Nice, busy race in this crowd. Leeward mark: I would have spilled wind and wiggled to slow and follow. The camera didn’t show the situation on the port side, but you would have rights overlapped and the others clear behind would have to avoid your slower boat (collision risk notwithstanding ).

So dangerous in so many ways. At 5:58 leaning over the lifelines at any stage but to do it when you have motor engaged, an unmanned helm and the chance to fall between the boat and the dock has disaster written all over it. My personal view is that this video should be taken down so no one tries to do these maneuvers. Like others, have said it can all be done in a safe manner by using normal motor and rudder control.

You need to give some rudder to port is normal spring line 😊

Great video! I made one on the same subject - kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqPPaZt6gJmemrssi=oJ006UBdQtm79o8B - I found that using a boat hook to deploy the line was imperative.

that was always my fear as well, I ended up running spare lines from post to cleat on each side of the dock to make and X on my slip then ran a Y from the two front cleats held out of the water by the lines making an X...so worst come to worst I could get hte nose of the boat into the slip, as the lines making the X arrested the momentum, then pull on the Y to seat the boat by hand. The extra lines acted as padding, since my dock was straight up concrete. I was soloing a 40 foot Cal, in a really sheltered dock. I have seen guys brining in even bigger sailboats under sail and dock with no issues...but I never had that kind of skill. I also owned a 27 foot impulse race boat that was crazy light and much easier to man handle around. I could just park it more like a car..it did not have a ton of freeboard for the wind to interact with, nor alot of draft and it was over powered with a 20 hp engine. To be frank, THAT boat made me look better than I am.

😬

Lovely start! And excellent video.

If I’d have done these manoeuvres I’d not post them on KZbin until I’d practiced some more.

better yet, pull up anchor, go sailing. i lived in the anchoage there for 6 years. i miss it ALL THE TIME. ❤

Stop boating

You need to go slower , having the engine in gear and trying to catch a cleat at the same time is dangerous. Check out how to lasso a cleat - works a charm with the stern bridle . Thanks for taking time to make the video “every day on a boat is a school day” Slow is pro

Boat hooks are designed to put ropes over cleats (Not just pick up ropes). Try the hook next time

MORE PLEASE!!!!

Drives me crazy when dock hands insist on bow lines. I use spring lines on my 72 footer all the time. I do not have thrusters and can leave a dock single handed. I am 7 feet higher than the dock so I do need help coming back. Once the spring is on I just go back in gear then do all the other lines .this guy has to learn to use neutral and drift more

Can I recommend dropping your line over the cleat using a boat hook?

It would have been cleaner to leave the fuel dock using the bow spring and a fender to ease your stern away before reversing.

Bravo for being courageous and sharing! I don't use a winch, but use a spring line looped back to itself from the midship cleat on boat. I tend to come in A LOT slower, a baby crawl -- but have to increase if cross winds. Only time I had issue leaving dock with similar technique is when I had 25kn cross wind blowing my bow off finger to neighbors boat.

Great job . . . I single hand all the time, and the only comment I would make is that the bitter end of your landing line should not have a spliced eye in it. The eye can catch on the horn of the cleat when you are backing out of the slip. Better to have a clean bitter end with no eye or splice that can catch when backing out. Capt'n Dan

did not realize that the center spring line is called "Moitessier tie". that said, it works well. however since you are running the engine.. why not use it to remove energy from your boat? leaving the fuel dock seemed very precarious. maybe instead while on spring, use the engine to push the stern more in and let the bow swing port.. then engine out when it gets to about 45deg.

Brother, leaning over the lifelines while the boat is in gear and trying to catch the cleat is extremely hazardous, if you fall, you get smashed between the dock and your boat runs over you while your most likely tangled up in that line.

Just dock reverse

As others have said, use engine reverse to stop the boat, not the spring line. If you had missed the first cleat (like at the gas dock) you would have crashed your bow into the main dock. Here is a tip: Use a length of rubber hose (e.g. garden hose) threaded onto a large bowline loop. The hose keeps the loop open so you can drop it over the dock cleat with a boat hook. The hose will fold when the pressure of the engine is on the spring line. Run the line back to the deck, around the winch, and back to the wheel area so you can control the length. If you are coming into a known slip (e.g. your home slip) then you'll already know the length of line + loop that you'll need. Mark it with a whipping or some tape (which is a temp solution). After everything is secure you can remove the hose and tidy up the lines.

I am just starting to go solo. My strategy so far is to prepare all lines, forward, mid cleat and stern on both sides. This season there was always some one to take my line or help me cast off. I go as slow as possible. I might touch the neighbor boat but with zero speed and fenders at the correct height, there is no damage.

Yup, this is the method I use. Learned it about ten years ago. I basically stop the boat as I loop the cleat then put it back into forward

Pretty much a mid ship cleat idea but not at that speed. Moitessier had many ideas not all good.

Snagging the cleat is easy on a boat with low freeboard. Not easy on one with the freeboard typical on a 35 footer.

Why come into the dock so fast? You are going in wayyyy too fast. Should stop the boat with the engine, drop on moitessier, then put in gear.

yeah no, to fast, still in gear while securing the line on the cleat, didn’t spring off at the fuel station to get a good angle. Start getting more control of your boat under engine.

Great job with the courage to go solo and the editing... no wasted time for the viewer! This was informative and showed a step in the progression of a competent skipper to singlehanded confidence. Well done and thanks for putting this out there.

More fenders! Hell: ANY fenders!! 😝

Hmmm, no wind no perceived current. Making a mountain out of a mole hill....

Spring line is a standard docking method. Best used very slow speed, slower than idle using clutch in clutch out. More current more wind may require more or less depending on how you approach, use them to your advantage . Carefully look at conditions and slow approach is the key .

Spring line is a standard docking method. Best used very slow speed, slower than idle using clutch in clutch out. More current more wind may require more or less depending on how you approach use them to your advantage . Carefully look at conditions and slow approach is the key .

I did it with a boat neighbor a couple weeks ago and it's a neat and handy docking tool. My question is will it work docking to port as well as to starboard or does the prop direction play a role as well?

Thanks for posting. There have been some important comments. Use the engine not a line or cleat. They are not designed for shock load, such as you showed. The short dock line is not going to give enough stretch. Every boat handles differently and conditions vary. When I single on my boat I typically use the midship cleat when it’s super short, the stern and now cannot swing too far. I remove bow and stern, run the midship back to boat cleat. Once onboard I undo the line and flick off. I slowly back or drive out. Before getting fuel I call ahead if they can have some catch a line. Leave the line draped over lifeline so they can grab it.

Ok, it's an aft spring tied off on the boat and some French man has stuck his name on it? Gotta love the audacity. And what did you call the line from the front of the boat to the dock? A bowline is a type of loop tied in the end of a line. A bow line goes forward from the bow of the boat to stop the boat from drifting backwards.

This operation seems unsafe. You fasten the line to a dock cleat while the engine is in forward and you lean over the railing. If you miss the cleat the boat will go on forward, and you are not in control. This is what I suggest, prepare a spring line beforehand, fasten one end of the line to the aft cleat. Then lead the loop of the line "double line" around the winch (180 degrees), then outside of the railing, and back to the cockpit. When you arrive at the dock, stop the boat by reversing the engine. When the boat has stopped, put the engine in neutral. Using a boathook, get the loop of the line around a dock cleat, both ends going around the winch, take up the slack and fasten the loose end of the line to the aft cleat of the boat. Then put the engine in slow ahead. Now the boat is under control and you didn´t have to leave the cockpit to achieve this. You can now leave the cockpit in order to fasten the other lines.

i like the way under power the mid spring line acts as a hinge keeping the bow in

Understanding Springs are a great asset, Suggestion: if intending to pull a line through a cleat after leaving .... Use a line that does NOT have a loop at the end. If that loop caught on the cleat or dock corner etc, with the boat in reverse your bow would swing violently to port faster than you can say "Crash".

I use a pre-tied bowline loop for my home berth on the end of my stern spring line set perfectly to keep me off the dock. I run it back from the bow cleat, then through a loop just forward of where your winch is to get that angle. I like the extra elasticity on the long spring line if I come in a bit too hot. Easier on the bow cleat and the stern dock cleat. Also note that you can use the helm to adjust the angle of the boat to the dock. When I put it in forward, I usually need to steer hard away from the dock to get my stern in. This will change depending on where you put the loop, but also depending on the wind. You need to play around. The pre-tied loop doesn’t always work when tying to other docks, so I keep another line for that.

Your engine sounds rough...knocky/thumpy.... is it a single cylinder? Check engine mounts.

These are simply midship springs.

Duncan Wells has some videos in his Stress Free Sailing videos demonstrating this. He calls it a stern bridle.

Better stoping or slowing with the engine rather than the boat cleat doing all the work. It will eventually damage your fingers or the boat. Ime roughly at the same learning stage , 27 ft boat and a 30ft finger pontoon means always an anxious return lol

I also use this line-on-the-winch method to remove the dock lines for getting underway. I run it from my stern cleat, around the dock cleat then to the winch. The engine in fwd/at idle. I also use it to keep the bow from turing to stbd when backing when the wind is blowing on the port bow. (My boat's prop walk pushes the stern to port/bow to stardboard when backing). I haul in the winch, and when winch is parallel with dock cleat, release the stern cleat and pull the line inboard. I can actually "pull" the boat out of the slip with engine in neutral this way.

Well, that was a lot of fun. This should be a must watch on "How NOT To" for all asym boats.

As written, I agree with the committee. Why #1: while sl tacked within the zone, they did not force the protester boat above close hauled. No violation of 18.3. #2.sl had completed its tack before the protester altered course…therefore no violation of rule 13 as indicated in finding #5. #3 the only thing left is a plain old rule 11 (windward leeward when overlapped..think parallel lines that the 11 makes) which sl actually had rights and the protester obliged..although begrudgingly. If I were the protester, I would have made the argument that SL’s tack wasn’t completed and thus forced “us” to change course which would be a violation of rule 13 as the boat scenario seems to show.It seems like they instead went into the hearing with a focus on rule 18.3, which the admitted they did not go above closed hauled. IMHO

This is cool. What camera did you use for this?

That was a typical newport start, blasting down west passage until the terrain opens up and then boom, 7 knots and you're trying to re-tune for light air. That's a great race, on my list, did the Offshore 160 a few years ago and that was a blast! Nice boat :)

Nice job bailing at the leeward mark. Lots of racers would have tried to stick it in there anyway.