I forget which magazine I saw it in but the author named this technique after a friend of his, Larry. I have a line holder attached to the post on our finger pier, nothing fancy, just an "S" shaped piece of PVC held to the post with SS hose clamps. My regular dock lines are gold double braid, the Larry Line is blue so no confusion.

The drill is to come in dead slow parallel to the finger pier (dock), pluck the Larry Line off the PVC and drop it over the aft mooring cleat. I usually click the gearshift into reverse at this point just to slow even more, then back to neutral. Once the Larry Line is taut, forward gear at idle, wheel turned away from the dock. The boat comes nicely into two dock boards I have attached to the pier, each has a piece of starboard attached at the same height as my rubrail. I found that coming in too fast will cause a rebound from the Larry Line. The line pulls the boat into the dock, turning the wheel away and the engine in gear keeps the boat against the dock until the regular docklines are secure.

We started using this technique a few years ago and it has worked like a champ ever since. It takes the majority of the drama out of docking. Neither the admiral or I are getting any younger or any more agile. The biggest issue we had to overcome was convincing the admiral to remain seated until the boat has come to a complete stop. She was used to jumping onto the dock with bow and stern docklines in hand. The pre-docking warning is now "no running, no jumping, no flying through the air".