I’m knot one to resist a tie to the theme for August. I’ve been line awake and bending over backwards thinking of bad puns to hitch to our NLSC’s “Knot In My Back Yard” program coming up at our meeting this month.
Anyhow – suppose you are the crew on one of our NLSC sailing trips. You know that sailing is a lot like flying: The most dangerous parts are the take-off and landing. Especially the landing. Except we call it docking.
Assume that your experienced, expert skipper is busy at the helm, trying to get the boat to the dock while avoiding obstacles like other boats, other docks, breakwaters, buoys, fishing boats which cast their lines in the narrow harbor entrance, kids swimming, flotsam floating, jetsam on jetties and jetskiis, and the crew talking to the very busy, trying-to-concentrating helmsman about all sorts of irrelevant stuff at exactly the wrong time. And of course there will be the last-second sudden wind shifts - the wind just loves to change and blow from exactly the wrong direction just as you are trying to approach the dock with zero speed while maintaining steerage (yes, an oxymoron, but a laudable goal.)
While all this is going on, you (the crew) can be very helpful if you can do several things. In fact, in heavy weather you must do these things. And they all involve rope and knots. [You knew I’d get back to the principal theme eventually, didn’t you?] Such as:
Tying on the fenders (not: bumpers). You can use lots of knots to do this. I recommend a simple clove hitch to fasten the line from the fender to the lifelines, or to the shrouds, or to anything fixed to the boat. This knot has several advantages: It is easy to tie; it is easy to adjust or untie if (when?) you initially tie the fender on at the wrong height (i.e. when it doesn’t rest between the hull and the dock). If you can, use a slippery clove hitch – you do this by putting a loop through the last pass of the line, instead of running the bitter end (see demo, at the meeting). This knot can be untied with a single pull.
But, I hear you asking, why not use a more secure knot? Well, that’s fine – but replace the CH or the SCH with something more permanent AFTER the boat is stopped, docked, and tied up. Then you have all the time in the world.
[Or, don’t stow the fenders at all after you start out from the dock, so everyone will know that you have a boat full of amateurs.]
Using the docklines. The crew may be asked to remove, coil and stow the docklines after leaving the dock. If so, you also will have to know how to properly refasten them to the cleats on the boat.
Alternatively, I leave the docklines fastened to the cleats on my boat – ready for use. I stow them when underway by coiling and hanging the coils on the pulpit or the pushpit – another rope-handling skill to have.
When preparing for a landing, uncoil the docklines and have them ready for the designated crew to take ashore AFTER the boat is as close to the dock as it is going to get (why jump, miss, and get crushed between the boat and the dock, when all you have to do is wait for the boat to get closer?) [Note: If you can’t get ashore safely, don’t jump! The helmsman can always back away and come in again for another safer try at landing.]
Wait! There’s a sudden off-shore (off-dock) wind gust, blowing the boat away from the dock. (Murphy was a sailor, you know.) Your capable, competent, experienced helmsperson knows what to do, though: maintain enough speed and momentum to overcome the wind and to maintain steerage. [“Ramming Speed!”] Of course, this means the boat is moving as it passes alongside the dock. Sometimes very quickly. Too quickly.
Hopefully you have a very long dock to tie up along - good. More likely, you are in a dead-end slip and will ram the bow into the end of the slip if you don’t get the boat stopped quickly. There are two ways to do this (three, if you count on the collision to stop the boat – it probably will, but...)
1. Trust the helmsman to shove the auxiliary into reverse and gun the engine to stop the boat. But also, be ready to:
2. Get ashore quickly and use the dockline and a dock cleat to slow the boat down under control and to stop the boat at the right time. [Note: #2 only works on boats, not on aircraft, except maybe on aircraft carriers, but you don’t have to jump off...]
Now, you are on the dock with the boat still moving: Do you know the proper way to control and brake a moving boat using a dockline? Can you do this quickly?
If you fasten the dockline to the dock cleat too soon, too hard or too fast, you might break something (the line, the dock, the cleats, the boat, the crew). But if you don’t slow and stop the boat fast enough, you might break something else (the front of the slip, the bow of the boat, your budget). And if you use the wrong line - the bow dockline - you will just pull the stern of the boat away from the dock (stranding the rest of the crew who are also trying to get ashore and help.)
PUNCH LINE: At our August NLSC “KIMBY” meeting, we will be demonstrating and practicing the proper use of docklines and cleats to slow and stop boats – “to brake, not break”.
I hope we can rope you into coming…
- R^2
Bob Rouda
NLSC Commodore