Color coded dock lines, the Admiral thinks I'm crazy...

J

Joel_MD

Member
Jun 20, 2016
210
Chesapeake Bay
Boat Info
390 Motor Yacht, 2005
Engines
Cummins 480 CE
Previously all the dock and fender lines on our Sea Ray were black, and the dock lines were all 1/2". They were varying lengths of 15', 25', and 35'. The admiral is my chief line handler, and she doesn't exactly excel at this duty so I try to come up with ways to make it easier. No matter how many times we pull into a slip she needs to be coached on exactly what to do. I'd love to switch positions with her and be the line handler, but her apprehension of taking the helm is worse.

So this year I took all the old black lines and fastened them to our home slip pilings with screws so they'll stay there. I bought all new dock lines and color-coded them. I made a legend on a laminated card and fastened it next to the rope locker. Now I should be able to say "take a green line and fasten it to that piling right there" when we're pulling up to a slip that's away from home. The admiral thinks I'm off my rocker with the color coding, but I think she'll appreciate it.

BTW, the Buccaneer brand of dock lines sold by Defender cost a lot less than the ones that West Marine carries, yet they're made in the US and seem very high quality.

Anybody else have any "best practices" to make things easier for your line handling crew?

Dock%20Line%20Colors_zpsewu0av28.jpg
 
I have all the same color lines but the bitter end is color coded by length. West marine custom makes double braided lines by New England rope... 11 years later still great .

Rob
 
We have all black lines but I color coded the lines using colored rescue tape works awesome and my lines all match


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I just use 5/8" lines on the bow and stern and 1/2" lines for all the spring lines.....all 30ft in length. Things that are second nature to me are sometimes difficult for my wife to grasp, so I find limiting the variables she has to deal with helps her a lot.
 
I've found out the hard way that what I think should be brilliantly helpful idea, my Admiral thinks is completely stupid. She and I just think so differently about some things that my great idea makes no sense to her, and vice versa. Sometimes I think she's having trouble with something, and she thinks it's fine. That's the worse possible scenario.

Your Admiral may be the same, and the color coding idea may not be helpful to her. You might want to ask her if she feels she has a hard time with the lines. If so tell her you want to make it easier and less stressful. Then ask what might be helpful to her to get her onboard with the solution. At the end of the day it's the Admiral tending the lines and it has to make sense to her. Plus if she's involved in the resolution it will be harder for her to yell at you about it. But still not impossible...I'm married so I know that I get blamed even if it's not my fault.
 
I feel like the only way a color coding scheme would be understandable for my admiral would be color symbols attached to the hull by the cleat where the colored line is supposed to attach.

We have pre-set dock lines more or less permanently attached to the pilings in our slip and the admiral on my boat can't even reconnect the stern lines right.

I bought an odd color line (blue), mostly so I could be sure that at the end of the season when the boat is pulled for winterizing I get MY lines back and don't end up with someone else's random black or off-white lines.
 
Cant color code the cleats . What works at one marina wont work at another . So I guess Everyone has their own way .

My lines are not only color coded but are in the aft locker in length order shortest to longest .

Just a thought

Rob
 
[FONT=&quot]Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. - Confucius[/FONT]
 
Havana Shamrock said:
We have all black lines but I color coded the lines using colored rescue tape works awesome and my lines all match.
Click to expand...

fwebster said:
Things that are second nature to me are sometimes difficult for my wife to grasp, so I find limiting the variables she has to deal with helps her a lot.
Click to expand...

Robski97 said:
Cant color code the cleats . What works at one marina wont work at another . So I guess Everyone has their own way .
Click to expand...


The tape markings work well for us and it makes them more understandable for the Admiral and any quests that may be near when securing in a transient slip. Such as in, "hand me the line with red tape". Limiting variables helps the folks that do not immerse themselves like most of us do.

MM
 
Color coding sounds like a great idea, but unfortunately I'm colorblind so I went with all black lines. :smt017
 
Man I sure am glad to hear that I am not the only one with this problem.
I have had to develop much patience in the last few years as my Admiral is totally lost when it comes to the dock lines.
I found hand gestres work better than yeling as she always thinks I am getting mad at her. Every time we dock it is an adventure.
In the end if we have have not hit another boat or damaged ours I consider it a success.
Color coding did not work for us either.
 
"Every time we dock it is an adventure. In the end if we have have not hit another boat or damaged ours I consider it a success."
You can't imagine how relieved I am to know that I am not alone in that feeling!
 
The only time we confuse the dock lines at our slip is telling the spring lines from the bow lines. All the other lines seem fairly straightforward, since they're on one side or the other. So we put blue tape on the bow lines. Blue for bow. Seems to work pretty well.
 
In our home slip I have the lines color coded, black for bow lines, longer blue lines for spring lines and white stern lines. We dock in a tidal canal with a strong running current, up to 3KT+ on ebb, so depending on the sate of the tide, which line is to be attached first will vary. My Admiral likes the color coding idea, it's easy for her to understand when I say, grab the starboard black line as soon as I pivot around that piling and attach it to the starboard bow cleat. If I just said grab the starboard bow line, I could get either spring or bow and by the time that got sorted out, I'd be out of position and fending off the $600K sailboat in the slip next to mine.
I'm also glad to know that I'm not alone in the thought, any docking you can walk away from is a good one, and any one where the boat is still useable is a great one!
 
Another approach. Regardless of the color of the LINES, tag the end of the line used the same color as a tag that goes on it's cleat. The line matching process can't be any easier than this. When the color fades, replace them (about every 3-5 months). Also the easiest way for helpers at the dock to match-up any line they happen to pickup while you are docking.

https://www.amazon.com/TANKING-Reus...rd_wg=Z3xfo&psc=1&refRID=NN3AVZF6K5H2WY9FMJ7G

or

https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Label-let..._rd_wg=bkEjD&refRID=753G8BX6NRGYB58NAM25&th=1

or...

https://www.amazon.com/SummitLink-1...2924&sr=1-4&keywords=color+heat+shrink+tubing
 
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Man I'm glad I married a lifelong boater. My wife just gets it done without a word needing to be said.


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This is a great thread!!! All In the same boat... what an adventure


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I must have gotten REAL lucky when I married my Galley Wench (her choice of title, not mine!) because she very seldom gets confused about what line goes to what cleat. The way they are laid out are pretty straightforward, but still there is room for error.

Thank you, dear!
 
I'm in the K.I.S.S. camp. Home dock lines stay at the dock. We pull in, drop the loops over the cleats and we're done. A didderent set of travel lines are all identical color and size. Need 4 lines, grab any 4 lines. Need 6 or 8 lines, grab them and put them where they're needed.
 
White for my bow and stern lines, blue for my longer spring lines. Makes it easy when I ask a passenger to grab a line from the storage compartment.
 
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