[Rhodes22-list] docking skills.

[Keyes, David]

Alex, I was really laughing out loud in my office (my secretary probably
wonders what I'm doing in here but I'm sure she had her doubts before) as I
read your description of the boat ramp.  

As you your first paragraph, that is exactly right!  My best dockings are
always when no one is around.  Even though I don't feel nervous (just very
disappointed at the threatened repair bills and down time), the royal screw
ups usually occur with a crew and often some onlookers.  However, I have
also managed some abismal dockings all by myself, where other boats way down
the fairway that I passed coming in see me going back out and then in again.
There are definitely understanding smiles.   What they did not see was the
magical 180-degree turns that I somehow made down near all the boat
propellors and rocks in the vicinity of, but not at, my slip.  Take
everything Roger advised and do the opposite.  That's how I did it!

David Keyes


-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Bell [mailto:alexbell@coastalnet.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 11:01 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] docking skills.


David,

You have that sense of humor that's going to keep you going in bad
times. Just try to come in when nobody is around. That's when it all
goes great. It's when there's a crowd of onlookers that put you on edge
and everything goes bad. Don't be afraid to ask an onlooker to catch a
line for you. Most people would like to help but will rarely volunteer.  

For a real treat, go sit around a boat ramp at the end of a nice day.
Any problems you think you might have in handling your boat will pale by
comparrison to what you will witness. This has been mentioned before,
but it's worth mentioning again.

I got to see a great show one evening in beautiful downtown New Bern. A
fellow "sailor" was going to recover his boat. He had his buddy bring
the boat trailer down the ramp. Meanwhile, he proceeded to take the mast
down out on the water while bobbing around. Keep in mind that this was
aobut a 19' boat and there was no sophisticated mast crutch and winch
system for handling the mast. Now if the ramp had an electric wire
hanging across it, that might be a good reason to mess with the mast out
on the water, but I would think I'd just go to a different ramp. This
guy managed to have his son (?) hold onto the forestay as he tried to
gracefully lower the mast. Ooops. son could not hold onto forestay, but
sure tried to. Seems like someone went swiming about that point. Anyway,
the mast came down.  Seems like the boom went for a dip too. It got real
active out there. Then they put the boat on the trailer. 

The boat on the trailer trick didn't seem to go so well either. I don't
recall the details cause I think I was unsuccessfully trying not to howl
with laughter and might have had my head down. Pamela and I were in the
car, but we might have had the windows down and I wouldn't want to just
plain laugh at someone ;=) This whole process took the guy about an
hour. Meanwhile there were some fishermen that wanted to bring their
boats in. These guys sure did their best to lower some people's opinion
of sailors that day. Of course, Bass Boat Bob has his times too. We just
didn't see him in action that night. 


Alex

David Keyes wrote:
> 
> Thanks, Bob.  Interesting idea to have a fender mounted along the dock at
> the head of the V.  In my case, though, I think that the dock is too low
and
> the boat would with any serious momentum ride over or stretch or break the
> V-line (which at my slip is near water level) and, if it hit the fender
then
> at that point it might just as likely slide to the right and hit the large
> metal gears and cables controlling the floating dock (which don't seem to
be
> capable of themselves being covered by a fender--but at least I have never
> come close to hitting these).
> 
> The above is the bad news.  The good news is that I would be very happy to
> have a problem with shooting into the slip too fast.  It would mean that I
> have gotten to the slip and that I didn't crash into any boats, any other
> part of the dock, or the finger piers or founder on the rocky coast
beyond!
> I have never had the problem of the bow going too far forward into the
slip.
> If I am going to screw up, it happens earlier!
> 
> David Keyes
>
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