I woke up this morning and thought we were sinking!

[airdvr1227]

Crazy morning at the Erie Islands. Wind, waves, and rain started in the middle of the night. When I woke up this morning we were listing heavily to starboard. Wind was blowing 30-40 knots and it was raining hard. I was shocked to see the water level in the harbor had risen ~18 inches. My center line was pulling my rig over. Had to go out in the squall and loosen the line. Now I'll have to go back this week and re-tie up because once the water recedes my lines will be too loose.

Is there a way to tie up at a stationary dock so this isn't a problem?

 

[JoLin]

It's almost impossible to set up for every possible condition. Your static lines are configured for relatively static conditions. When extreme conditions are on the way you need to reconfigure by increasing scope and then protecting against banging on bulkheads or pilings. I've never found an easy way around it.

Mooring whips let you increase scope by a pretty good amount. You increase tension on the whip lines to hold the boat off the dock. Of course, then you can't get on it under normal conditions without loosening those lines so you can pull the boat closer. Another option is using fender boards. Google it- they're real old school but easy to make yourself. I used them successfully on a 19' Pro-Line, but a 30' boat may pose a problem- they're gonna be heavy.

My .02

 

[Watermann]

I use bungee dock lines, they can extend quite a ways when needed.

 

[JoLin]

Personal opinion, but I wouldn't use bungee lines to hold a 30', 10,000+ lb boat in extreme conditions. If they're big enough to hold, they're gonna pull the boat back to the dock with a lot of force and all that weight/momentum behind them.

 

[thumpar]

I like whips. You can use a normal line with slack in it when you want to pull the boat close to get in it.

 

[gddavid]

Yes, there is a method to tie up to a stationary dock. The key is have your dock lines long and aligned with the motion you are tying to prevent. The longer the line, the larger amount of tidal fluctuation can be tolerated without significantly changing the lateral or vertical pull of the line. In the image below you can see that the stern line is lead from the dock to the far side of the stern, this length allows the boat to rise and fall with the dock line changing at a smaller angle and therefore not getting too tight to too loose. If you are in a slip with two stern lines, you would cross them. The bow line(s) cannot be crossed but because the bow is further from the cleat or piling, it already has some length to is and is less likely to cause a problem. Now that your bow and stern lines are long and perpendicular to the boats motion laterally they will work properly however they will no longer control the fore and aft motion of the boat very well. To control the motion of the boat forward and aft you need spring lines, these lines run along the side of the boat and also need to be long to allow the boat to rise and fall with the tide without affecting the tension in the line excessively.

 

[shrew]

That is absolutely the correct method to side-tie. If you're in a slip I would still side tie to the finger pier like shown above, however the slip would have a main dock that runs behind you. If that is the case, I'd run another stern line from a cleat or piling on the main dock to the other stern cleat. This would criss-cross the stern lines and keep your stern off the dock as well. (chaffe protect where the lines cross). If there was also a forward piling in the slip, then another bow line off the port bow cleat to keep the front off the dock. Fenders are great, but I'd prefer to not rub against the dock at all if I can.

If it's a side tie only, like above, then that is what you're dealing with. Breast lines are not great, they leave little room for extension or movement and usually pull sideways against a cleat, which is the cleats weakest point.

 

[airdvr1227]

Awesome ideas. It is a side tie only slip so I'll put this into effect. Thanks.