When you park a car, you have a few different scenarios that can happen. I’d like to relate those to similar experiences in docking. So here are some different conditions that can occur:
- Parking lines on both sides and the back
In boat terminology, every parking line I refer to would equal a floating dock and a parking spot is called a docking slip. So in this case, there would be two docks (one of each side of you) and one marking the end of the spot. The goal in a car is to park between the lines, so here you want to drive the boat in between the two docks. Then, you have the option to either tie the lines to the left or right side dock.
- Back in
When parking a car you have the option to back into a spot. In the boating world, this is the proper method. Rarely do you find boats who do not back into a spot, but when you do, it is obvious that they are beginners and could be up for embarrassment if you do. If the docks are short (which they normally are) you want the bow of the boats to be sticking out.
- Pull in
The issue with pulling in is that you are putting the bow (front of the boat) first into the docks. The stern (the back of the boat) is what you actually want to be first into the docks because in every boat (except a pontoon boat that is rectangular shaped) the stern will be the widest park of the boat. This is the best place to exit for passengers to get on the dock and will be the easiest. The bow of the boat is triangle shaped, which would not be very stable if you are tying that to a straight dock.
- Lines on one side (for example, a parallel parking spot)
In this case, you don’t want to pull in and face the stationary wall towards land. You want to face out and create a line of boats. This can be very complicated because boats will range in size and promiximity to your boat.
- No lines (for example, a driveway)
When there is no docks, this is when you have only pilings instead (and one small standing dock to walk to land). This is by far the trickiest way to dock, but when some marinas only have this system, you are forced to do it. So what you have to do is back in and lasso the pilings one a time. Normally you are pretty far from them since the slip is so wide. Often times you’ll have a passenger on the bow and the captain trying to get them close to one side so they can loop the line over the piling and then push off to reach the opposite side. After attaching to both pilings on the front, dockmates will have allow the passengers to get off the vessel (aka boat) and then center the boat with the lines.
~The Aquaholic