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Re: "adding extra dock lines..." Gene, my club has double docks as well. What I
In Response To: "adding extra dock lines..." ()

have done is to make sure our boat is on the down wind side of the dock. The prevailing winds and southern storms drive my boat off the dock. See if you can transfer to the down wind side of your slip. Don't keep your springs lines, bow and stern, too tight. It holds the boat up against the dock. Keep the line to the head dock as tight as you can. Finely, make a deal with your slip partner to put a stern dock line to his boat during storms to keep both of you off the dock. The last thing you want is for your boat to be grinding into the dock 24/7 even without a storm. Our boat kicks to port in reverse which, unfortunately it's away from the dock, so sometimes it's a fire drill getting into the dock during a strong wind. It would be nice if your boat kicked towards the dock but even if it doesn't you can control docking by using a spring line to a cleat in the middle of the dock. You may have to add one. As you bring the boat in, get your mid ship cleat even with the dock cleat and secure to it with as short a line as possible. If the two cleats are positioned correctly, your boat will not hit the end of the dock, your bow will not be able to blow off because your stern will contact the dock and visa versa with the bow. The idea is to have a very short mid ship line right to the dock cleat. Once you are secured with that line you can go about securing the rest of your lines and remove the short spring. This is assuming you have a rubber bumper along your dock as most do. The other thing I do is to keep two finders on the port side at the most probable impact point to help my dock neighbor when she comes in. She keeps a couple on her boat as well.

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