Top 10 Things to Remember When Docking a Boat
Remember These 10 Things as You’re Docking a Boat
No matter your skill level in handling boats, environmental elements such as a current or wind — including unanticipated accidents like mechanical failures — can catch you off guard. This is the reason these boating tips have been effective to others.
By making use of the following 10 boat docking tips, anyone from novice to advanced can get Mangrove Marina wet slips for liveaboards or transient boaters into the water without too much hassle.
1. You are probably familiar with one of the cardinal boat docking tips — never come up to the pier any quicker than you’d be willing to hit it. You can’t really anticipate when one wrong move will make your precious fiberglass chariot do the opposite of what you intended.
2. Utilize the right amount of gas to finish the job. When things like disastrous docking, applying inadequate levels of power is second in line to making use of more than enough. You have to overcome and counter momentum, current and wind.
3. Look before you leap everytime. Allow yourself to give your slip a good review, even when you have backed into it 100 times in the past. The biggest problem here involves the mooring lines. If a line of yours or one nearby happens to slip and falls into the water, the current may lay it out over your path.
4. If you have twin inboards, don’t even think about touching the wheel. You will have temptations, but you’ll sustain better control when the wheel is left centered for use only with the engines. If you end up turning the wheel, then the vessel may assume an unforeseen path when the prop-wash comes into contact with a cockeyed rudder.
5. Lower your windage in strong winds. This has a potentially dramatic effect on the difficulty of docking — especially in smaller boats. An Isinglass enclosure or a Bimini top can serve kind of like a sail on a powerboat, throwing you out of control.
6. Never turn off the engines until each one of the lines get fastened. A lot of people who aren’t sure how to dock a boat are going to make this mistake. They’ll shut down the boat just as it makes it onto the slip, but you fundamentally never know when a crewmember may drop a line or if a piling will end up slipping out of reach.
7. Do not be scared to abort. These boating tips are particularly crucial for single-screw inboards, sailboats and other boats that have limited maneuverability. When one approach does not seem to be working well, don’t force it! Just circle back and give it another try.
8. Learn how to dock a boat using fenders that are placed with precision. There are more aspects to this than just placing the fenders over the side — you’ll have to judge if the boat’s going to come into contact with the piling and how to get the fenders will be oriented. This way they do not swing freely above it or get stuck underneath the pier.
9. If you’re docking any sort of single-engine vessel, remember to turn the wheel prior to applying power every time — and not during or after. You will not receive a blast backward or forward before the blast of starboard or port hits you.
10. Only use short bursts of power rather than a steady stream of power. This will let you maneuver without producing a lot of momentum — the thing that will most likely make you lose your control.
Mangrove Marina offers 102 wet slips for live-aboard and transient boaters. These wet slips can accommodate boats up to 70 feet in length with 24-foot beam, and 5 feet of draft. Tie your boat to one of our wet slips and enjoy the Florida Keys and our marina amenities. Contact us today for wet slips availability.