Learn to tie a Bowline

[BruceK]

I love people that leave their extra dock line draped all the way over the dock so that they can trip the unaware. Like you I just coil it and lay it next to the cleat,...

That`s a tad grumpy, best look where you walk, docklines are common on a dock.
We and others position lines along the dock where we want them for our return, so we and our helpful neighbours can easily access them. Except the bow line left coiled on a post hanger in reach from the boat.

 

[O C Diver]

My preference is to put the loop through the cleat and around the horns on the dock, and control adjustments while keeping the excess line on the boat. While it drives the dock hands crazy as they think they know better than me, I prefer to be in control of my lines. What I then do with the excess line is of no concern to anyone else. The final point with doing it this way is that it's much easier to have to lines on the same dock cleat when you have to deal with that situation on a transient dock.

Ted

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

My preference is to put the loop through the cleat and around the horns on the dock, and control adjustments while keeping the excess line on the boat. While it drives the dock hands crazy as they think they know better than me, I prefer to be in control of my lines. What I then do with the excess line is of no concern to anyone else. The final point with doing it this way is that it's much easier to have to lines on the same dock cleat when you have to deal with that situation on a transient dock.

Ted

Thats the correct way. Your tying the boat to the dock rather than tying the dock to the boat. Always have the adjustment aboard the boat. Well intentioned dock urchins be damned.

 

[menzies]

My wife has learned to do the chain link thinghy with the excess line and hang it off the boat.

Drives me crackers!

 

[dhays]

My preference is to put the loop through the cleat and around the horns on the dock, and control adjustments while keeping the excess line on the boat. While it drives the dock hands crazy as they think they know better than me, I prefer to be in control of my lines. What I then do with the excess line is of no concern to anyone else. The final point with doing it this way is that it's much easier to have to lines on the same dock cleat when you have to deal with that situation on a transient dock.

Ted

Since I have my own slip, I have dock lines that are permanently mounted to the dock with spliced loops to go over my cleats and hawse holes with ears. No extra line on the dock and no adjusting of lines. Of course, no dock hands either. We use two normal dock lines to hold when we step off the boat to control the boats as we get the permanent dock lines connected.

 

[dhays]

Thats the correct way. Your tying the boat to the dock rather than tying the dock to the boat. Always have the adjustment aboard the boat. Well intentioned dock urchins be damned.

Correct? It may be your preferred way of doing things because you have found it to work the best for your boat and the docks that you use.

It is extremely rare that we encounter any dock hands. Certainly none at our home slip. I guess I rarely go to marinas with enough class to have dock hands. What do you do when you arrive at a dock with no dock hands? Do you step off the boat holding a spliced loop, put in on the cleat, then step back on and secure the line on the boat? Not sure I could manage that.

 

[OldDan1943]

LOL This marina, everyone goes home and the boats are left on their own.
The plan calls for shutting off water and electric. They dont follow the plan, thankfully. Irma, they shut the water off w/o warning.... Although I didn't have a full tank, (I lived alone) I missed a couple of showers. Electric went out for about a day..... I skipped lunch. Thankfully my inverter and batteries worked well. I could have started the generator but concern I would attract all of the shore side community. If the electric had stayed out for another day, I would have started the generator and invited the community.

 

[O C Diver]

Correct? It may be your preferred way of doing things because you have found it to work the best for your boat and the docks that you use.

It is extremely rare that we encounter any dock hands. Certainly none at our home slip. I guess I rarely go to marinas with enough class to have dock hands. What do you do when you arrive at a dock with no dock hands? Do you step off the boat holding a spliced loop, put in on the cleat, then step back on and secure the line on the boat? Not sure I could manage that.

Jack is referring to real Mariners, ships and commercial crew. Most ships have windlasses to make adjustments to the lines before they are cleated. Watch them dock some time.

Ted

 

[O C Diver]

Since I have my own slip, I have dock lines that are permanently mounted to the dock with spliced loops to go over my cleats and hawse holes with ears. No extra line on the dock and no adjusting of lines. Of course, no dock hands either. We use two normal dock lines to hold when we step off the boat to control the boats as we get the permanent dock lines connected.

Yes, my charter boat was setup that way. Use to dock that boat 60 to 100 times per year. Much faster to put loops through cleats.

Ted

 

[kwmeyer13]

You fancy yacht club types with your double breasted blazers and your fancy ass zip ties and bread ties! Think you're better than me?! All any real sailor needs is some electrical tape!

All you need is duct tape, if that does not work then you did not use enough duct tape.
I was always taught to hitch the line on the cleat to lock it off. I don’t know if I could switch at this point. It would drive me nuts every second I was away from the boat. As for the bowline or many other knots I pass some of the time on long cruises tying them with a smaller length of rope. Does not take much practice to get to the point were it can be done without looking.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Tying to a piling is something I never have done and never have had a need to do either. Just a matter of being on the left coast.
For mooring lines I do use bowlines and thumb my nose at splicing. Just not needed. And so many other things to do owning a boat. I use 5/8” Brait line for mooring/dock lines. 5/8ths dock lines for a 30’ boat is over-kill indeed but one of the main reasons I get away w bowlines for dock lines. The oversize is definitely good for abrasion and also it makes up for the otherwise weakness of the bowline knot over a splice. I even wrap the ends w electrician’s tape. Never ever use duct tape .. for anything. It’s for “ducts”.
Yacht club class ...... not.
But re the old saying “works for me” applies.

 

[Bigsfish]

Ted, actually Jack is his own windless, Steve I’m not so sure could handle that big mass of steel.

 

[ben2go]

Any objections to retying the boat so there are only 12 or so inches left lose dockside?

 

[O C Diver]

Any objections to retying the boat so there are only 12 or so inches left lose dockside?

Ok, what's the point? Really to short for proper line handling if you're trying to tighten the line, and certainly nothing there if you need to slack the line.

Ted

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

Correct? It may be your preferred way of doing things because you have found it to work the best for your boat and the docks that you use.

It is extremely rare that we encounter any dock hands. Certainly none at our home slip. I guess I rarely go to marinas with enough class to have dock hands. What do you do when you arrive at a dock with no dock hands? Do you step off the boat holding a spliced loop, put in on the cleat, then step back on and secure the line on the boat? Not sure I could manage that.

I honestly don't care how you tie your vessel up. I'm pointing out a basic seamanship, boating 101 fact of life. A spring line made up in advance can be dropped over a cleat and some wheel will hold any vsl against the dock. I'm not implying that this is a tie up that does or doesn't require dockhands. Show me any book on basic seamanship that proves me wrong.

 

[FlyWright]

A spring line made up in advance can be dropped over a cleat and some wheel will hold any vsl against the dock.

Love the spring line first trick. I reverted to that last week when grabbing the Angel Island mooring balls solo after my plastic "Happy Hooker" fell apart on the first grab attempt.

Having a helm door, I was easily able to approach the bow ball on the stbd side and secure the spring line through the ring and back to the midship cleat. Now with the boat stationary, I had all the time I needed to secure the rigged and ready bow line, release the spring and back up to the stern ball. Grabbed that easily with the boat pole and threaded the stern line through the ring and back to the boat.

This poor guy wasn't as fortunate. After 10 minutes of failed grab attempts, he found he had backed over the mooring ball and had wrapped the chain in one of his props. It took a couple hours for the divers to release the tangled mess. No doubt he has a large prop repair bill in his immediate future.

 

[Benthic2]

 

[Comodave]

A friend of mine could do that from the deck of his boat which was a good 5’ off the water. Pretty trick.

 

[dhays]

Jack is referring to real Mariners, ships and commercial crew. Most ships have windlasses to make adjustments to the lines before they are cleated. Watch them dock some time.

Ted

Ah, that I have seen. I’ve watched professional crew dock a 100+ foot yacht. Pretty nice.

 

[ben2go]

Ok, what's the point? Really to short for proper line handling if you're trying to tighten the line, and certainly nothing there if you need to slack the line.

Ted

I guess I've gotten used to smaller boats where retying isn't a big job. My thoughts were to keep the line off the dock and prevent people from kicking the bitter end it into the water. I've seen people do that quite a lot over the years.

 

[psneeld]

Have seen a lot of young dock workers practicing that but didn't know squat about real line handling and springing, etc.... Plus hard to do that and keep the boat tight to the fenders if desired.


Hope they have more talent than that to be "the best ever" as lots of dock workers can do it.

 

[AlaskaProf]

Long ago I had a co-worker who had been a bosun's mate. He could tie a "Canal Zone Bowline" by sorta whipping about a line which he was trailing behind him on the deck.

 

[Simi 60]

Now try doing it with 3/4 inch or larger rope.
Cleats usually aren't big enough for a start

 

[Comodave]

My friend could do it with 3/4” line from the deck of our 46’ boat. We would pull in and he would cleat off from the bow. Until I told him that he had cleated off too quickly and I wanted to move the boat and he could not uncleat from the bow...

 

[rgano]

I secure mooring lines to my boats by placing an eye (spliced in or made with a bowline) over the base of my cleats aboard the boat. A bight is then passed around the bases of the pier cleats or (more often hereabouts) around pilings with the bitter end brought back through the boat's hawse holes and chocks to the cleat where a proper cleat hitch is made keeping excess line aboard and rigged for instant running. When I depart, I do it single-handedly from my own deck by releasing the cleat hitch and pulling the line back aboard from around the piling or simply slacking it to flip it off the cleat. This double strength can handle anything, including a hurricane while allowing me to control my own destiny when leaving without having to get off the boat. YMMV.

 

[RickyD]

Things that make you go...WTF?

There's a guy on my dock who just twisted an eye lagbolt into the caprail on his gunnel for a spring line. I won't post a pic for obvious reasons...but it's pathetic.

Every evening the dink's available, I enjoy marina rides to check out boats. In addition to the priceless entertainment value, it been fortunate that I've ended up helping many other boaters (3 last July 4th alone) along the way. Two loose dink grabs and grounded dink tow. Also have made a few friends along the way.

This week I was in Oakland, CA at British Marine getting my port HP fuel pump replaced. In the evenings, I'd go for dink rides around town. Even found the inland end of the estuary near OAK airport, General Aviation side...where I used to operate regularly so it was somewhat familiar. It was a great 7 mile dink adventure under cool bridges and open shallows in ideal conditions. It's great having a relatively dry and stable dink at 15 kts on the bay.

Stopped at Ayala Cove, Angel Island on the way home from Oakland. This poor guy caught the mooring ball chain on his prop. He was stuck 3 hrs while SF Bay Vessel Assist saved the day. It was quite the show for the 10 minutes leading up to the incident.

How in the heck do get the chain around your prop? Many years ago my brother and I anchored there in his Catalina 27. We paid attention to the tide changes. A power boater did not. He ended up on his side, on the hard (or soft as it was). He had to wait till high tide to extricate himself.

 

[Salt Shaker]

How about velcro on the bowline?!
Brought back memories of my grandfather teaching me to tie a bowline when I was 5. "Now tie again behind your back, boy, with your eyes closed!"
"But Gramp, I can't even tie my shoes!"
"Never mind your shoes, Boy. Your grandmother will tie your shoes! But you never know when you have to tie a bowline!"

 

[emilanderson]

Pfft... imran across a guy who secured his 18ft boat bow and stern with one single 100ft electrical extension cord!

 

[OldDan1943]

Pfft... imran across a guy who secured his 18ft boat bow and stern with one single 100ft electrical extension cord!

Is it plugged into shore power too?

 

[Nomad Willy]

Bowlines for spliced eyes

I wrote on post 41,
"For mooring lines I do use bowlines and thumb my nose at splicing. Just not needed. And so many other things to do owning a boat. I use 5/8” Brait line for mooring/dock lines. 5/8ths dock lines for a 30’ boat is over-kill indeed but one of the main reasons I get away w bowlines for dock lines. The oversize is definitely good for abrasion and also it makes up for the otherwise weakness of the bowline knot over a splice. I even wrap the ends w electrician’s tape. Never ever use duct tape .. for anything. It’s for “ducts”.
Yacht club class ...... not.
But re the old saying “works for me” applies."

Here's a picture.