How to tie up securely at a bull rail

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jayslu

jayslu

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Joined
Feb 10, 2024
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We will soon be cruising in British Columbia where bull rails are common in marinas.

I've watched the YouTube videos and I know the recommended knot is a round turn finished with two half-hitches. No problem, I can tie that knot. But I'm curious: let's say the rail is slippery. Couldn't the boat move forward or backward along the rail if there isn't a lot of friction between the rail and the line? Do I need to do anything to prevent that?

Many thanks!
 
My custom is to lead one line forward and one aft. Simply loop around the leg which supports the rail and bring it back aboard to the appropriate cleat. No slippage, and very simple departure. Spring optional, usually not needed.
 
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We do a round turn and two half hitches, and we start the line, boat side under the rail. That way you have secured the boat immediately at docking and if necessary can stop the boat. We “spring” where the bull rail secures to the dock so the line doesn’t slip “down the dock”. The bull rail is usually secured every 8-10’, so springing is straightforward. We don’t usually worry about where the stern or bow lines are tied too much at transient moorings. But at the home dock we usually make sure the stern and bow lines are secured where they won’t slip at the dock.

Sometimes someone tries to assist and you they try to hold or pull the boat in without securing to the bull rail. 😔

I should also add, before we leave, we retie the lines with only one turn, such that they come back to the cleats at the stern and amidships, so that they can be released and be easily pulled back in to the boat. The amidships spring line is removed and we work with a single line.

Jim
 
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By using a round turn as opposed to a turn you get more line in contact with the bull rail and line chaffing will be reduced.
 
The above is all good advice.
I would only add to wear gloves (and shoes) when securing your lines to the weather worn bull rail.
When it’s time to get underway a close inspection of the lines for embedded slivers is also worthwhile.
 
luna said:
The above is all good advice.
I would only add to wear gloves (and shoes) when securing your lines to the weather worn bull rail.
When it’s time to get underway a close inspection of the lines for embedded slivers is also worthwhile.
Click to expand...
Good advice about splinters.

Once on a cruise, a 2 inch sliver no thicker than a needle was shoved into an arm vein, sent me to the emergency room at midnight.

That was just from coiling lines around my arm that were used on severely weathered pilings in Cape Hatteras.
 
JDCAVE said:
I should also add, before we leave, we retie the lines with only one turn, such that they come back to the cleats at the stern and amidships, so that they can be released and be easily pulled back in to the boat. The amidships spring line is removed and we work with a single line.

Jim
Click to expand...
We also would wrap from the lower side of the bull rail over the top and back to the vessel so when we were leaving we could toss the loose end of the line onto the dock and pull it through.
 
CharlieO. said:
We also would wrap from the lower side of the bull rail over the top and back to the vessel so when we were leaving we could toss the loose end of the line onto the dock and pull it through.
Click to expand...
Yes. My wife calls it “doubling back the lines”.
 
This “Douglass” knot with two half hitches with the boat side coming *over* the rail is what I see the dock hands at the fancy resort marinas do up north. Have yet to impart it to my wife however when we tie up ourselves.

 
<<Douglass Hitch>> Funny, I have seen that a few times, always wondered, "Why?" It looks positively lubberly, and unnecessarily awkward to untie. My father, a retired CPO, always said a knot has to do two things. The other is untie readily.
 
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Agreed with the notes above. Will add that there will be vertical "stanchions" every 8 feet or so where the bull rails attach to the dock. You can attach forward, aft, or just near one of those to additionally guard against movement along the rails.

Also if it is a short stopover (e.g. fuel dock), one simple loop with the line and then back to the cleat may be sufficient (using 2-3 lines in all). Or just before leaving as folks note above.
 
I'll start with the fact that I hate bull rails. Someday, the modern (well, 400 year old) invention of cleats will reach above the 48th. Cleats are better in every respect.

I know about 10 ways to tie to a bull rail, but the way I like best is to take a long loop of the line (loop is maybe 3 - 4'), go over the rail and back towards the boat, then under the line running to the boat (so aft of the line if the line is running aft) and complete a clove hitch with the loop of line. Then put a half hitch around the active part for insurance. Many of the knots require passing the entire line around the rail once or twice, a lot of line to slide over a splintery bull rail, initially and each time you want to adjust. There are some docks (Meyer's Chuck comes to mind) where you will be pulling splinters from the lines for many minutes no matter what you do, or risk lacerations next time you handle the line.

It is slightly quicker to arrest a drifting boat if you go under the bull rail first, but then I find making up the clove hitch more difficult as it kind of ends underneath.
 
jayslu said:
We will soon be cruising in British Columbia where bull rails are common in marinas.

I've watched the YouTube videos and I know the recommended knot is a round turn finished with two half-hitches. No problem, I can tie that knot. But I'm curious: let's say the rail is slippery. Couldn't the boat move forward or backward along the rail if there isn't a lot of friction between the rail and the line? Do I need to do anything to prevent that?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...
Jayslu,
We travelled extensively in BC for many years. Yes bull rails are common, and personally I do prefer using cleats. However, cleats are often not perfect either. There can be few cleats and far between, or located poorly for where you must dock and your boat's attachment point locations, and even found some that were loose and not well secured (badly in need of maintenance).
Most summer nights will be relatively calm so your concern about sliding along the rail is not a big worry, and I never found that to be an issue. Even my home dock where my boat sat all winter even in storms had a bull rail, and we never experienced sliding as an issue. What I did was use 4 lines (2 springs, bow and stern). Most times I used the round turn and 2 half hitches (also known as a "bending knot") with the "left over" line brought back on board. Any line left lying on the dock especially nice coils are targets for the otters to "use". I would locate the springs behind (or in front of as needed) the bull rail mounting blocks (actually probably overkill). Tie the loops of the round turns snuggly around the bull rail as this will reduce rope (circular) movement on the wood rail (as compared to loose loops). Being careful about splinters is a good idea, but I never found that to be a big issue. When departing, we first removed both springs, then the bow, followed by the stern where the dock "worker" could just step aboard our swim grid. Enjoy your cruising here in BC, there are so many places to go and see, and most are very beautiful.
 
The comments here show that there are different variations that can all work.

We use the round turn with 2 half hitches, but prefer to start over the top of the bull rail. That puts the rest of the job (the half hitches) up high where you can see them instead of on the lower side of the bull rail. Knots that are slow to untie don’t work for me, so I avoid the clove hitch variation under the half hitches.

Sometimes you will find bull rails that have seen better days. I’ll add extra lines in that case so all of the load isn’t dependent on a couple of questionable sections of old wood. Forward and aft spring lines are always part of our program.

It took me awhile to warm up to bull rails after years of using cleats, but I became comfortable with using them and now (almost) prefer them.
 
When I tie up to a dock (unless its for a short term) I always set a forward and aft spring putting as much of the 30' line as possible in tension. Bow and stern line are just looped around and returned to the boat's cleat. Stern is generally quite tight as we get off and on there while the bow line is often really loose and appears to be just for looks.
Bull rails with all of their warts allow this method of tie up quite easily as there are usually many more bull rail supports to chose from than what there would have been if only cleats were installed. Plus you never have to hitch 2 lines on one cleat.
 
We double back to the boat so getting underway is easy. A midship line secures us from sliding.
 
I have encountered these occasionally in Scandinavia...but until this thread, I never knew what they were called!
 
guy with a boat said:
We use the round turn with 2 half hitches, but prefer to start over the top of the bull rail. That puts the rest of the job (the half hitches) up high where you can see them instead of on the lower side of the bull rail. Knots that are slow to untie don’t work for me, so I avoid the clove hitch variation under the half hitches.
Click to expand...
A clove hitch tied with a loop over the rail is far quicker to do and undo than two round turns and half hitches. You can also do a turn and two half hitches using a loop, might be a little quicker but not very resistant to sliding. In either case, the advantage is not taking the whole line tail around the bull rail twice.

Of course, a cleat eliminates all this nonsense which is why we all have them on deck, rather than bull rails running the length.
 
I always do a Douglass Hitch, but instead of tying off the bight at the bull rail, I run it and the loose line end back to the boat and tie them off in tension there. You need enough length on the line to do this securely, but it allows all the lines to be cast off easily from the boat side with minimal risk of lines in the water. Bonus, when you tie off the bight and free end on the boat, you can do it on a different cleat to use it as a spring.
 
We have boated 40+ years in B.C. Tying to a bull rail is not a problem.
The rails are rough enough , even new, you are not likely to slide unless the rails are metal. Metal is another story.
Either way use spring lines to stop any movement fore or aft.

Don't worry about the bull rails but worry about tying a spring at the supports.
My preference is the bull rail as it is always possible to spring your boat so there is no excessive movement.

I have learned to dislike cleats as they are almost NEVER in the right place, there are not enough of them in appropriate locations or they are to small for even 1/2" lines.
In my own slip I had to add several extra cleats for the above reasons.
 
psneeld said:
Good advice about splinters.

Once on a cruise, a 2 inch sliver no thicker than a needle was shoved into an arm vein, sent me to the emergency room at midnight.

That was just from coiling lines around my arm that were used on severely weathered pilings in Cape Hatteras.
Click to expand...
Ouch! And a good reminder to not coil lines around your arm anyway :)
 
I use a rolling hitch on the springs, backed up against one of the 4x4s that the bull rail sits on. For the head and stern lines, I put a clove hitch on the bull rail and take the end back aboard and turn it up.
Cleats can be unreliable - often too small and sometimes dodgy fastening to the bull rail.
 
Our marina in FL has cleats that lock into a track. Using a 15/16 inch socket you can move them to where they work the best for your particular needs. It's a great system.
 
Enjoy the San Juan, Gulf and islands North! It isn beautiful region to cruise, explore. It goes without saying, and it hasn't been said ... always verify you are tying to a floating dock. There are occasional piers adorned with a bull rail. Most of us have probably witnessed a craft tied to a fixed structure at high tide ... and you can guess the rest!
 
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