Critique my slip lines

Stee6043 said:
Have you ever considered putting your drive down and backing all the way to the dock behind you? Step straight onto the platform?
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Water is too low (3ft from bottom of transom, 1.5 feet below outdrive, on a good day) and if I put the drive down, with a good wind and blowout the back of the boat could end up resting on the outdrive, so not a good option. We will often pull the boat back though to step on from the rear. Wife hates that though cause nothing to hold onto stepping across and she doesn't have the best sense of balance.
 
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Wanderer 290 said:
Why is the out drive up on your boat?
Leaving it down is less stressful on the bellows and the less of the rams are exposed.
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I dont have bellows; they were replaced last year with what Merc calls Sport Bellows. I had never heard of them until the shop recommended when doing outdrive work last summer. Hard to explain, they just come off the transom and dont connect to the outdrive.
 
Blueone said:
You need to help out your neighbor… a bit neglected :eek: ….What’s up with the cord in the water ?

View attachment 123463
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That boat hasnt moved in 3 years. I have been there 2 and never seen the owner. I am told people have offered to buy and he wont sell. They say its nice inside, but its a shame watching it slowly go to hell. And yes, that cord is completely covered in barnacles.
 
Timeflys said:
I’d throw out a couple of “bumpers” just to be safe!
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Pirate Lady said:
I dont have bellows; they were replaced last year with what Merc calls Sport Bellows. I had never heard of them until the shop recommended when doing outdrive work last summer. Hard to explain, they just come off the transom and dont connect to the outdrive.
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I am familiar with bellows. There are 3 on the outdrive, the u-joint bellows, the shift cable bellows and the exhaust bellows which is the “sport” bellows you mention. Anyhow, if the water is too shallow then I get it.
 
Here you go, for all of those that felt reading was hard.

Floating dock at the stern. Fixed Piling at the bow. Tides arent huge here. 2ft on average, so no need to worry about massive tidal shifts, but theres usually enough slack in the line due to side to side movement, to allow for a larger tide if needed

Spring line is a continuous line from pole/piling to dock, with a loop where the spring line cleat is on the boat.

Spring lines.png
 
mrsrobinson said:
I always thought, and did, the same. While on my new to me boat this past Saturday, with the high winds, the port stern was rubbing against the floating dock. I checked all of the other boats to see what they do. They cross the one furthest from the floating dock (starboard side in my case) to keep the boats off the dock. My guess is winds/tides. I did this and glad I did as the winds got worse after I left.

Now I understand why the previous owner had a bumper between the boat and the floater on the port side. The squeaking/rubbing noise from the bumper while inside the boat was driving me crazy, which is what got me looking at the lines. By not crossing the stern lines the starboard hull was bumping/rubbing into the floating finger pier. Their solution was to put a bumper there, versus change the stern line configuration. Genius...



Usually true but not when the floating finger pier is short. I had a short one at a marina once and we had to tie the bow lines to the pilons.
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If you do end up having to leave a bumper on, you can stop the squeaking by rubbing Dawn or other thick dish soap on the fender. It usually lasts until the next rain. I keep a bottle and an old rubber glove (to apply it) in my dock box for this purpose.
 
Sicktght311 said:
Here you go, for all of those that felt reading was hard.

Floating dock at the stern. Fixed Piling at the bow. Tides arent huge here. 2ft on average, so no need to worry about massive tidal shifts, but theres usually enough slack in the line due to side to side movement, to allow for a larger tide if needed

Spring line is a continuous line from pole/piling to dock, with a loop where the spring line cleat is on the boat.

View attachment 123466
Click to expand...
I would move piling bow line to mid ship cleats

Not do the line from second aft cleat to dock....I dont think it helps or hurts though

I can do a pic :D:D
 
So a floater with no finger pier, so yeah, you must use the bow pilons. That's a lot of line to manage, IMHO, especially when leaving/returning. Previous owner of my boat has the one continuous line from the bow to the mid to the stern as a spring line. I'm not a fan, but will not be there long so I am leaving it.

I vote for crossing your stern lines, 2 separate lines.

One bow line tied off to each pilon.

One spring line, bow to stern, to keep the boat from getting too close to the dock, tied off to a pilon.

5 separate lines. If you need to take them with you on a trip then use blue masking tape to mark where you tie them onto a cleat.
 
mrsrobinson said:
So a floater with no finger pier, so yeah, you must use the bow pilons. That's a lot of line to manage, IMHO, especially when leaving/returning. Previous owner of my boat has the one continuous line from the bow to the mid to the stern as a spring line. I'm not a fan, but will not be there long so I am leaving it.

I vote for crossing your stern lines, 2 separate lines.

One bow line tied off to each pilon.

One spring line, bow to stern, to keep the boat from getting too close to the dock, tied off to a pilon.

5 separate lines. If you need to take them with you on a trip then use blue masking tape to mark where you tie them onto a cleat.
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This is pretty much how my last slip was set, and it was a breeze honestly. Undo stern lines and leave em on the dock, undo bow lines and pop them on top of the pole, undo slip lines and let em hang in the water, boat out of the slip. When returning, back her in, grab the spring lines with a pole and hook and pop em onto the cleats, then grab the stern and bow lines. Has always been super easy, so i figure if it works for me, and no one else sees any major issues, should still work for this year. We have a whole set of secondary lines for when we tie up elsewhere
 
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