.) - Put the engine into reverse to slow the boat, but shift back to neutral before the
spring lines take a strain. Let the spring lines stop and center the vessel. Fend off
as necessary, and get your other lines ashore.
If Your Good Engine Is on the Side Away from the Slip
- Delay turning into the slip. Once you turn the wheel, the bow will make a fast
turn toward the slip. Time this to square the boat and enter between the outer
pilings. - Pass both bow spring lines around their respective outer pilings as soon as
the bow enters the slip. - Back down, slowing the boat. Shift into neutral before the spring lines take a
strain. Let the spring lines do their job to stop and center the vessel. Fend off as
necessary, and get your other lines ashore.