Backing into a slip against a wind

S

Seevee

Member
Dec 3, 2015
238
St. Pete, FL
Boat Info
280 Sundancer 2004
Engines
4.3 Merc Twins, Alpha One, Kohler 5kw
If someone can tell me how to load a picture, this would be much clearer... Just can't figure out the picture thing....But need instructions to back a boat into a slip with the starboard side to the dock. There is a boat in the adjacent slip, without a deck between slips. The wind is blowing off the dock into my boat, pushing me toward the other boat. It's hard enough backing with a side wind, but once half way into the slip the wind takes my bow into the other boat. Help?28 ft twin IOs, no bow thruster.
 
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Back into the slip using port and starboard with your stern at a 45 degree angle to the dock. Once you're stern is into the slip and almost touching the dock, put port in neutral and use starboard reverse only to bring you all the way into the slip. You might occasionally need to bump port ahead to push the bow over towards the dock.
 
I could run through some scenarios in my mind for inboards, but thinking the OP has stern drives not inboards. Since I swore off things with props that protrude from the back of the boat a few years ago.... For you folks that are experienced in both... How similar are stern drives and inboards when it comes to docking scenarios?

Mark
 
It's easy to add pictures when your a sponsor...

I believe I understand what your saying... I have a similar situation at times in my slip. I dock my starboard side to the finger and have a neighbor to my port with no dividing finger. I call it "wind not in my favor" or "blowing me off of my finger".

What I do is come in close and perpendicular to the end of my finger and then start spinning the boat at the end of the finger allowing the wind to slide the boat sideways and align with the finger. Then move back quickly before I loose the bow. If the bow does blow to port, Ill have the port engine in forward and the starboard in reverse to keep the bow straight. And of course, it helps if you have someone on the finger to catch and/or a first mate to grab a cleat or fend off the neighbor with a hook.
 
If you're getting the stern into the slip without much drama it sounds like a well placed spring line or even bow line might solve the problem of a swinging bow? You need to be able to manage the line and the controls (if you don't have a co-captain) unless you're close enough in that you could go to neutral and pull it the rest of the way with the lines?

When it gets hairy at my dock (like it did just yesterday, in fact) I tend to have a mindset of getting into the slip far enough that I can use lines to finish the job while throwing it into neutral for the rest of the show.

There's no shame in using a hook vs positioning the boat within millimeters of it's final resting place under power. Though, admittedly, one does look far smoother to the casual observer. ha.
 
FootballFan said:
I could run through some scenarios in my mind for inboards, but thinking the OP has stern drives not inboards. Since I swore off things with props that protrude from the back of the boat a few years ago.... For you folks that are experienced in both... How similar are stern drives and inboards when it comes to docking scenarios?

Mark
Click to expand...

Mark,

Significant difference. The inboards are MUCH easier to maneuver. I have little problem with my buddies 45 Sundancer with IBs and no bow thruster than I did with my 31 Formula with a bow thruster.

The 45 you could turn around in it's own length. Add 10 knots of wind and still wasn't too bad, but had to "lead" the wind. Plus there is a huge weight advantage.

The 280 Sundancer is much worse... it gets blown around like a leaf.
 
Boater420 said:
Back into the slip using port and starboard with your stern at a 45 degree angle to the dock. Once you're stern is into the slip and almost touching the dock, put port in neutral and use starboard reverse only to bring you all the way into the slip. You might occasionally need to bump port ahead to push the bow over towards the dock.
Click to expand...

Kevin,

That's pretty close to what I'm doing, but obviously not doing it right.

If I go slow, the wind takes the bow long before Im into the slip and I'm 90d to it, hitting the boat next to me.

If I go fast, I run the risk of hitting the stern into the dock, OR stopping a bit short and with the slightest forward thrust, the whole boat gets blown to far from the dock.

Perhaps I need more instruction on spring lines......

If I can get the center cleat on the boat secured to anything on the dock, I can "walk" it in. But even getting that center cleat secured is a real challenge without coming up to the dock as a T and swinging around the corner pole into the slip. And often there's just not enough room for that as there may be another boat upwind in the next slip whose bow is too far out.

I need to find a real expert that know how to handle IOs.
 
Seevee said:
Mark,

Significant difference. The inboards are MUCH easier to maneuver. I have little problem with my buddies 45 Sundancer with IBs and no bow thruster than I did with my 31 Formula with a bow thruster.

The 45 you could turn around in it's own length. Add 10 knots of wind and still wasn't too bad, but had to "lead" the wind. Plus there is a huge weight advantage.

The 280 Sundancer is much worse... it gets blown around like a leaf.
Click to expand...

What he said. I tried all different techniques with a 280, and found it handles nothing like inboards. The boat is too long and narrow for the engine placement, and in a side wind the bow blows over fast. Drive it like a single IO, one engine at a time. Use the prop walk to your advantage to determine which engine to shift.
 
What I have done that works "sometimes".....

If the wind isn't too bad... up to 10 knots, I can come in at perhaps a 30d angle and aim the stern toward a cleat on the dock. The admiral tosses a line over that cleat and wraps it on the boat cleat and yells OK, at which time I put the port engine in forward and it pushes the bow up against the dock.

However, if timing is just a second off, I can easily end up sideways. That happened the other day, when a buddy threw the line and just had too much slack in it. And it happened a week or so ago, when the Admiral couldn't get the line on in time.

Id like to have her captain the boat and me tie the line... working on that.

Fortunately, haven't hit anyone's boat, but came too close a few times. I have scraped my stern a few times, but able to fix it easily.

For now, if there's another boat there and the wind is against me, I just don't go there.
 
I didn't see this mentioned previously, but when docking, always back into the wind with a Sea Ray. Most are stern heavy and pivot well aft of the center of the boat. When you back into the wind, you must pull the bow thru the wind which is easy when you contact the piling on the down wind side. That saves you the agony of having the wind blow the bow around on you. While it may look weird, I dock boats this way even if I have to do a 360 in front of the slip to orient the stern where I can make the wind work for me.
 
fwebster said:
. When you back into the wind, you must pull the bow thru the wind which is easy when you contact the piling on the down wind side.
Click to expand...

His slip is set up similar to mine. There is no piling on the downwind side. Only thing downwind is the other guys boat. Post #5 is how I handle it as well.
 
Seevee said:
If someone can tell me how to load a picture, this would be much clearer... Just can't figure out the picture thing....But need instructions to back a boat into a slip with the starboard side to the dock. There is a boat in the adjacent slip, without a deck between slips. The wind is blowing off the dock into my boat, pushing me toward the other boat. It's hard enough backing with a side wind, but once half way into the slip the wind takes my bow into the other boat. Help?28 ft twin IOs, no bow thruster.
Click to expand...

While I can't help with the backing into the slip part, the best way to post pictures and videos here is to get a free Photobucket account. I made a thread to show what links to use from Photobucket here: http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/71411-Photobucket-Test.

Also, you should sponsor the site to help keep the lights on.

Bryan
 
Seevee said:
Mark,

Significant difference. The inboards are MUCH easier to maneuver. I have little problem with my buddies 45 Sundancer with IBs and no bow thruster than I did with my 31 Formula with a bow thruster.

The 45 you could turn around in it's own length. Add 10 knots of wind and still wasn't too bad, but had to "lead" the wind. Plus there is a huge weight advantage.

The 280 Sundancer is much worse... it gets blown around like a leaf.
Click to expand...

Thank you Seevee - was wondering how different it was.
 
fwebster said:
He said there was no deck (I suppose he means finger pier) between the boats, but said nothing about the absence of pilings.
Click to expand...

Fwebster,

Yes, finger pier sticks out and between them, accommodates two boats, with no pilings between them. I have two place that I go to that have this set up, and often boats docked there will have their bow sticking out beyond the finger pier.

I could easily post pictures, if I knew how, but it's not easy... anyone know how to do this?
 
Is it possible to do a 360 and use your finger pier to your advantage? I had the same setup that you described when I had my 280DA except the finger pier was on the port side. As I approached my slip, the finger pier was on my port side as well. I installed a dock wheel at the end of the dock and if the wind was not my friend, I would hug the finger pier and pivot tight against the dock wheel. This would give someone on the boat time to throw a line to a dock cleat or, I could put it in neutral for a second and allow them to hop onto the dock and assist.
 
don't know if this will help but if you don't have one of these I highly recommend it....makes catching a dock cleat easy with the loop on the pole....

cliff

https://rsmarine.com/product/mt4-8?gclid=CNuSwuavjM8CFYs2gQodXLIIHA

theBoatLoop-MT4-8.jpg
 
Is this your permanent Slip?

Leave a dock line coiled up on the finger, as you are coming in grab it with a boat hook, tie off. Then you have a spring to pull against.

Mark
 
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